Excel for Writers

A Guest Post by Christie Valentine Powell
Author of The Spectra Unearthed

One afternoon my college roommate, an accounting major, found me pouring over an excel sheet. “You use excel?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes,” I answered. “It’s useful for writing.”

She still stared at me. She didn't seem to believe that a wildlife conservation major with a perchance for fiction would be using the same program she used in her classes.

Excel can be a useful tool for the writer. In fact, I was using it as early as middle school for keeping track of my characters (and their Pokémon—this was 2000).

Here are some of the ways I use excel for writing fiction. Some of these are influenced by genre. I write fantasy and create my own world, so I need to keep track of more information than, say, a romance writer might. Others are useful no matter the genre.

Names

“How do you name your characters?” comes up frequently in writing circles. I am something of a name enthusiast. I read name dictionaries and online lists for fun, and when I come up with one that fits my story, I add it to my name excel sheet. In The Spectra series, I go for names with meanings that tie in to that character’s clan. For instance, characters from the Cole clan have names meaning fire or red. The columns go across the top and then I fill in the information about each name. I include a column for “bearer” so I know if I’ve already used the name.

This way I can sort the names by gender and/or clan to help me narrow down the perfect name for my character. For instance, if a new male Sprite character appears, I can scroll down the alphabet to ‘S’…

And I’ve got a whole list of possibilities.

Timeline

I also use excel to keep track of the history of my fantasy world. At the top, I have a column per year (around 300 years). This way I have a quick reference for births, deaths and marriages; important events in both kingdoms and characters’ lives; and the reigns of kings. I broke them up by clan to spread things out. It may be chaotic for someone who doesn’t know the world, but I can find what I need and that’s what’s important.

Characters

Have you ever read a series where one of the characters switches middle names between books? What about eyes that change color? Annoying, right? A character sheet on excel can be a great way to keep all those little details straight, especially for minor characters. You can add whatever details are most important to you. Here’s an example of mine (by the way, I hid the columns for spouse and children—too many spoilers!). I can sort by book in the series or parents/birth order if I’m looking at a whole family.

Chapter Length

This is a tool I use to help with pacing. I keep track of the name and number of each chapter, and then copy down the page numbers from my table of contents. This calculates the length of each chapter for me, so I can determine if parts are too long or two short, and compare one book in the series to another. Yes, all of the Keita’s Wings books have the same number of chapters—I find it a useful tool for book length, but if this is unappealing to you please don’t. I can be OCD about some of these things. The different colors on the chapter names are groupings I find useful, based off of characters and setting.

Agents and Reviews

I’ve also used excel to keep track of agents and reviewers that I’ve contacted about my books. For reviewers, I listed their name, website, when I submitted to them, and what response I received (information has been removed for privacy). I colored the rejections red and the accepted invitations green:

I did the same thing for agents before I decided to Indie publish, which also included columns for hints I’d dug up about the sort of books they were looking for.

Moneys

Now here’s the sheet that my accounting roommate would approve of! Where is money going and where is it coming from? It’s important to keep track! At the end of the year I move the total costs, total profits, and year total to another table so that I can compare years and look for patterns… and do taxes (shudder).

What, you don’t think I doctored the profits, do you?

Word Count

I must admit, I had to get my husband’s help to set this up. I participate in NaNoWriMo each year, and one of the most motivating parts is entering your wordcount into their tables and graphs. So we put together a table that can give that same motivation throughout the year, with adjustable goals (let me know if you want a copy and I can email it).

Not Excel, But Still Useful
Here are a few other useful files I keep for my books that are not on excel:

Calendar:





I chose to use ‘Word’ for the calendar, but excel would work just as well. This helps me keep track of the dates in my story. I have to make sure that events are realistically spread out, especially when my characters are traveling!

Oh look, I left out a few death dates...

Family Trees

Main character Keita meets her cousins and other relatives in several of the Spectra books, so keeping track of them all is important. This information is on my excel timeline as well, but it’s handy to see them grouped by family in a linear, visual way. I have one of these for most of the major characters (including Keita’s mother’s side of the family on a separate sheet).

Maps


I have a ‘master map’ which shows the entire Spectra continent and all important places. This helps me get traveling dates straight (see calendar) and lets me visualize where the characters are and what directions they are facing. When I publish a book, I take the relevant section of my master map and turn it into an insert for the front of the book. Here’s the map that was included in book 3, The Spectra Uprooted: a map of the kingdom of Spritelands, and a small inset of the whole continent.

Various computer programs can be a real asset to your writing. These are the ones I’ve found the most useful. Feel free to try out any new ideas and let me know how they turned out!

Guest Post by Ally K.

Guest Post by Ally K., author of Special Minds

I've worked on this novel for two years, I've tried to make the universe as plausible as possible, even though it's fantasy, working not only on the first book, but also planning the plot and universe extension of the whole trilogy. It was a struggle, but I guess so is everything for the first time.

I have bipolar disorder, headaches are normal for me, I always have them, so the whole idea for the story came to me, when I woke up with a horrible headache, worse than I ever had before. It was so painful, that I wanted to somehow split up my mind to feel at least only half of the pain. And that's when I thought of the "mind split" for the novel.

I was very inspired by Richelle Mead's VA series, which gave me the idea of the bond. I reworked the whole bond thing and made my own story out of it. I also was very affected by Orson Scott Card's book "Ender's Game". The thought of children that are smarter and more mature, than most adults was very appealing. There are no children in my novel, but it has a similar idea - age is only a number.

I have a few writing tips that helped me write and actually finish this book:

1. When I just started writing I thought of how I want the story to go and how I want it to end. Then I just wrote down chapter titles. This is a really great way to stick to your original idea and not be distracted, so the story moves it's original flow. So if you're like me and prefer to write, when you have a clear image of how the story will go, write those chapter titles like a rough plan that you of course can change later.

2. If you have writers block, stop forcing yourself to write. In my opinion it's bad for you AND the book, if you force yourself to write. Get a break, watch some movies or read your favourite books. My favourite childhood Disney movies were a great help for me, I always got so inspired after watching something I loved in my childhood.

3. It's always hard to keep the right balance of your descriptions. When I notice that I am describing too much I stop, go back to the start of the chapter and read it. If I get a clear image in my head then I'm good, if I get too many details and I feel bored by it, then I rewrite it.

4. So, recently I found a great site that helps me a lot to work on my sequel. In 3 days I wrote 3 chapters. I'm not going to promote things, but the site is called Inkitt and it has this great Writers Write Program, where the challenge is to write a 50 000 WC book in a month. This challenge really keeps me on my toes and helps me move faster with the sequel.


Book description:
Millicent Kale, an ordinary girl it might seem. An incident shows, that she's not that normal after all, but destined to keep life and death balanced in this world. Yet she's not the only one.

If I could split my mind, make another me, would I just see myself like in a mirror? Or would I see through two sets of eyes? And if one of us died, would it feel like me? Could I keep on living? Or wouldn’t I feel anything at all?
If you would live your whole life in pain, do you think it would affect you? When mental and psychological pain become physical, it's hard not to change, and Millicent Kale changed a lot.

Grief, hurt and pain follow Milly every day, but when the closest person she has dies, Milly uncovers that she's not quite human. And she's not alone.

Fate entangles her life with a man she would rather avoid, yet in the end making her listen to reason. Of course it's really hard not to listen to your inner self, when she can actually punch you.

"Special Minds" is a love story, with fantasy parts that make the story work. You'll find fun sidekicks, strong characters and topics that will make you think more on today's social and psychological problems.

Author Bio:

I was born in Uzbekistan. When I was three years old me and my family moved to Germany (we lived in Bonn, it’s a small town near Cologne) and lived there for eleven years. I went to a Russian school which was one of the two Russian schools in the whole country (the second one is in Berlin).
In the year 2011 we moved to Kazakhstan where I live now. I finished school here. Now I am a student at a Russian university and a technical translator for my father’s IT firm.
Right now I’m working on my second book and a few other projects I’m thinking about doing. In the past few months I’ve also become an avid reader, I do reviews on indie books on my blog, I also started a youtube channel recently.
I’m also a gamer, I play Dota 2, among other games, and I’m a hobby photographer.

Links:
My book on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36074149-special-minds
My book on Inkitt (free access to read) https://www.inkitt.com/stories/romance/174956?utm_source=shared_web
My Goodreads author page https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13458926.Ally_K_
My Inkitt author page https://www.inkitt.com/allykay
Facebook profile https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010528571200
Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/allybooksandreviews/?pnref=lhc
Twitter https://twitter.com/Ally0kay
Blog https://allybooksandreviews.blogspot.com/
Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdURa-xAa6T6v-C7h01qZeg
Allpoetry (I also write poems) https://allpoetry.com/Ally_K

Decolonizing Myself

The very first book I ever wrote was a space adventure. I was 12, going on 13. I'd recently discovered the delights of sci-fi (thanks to the Wishbone book Unleashed in Space, an adaptation of Jack Williamson's classic Legion of Space, which led me down a rabbit hole of old school sci-fi). I wanted nothing more than to partake in the intrepid journeys across the stars, so I did what any creatively minded tween would do: I wrote self-insert fanfic. Except in my head, it was original because, of course, my ship had a different name, and my crew was unique. The main character was, of course, a brave renegade of a commander. And the second most important character? His clever tween daughter, along for the ride. Hence the self-insert.

Except something funny happened on the way to sci-fi-land: I whitewashed the character who was supposed to me... I whitewashed myself. The commander, of course, had to be a chisel-jawed white guy who bore a strong resemblance to Kevin Sorbo (I'd also recently discovered Hercules on TV). And his daughter? A dead ringer for a tween Natalie Portman. I cast a white girl as myself (yes, I know that Natalie Portman is Jewish... at the time I thought she was white-white, and that's part of the point of this post). Heroes were white. Protagonists were white. So if I wanted to come along for the space ride, the fictional version of me had to be white. I thought nothing of it... This was just the way things were. Girls who actually looked like me? They had no place on starships, and I accepted it. I didn't even realize I was accepting it... it just was.

Fast forward a decade or so. I'd just graduated college and wanted to try the whole writing thing again. And once again, I wanted to write a space adventure (because space adventures are AWESOME). I got into the whole thing because a good friend of mine, who'd studied creative writing in college, wanted to dive into a new book project, but missed the community (and motivation) that her classes had provided her. So I volunteered to be her one-woman critique group. She thought it'd be more fun to swap writing, and I thought, "what the heck." Since I was doing this whole writing thing purely for fun, I was gonna compose yet another out-of-this-world adventure across the stars... except I'd work a bit harder to be original and, you know, write an actual book instead of another thinly veiled self-insert fanfic.

And once again, something funny happened on the way to sci-fi land: every primary character ended up white. Not because I was consciously deciding to make them white, but because that's just the way things were. Sci-fi characters were white. Maybe black now and then. Definitely not Asian. Never Asian. (I'd only watched Star Trek: The Next Generation at this point, so no Sulu or Kim in my memories to show me otherwise). There wasn't any blatant self-insert this time, but my main character was loosely inspired by people I knew, almost all of whom were Asian, and had a background as a musician that drew upon my own experiences.

So naturally, she wound up a dead ringer for Anne Hathaway.

My friend, meanwhile, was writing a dystopia starring an Asian teen girl. I remember thinking, "Well, that's kind of weird, but okay, it's her book." And when I read her manuscript, it felt... almost unnatural... to be reading a pretty general YA dystopia (not one set in post-apocalyptic Beijing or anything) with an Asian girl as the lead. Somewhere in my subconscious, tucked so deep it never even occurred to me to consider, I believed that you could only have Asian protagonists if you were writing an Asian book... something specifically about the Asian experience (like Joy Luck Club).

My friend joked that her main character physically resembled me. So I thought I'd get her back by having one of my characters physically resemble her. Not the main character of course--that would involve making her Asian, and Asian girls don't go to space!--but a secondary character who'd originally been written as a blond bombshell. The character was an interstellar pop star, and her attractiveness was often remarked upon.

So how did I describe her? "Exotic." Of course. Didn't you know that's how you describe Asian beauties? Especially when you're writing a space book with no recognizable geographies, and you need some way to signal "Asian" to your audience?

I had no idea that by using that word, I was perpetuating a colonialist stereotype that fetishized Asian women. Just like I had no idea that mentally casting Anne Hathaway as my main character was a way of erasing my own Asian-ness. It just was. You breathe air, you drink water, you cast white people as sci-fi protagonists, and you describe attractive Asian women as "exotic." That's how the world works.

Except it's not. And on some level, I knew that. It started bugging me more and more... why was I using the word "exotic"? And if my friend, who was East Asian like me, could write a sci-fi book with an East Asian lead, why couldn't I?

I ended up taking out the word "exotic" and replacing it with more descriptive adjectives (what the hell does "exotic" look like anyway? Everything is exotic from someone's point of view). As for the main character... It still felt weird, almost unnatural, for her to be Asian. Especially since there was nothing explicitly Asian about the book. It was a space adventure with evil robots and faraway planets and dogfights between the stars, inspired by a hundred other space adventures, written mostly by white dudes. In other words, it "reads white."

Except... I wrote it. 

So I compromised with myself... I'd make her biracial. Half me and half white, because she has to have some grounding in what's acceptable. I realize now that this line of thinking is super insulting to actual biracial people, and for that, I apologize. I honestly didn't know any better. 

Now, this was back before #WeNeedDiverseBooks trended. This was before I was even really on Twitter. Diversity wasn't a topic that ever crossed my mind.

Having my main character's celebrity lookalike be Chloe Bennet instead of Anne Hathaway changed nothing about her personality. Or the way she was described, really. The only signifier of her ethnicity was her mother's Chinese last name. Meanwhile, her name twin is an Englishwoman.

By the way, I'm talking about Jane Colt, protagonist of my first published novel, Artificial Absolutes. The stock photo model on the cover is a white girl with dark hair--a photo I approved because I figured, "close enough." It's not like stock photo libraries are teeming with Eurasian models. I suppose we could have gone with a model-less cover, but I have a thing about faces on books... I've always loved them, and I wanted one badly... for all I knew, this would be the only book I'd ever publish (HAH!), and I wanted a face (to me, it speaks to the character-driven nature of the story). So I compromised. Again. Also, the pop star character is Sarah DeHaven, described as East Asian but still bears her blond-bombshell name.

What a mess.

The next book I wrote was a YA dark fantasy. My sister and I were joking around one night, and we decided that I should write the main girl character to look like her so she could be cast in a movie version. The main girl character wasn't the main main character (who was an "All American" white boy)--she was the Hermione to his Harry--so I was like, "haha, fine." It felt weirdly subversive, writing a central character who resembled my own sister.

I took it to the next level with the thing I wrote after that. The protagonist and narrator would be East Asian. I was really being subversive this time! How sad is it that writing a character who shared my ethnicity felt revolutionary? And yet, it still felt weird, almost unnatural. The book was just a regular ole teen sci-fi novel, after all. It was set in Future United States, not Future China or anything. There were no tiger moms or concubines or anything. 


That book eventually became Starswept, which one reader implied wasn't Asian enough to count as
"diverse." I beg your goddamn pardon. And what's sad is, I'm sure this person wasn't alone in thinking that. They were just the only one boneheaded enough to put it in writing.

All these things I just talked about were written before diversity became "a thing" in publishing (especially YA publishing). Just using the name my mother gave me instead of a pen name felt like a risk. I still wonder if I should have gone with initials and an English-sounding surname.

Looking back just a few years later, I realize just how much colonialism's history affected my writing. Colonialism depended on the idea that white was superior, and that if you wanted to be worthy but weren't lucky enough to be white, at the very least, you should act white. And in my case, that meant writing white. Or feeling like not writing white was some freakish thing to do.

The writing, of course, was just a manifestation of a mentality that speaks of the world I grew up in. My parents were Chinese immigrants, but I was born here. And as a kid, I wanted to fit in--like every other kid. I was the only Asian person in my class. I was the weird, exotic one. I quickly learned to hide the Chinese snacks my parents packed me so no one could wrinkle their noses at them. I didn't want to take Chinese lessons because I didn't see the point... I was American. And if that meant whitewashing myself, so be it.

It wasn't until my mid-twenties that I realized how screwed up that way of thinking was. De-colonizing myself and my own way of thinking has been an ongoing process. Just the other week, my mom brought me a large box of green tea and lychee pastries from China. I protested, saying I couldn't possibly finish them, and she said, "Bring them to your coworkers!" I immediately balked. They'll think those snacks are disgusting, I thought. Just like my classmates did. They'll think I'm disgusting. But she'd met me during my lunch break, and I had no choice but to go back to the office with all these snacks in tow. And since I couldn't exactly hide them, I reminded myself that I wasn't a little kid anymore and shouldn't fear sharing my weird Chinese snacks. So I put them out on my desk. And they were a total hit--my coworkers thought they were awesome and delicious.

Of course they did. Our office is in NYC, where new and different foods are celebrated.

Yet I couldn't shake that lingering fear of being seen as weird and gross. Just like I still can't shake that lingering fear of being seen only as an Asian author, not as, well, just an author. Who sometimes writes Asian characters, and sometimes doesn't. Who sometimes draws upon Asian experiences, and sometimes just wants to write a Western-style space adventure, because she grew up with the same Star Wars movies as her white peers.

Now, with every new project, I always question myself at the planning phases. What am I writing because I made a conscious decision, and what am I writing because that's just the way things are? Because nothing's absolute; despite how it feels, nothing just is. And if it feels that way, that's because it's the dominant narrative--the narrative put in place by colonists generations ago. A fish doesn't feel water, but that doesn't mean water's absolute.

I'm doing my best to see the water. It's an ongoing challenge; it's not one with a set endpoint. I'm doing my best to reflect that awareness in my life and in my writing. Of course, I'm far from perfect. I still make mistakes, most of them because I don't know what I don't know. But I hope, that by continuing to try, try, try, I can keep chipping away at the colonialist attitudes that once had me erasing and whitewashing myself.

It still feels odd to read a sci-fi book with a non-white lead. Odd in a good way, but still. I'd rather it be mundane. I'd rather there be so many sci-fi stories with non-white leads that it just isn't a thing anymore. It becomes natural; it becomes part of the water you don't see. But we still have a long, long, long, long way to go until we reach that day.

The Writing Process: A Guest Post by John Ukah

The Writing Process:

-        Making the transition to published author in a country like Nigeria

-        My writing hopes for the future.

by John Ukah

My name is John Ukah. I grew up in Benin City, Edo State of Nigeria. I am a graduate of Business Administration from the University of Benin, Benin City. I have just published my first book ‘Murder at Midnight’.

There are several motivations for writing. Sometimes a story needs to be told and comes to you.  I have always kept a personal journal. Writing is cathartic and exhilarating for me. A number of authors have influenced or inspired me especially detective crime novels by Agatha Christie and Stephen King’s books. I am inspired by talented writers who are masters of the craft of storytelling. Superb writers who create vivid and unforgettable characters. I am inspired by books that are a voyage of self-discovery. There was no conscious decision to be a writer. Writing has always been a part of me.

The writing process for me begins with my imagination. I have a natural tendency to write stories. My writing is inspired by conversations with others and personal experiences. A fertile imagination gives wings to such experiences or conversations. The story in my first book took shape after I was awakened at night by unusual footsteps outside my door. My imagination took flight. The story is about a young lady who discovered a dark secret and was murdered in a guesthouse at midnight.

The writing process requires focus and doggedness. Much like any other endeavor, writing evolves and gets better with constant practice. We get better at what we do constantly. The hardest thing, in my experience, is the ability to make space or time for your writing. Life happens and other things distract or compete for your time.

As the story takes shape and the characters become solid in my mind, I do some research and make a lot of notes. I prepare broad outlines and chapter plans. I write a few chapters at a time and not necessarily in a sequential order. I edit them over and over again. It is useful to get feedback from a reader.

The characters often take on lives of their own and your carefully arranged plot takes a different hue or direction. This was what happened when writing my first book. The story turned out differently from what I planned from the beginning. I had to stay true to the characters I had created.

Every book is an adventure of its own. The process can take anywhere from a couple of months to several years. The rough draft of ‘Murder At Midnight’ was completed in about five months. Interestingly, I did not publish the book until several years later.

Publishing is not an easy road in Nigeria. Rejections may come from publishers and keeping focus is important. Even when you think the work is good, it can still be better.  It helps to meet the right people who are willing to assist in the publishing effort. I had a ready manuscript and my publishing company was interested in my kind of work. We fit like a glove. My publisher made it a seamless process. I had no major challenges after we met and agreed a publishing deal.

Readers can expect more exciting books from me. I am currently working on a detective thriller. It is a saga of love, pitiful criminalities, investigations, assumptions and deceits.

‘Murder At Midnight’ is available on Amazon. If you are in Nigeria and unable to order off Amazon, it is also on Okadabooks.com

http://okadabooks.com/book/about/murder_at_midnight/12609

My social media links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/john.ukah
Twitter:@JohnUkah

What I'll spend 2017 doing

I spent this weekend at New Year's Eve PartyCon in Allentown, hanging out with horror authors Stephen Kozeniewski, Mary San Giovanni, and Brian Keene. It was a small con, but still pretty fun. And some point, the topic of the new year came up (naturally) and someone mentioned a superstition that what you did on New Year's Day would represent what you'd do for the rest of the year.

So, if that superstition holds true, I'll spend 2017...

• Hanging out with horror authors
• Manning author tables at conventions and such
• Speaking on (poorly attended but wonderfully enthusiastic) convention panels
• Driving long distances
• Eating ramen
• Petting my cat
• Making schedules and project plans
• NOT cleaning my apartment or going grocery shopping, despite the mess and the lack of anything in the fridge
• Freaking out about all the stuff I've agreed to do (but in a good way? maybe?)
• Writing like a maniac, fueled by a bottle of red wine

Sound pretty accurate.

My NaNoWriMo Fail

It's no secret that I've been struggling to get any writing done these days. Lord knows I've whined about it on this blog (and Twitter) enough times. I've spent the past several months trying to pinpoint a cause... that the day job has made me too busy, that I agreed to too many extracurricular activities, that back-to-back shockers in October and November (one personal, one political... the latter is probably obvious for anyone even tangentially aware of U.S. politics and the former is, well, personal) threw my mind into an anxious/depressed state that left me unable to be productive.

NaNoWriMo--National Novel Writing Month for any novs out there--always exacerbates the awful feeling of being a writer who's not writing, whether due to time conflicts or writer's block. It's tough to see all those inspirational memes floating around social media, plus all your writer friends boasting about banging out thousands and thousands of words per day. Not that there's anything wrong with either--those who are being productive have every right to celebrate. It magnifies one's sense of inadequacy.

Me trying to write

This past November's NaNo was supposed to be a reset of sorts for me. I'd been blocked for ages, but had come up with a plan to get back into the groove. And it worked... for about a week. I got the first half of my NaNo goals done and then just... stopped writing. And I couldn't blame time conflicts this time, since I used the time I'd set aside for writing to binge-watch silly TV shows. My goal wasn't even to write a full novel... it was to write 15,000 words in two projects, for a total of 30,000 words (and I've been known to write 50-70k in a month, so this was a laidback goal for me). But all I got were 15k for the first thing and a page for the other. Yep, a single, lonely PAGE. And though I had plenty of time to turn that page into more, just thinking about writing anything prompted a gut response of "NO." The same kind of silent but visceral response your subconscious gives you when you see a spider or something else you just would not want to touch.

While in this pit of despair, I found this Medium article that included a quote from the great Ursula K. Le Guin: 

“Don’t try to go against the flow, to work when work seems futile. Let it be. Let the block stay uncarved, or the word be unwritten — until it wants to take shape, to speak. What nobody in America teaches any more is how not to act, not to keep busy, how to wait … My guess is, you need to be still while your strength is gathering; and when it has gathered, you will know the direction you need to go — and you’ll go on there.”

Man, that was just what I needed to hear. And after seeing that, I thought back to all that time I spent not writing before launching a career of sorts... how I went from being an avid dreamer in middle/high school, churning out multiple novels that shall never be spoken of again, to not writing a single word for about six years during college and the years framing it. And how, when I did dive back in around summer of 2011, six years' worth of ideas congealed into a book that basically flew out of my head in the span of about two months (it became ARTIFICIAL ABSOLUTES). 

And I came to realize that, while I could beat the words out of me if I absolutely needed to, knowing that's where my head was at was causing the "NO" reaction.

While I don't plan to stop writing for another six years (especially since I've got deadlines for two things), it was good to remember that not writing, that failing at goals, is all part of the process.

Here's hoping that, when I get my act together again, what comes out will be awesome :-)

Shaking Up the Writing Routine

I've always thought of myself as a binge writer... that is, I start one project, then work on it non-stop until I have a first draft, then take a huge long break to do other stuff in between. The thought of working on multiple WIPs at once confused me. I could have multiple PROJECTS going on at once, but only one thing I was WRITING writing (the rest were things I was in the process of editing, publishing, or promoting). Basically, I could only have my head into one thing at a time.

This year, though, my writing game has been all over the place. So I decided to shake things up. I'm currently working on 2-4 WIPs at the same time, depending on how you count "working on".

The first is a YA magical realism that was supposed to be my current PROJECT project, the one I sat down and wrote until it was finished. But for various reasons, I've been blocked. Meanwhile, I also had an idea for a YA sci-fi knocking at the back of my head. Depending on the day of the week (or sometimes the hour in the day, or the minute in the hour), I'd either be like "OMG I'm so excited about this magical realism thing and I don't want to stop until it's finished" or "ugh this thing is going nowhere and I should really just work on that other book since it's more my usual thing."

The other two are shorts--another FIREDRAGON novella and my story for the next BRAVE NEW GIRLS anthology. These two I'm still happily brainstorming, but I have a feeling I'll get the hankering to dive in and WRITE before I can finish either of the full-length WIPs.

So I'm doing something I thought I'd never do... I'm working on multiple projects at once. Write some pages of this, write some pages of that, depending on what strikes my fancy. Although, to keep me from getting TOO scattered, I'm making myself write at least a chapter of each before switching gears to the Other Project.

In case any of you are following me on Twitter or Facebook, that's why one day I'll be complaining about a 6 Character Disaster (the nickname I gave the magical realism out of writers-block-induced annoyance one day), and another I'll be marveling at how freaking far away Neptune is (the YA sci-fi I'm working on is about a mission to the Solar System's outer planets).

Will this work? Will this get me out of this rut? Or will I just end up confusing myself? 

I have no idea, but since my usual thing wasn't working, I figured it couldn't help to shake things up a bit. Wish me luck!!

Searching for Inspiration Wherever I Can

I've been in the mother of all writing slumps for a while now, and it's been bugging the heck out of me. Part of me wonders if I've just burned out a bit and need to recover. If that's so, though, it hasn't stopped me from searching for inspiration wherever I can. Here are some pics of my efforts...

In the woods of Pennsylvania...

Pic from the Jersey City Writers retreat 😊

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Nov 13, 2016 at 3:30pm PST

... and Virginia 

Whenever I come to places like this, I wonder why I don't just stay... #hikingadventures #travelingram #traveler #traveltheworld #travelpics #travelgram #shenandoah #shenandoahnationalpark #goshenandoah #travelphotography #traveller

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Oct 1, 2016 at 7:09pm PDT

While hanging upside down and playing circus freak... 

Guess I'm a circus freak now 😉 #trapeze #aerialartsnyc

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Nov 4, 2016 at 4:14pm PDT

I SURVIVED THE AERIAL SILKS CLASS!! #aerialartsnyc #aerialsilks

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Oct 8, 2016 at 11:36am PDT

... and while onstage singing opera. 

This is where I've been pretty much all week after work 🎶 #choirlife #operaamerica #opera #nyc

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Oct 28, 2016 at 5:11pm PDT

Or indulging in a different genre of music.

Iiiiiit's CONCERT TIIIIME!!!

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Sep 17, 2016 at 5:16pm PDT

From Greece... 

Now this was one scary staircase (in Livadeia, Greece) #traveltheworld #travelgram #travel #travelphotography #traveler #travelpics #travellife #travelersnotebook #greece #travelbug #livadeia

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 27, 2016 at 6:17am PDT

...to a galaxy far, far away... 

Clonetrooper!! #gencon2016 #genconcosplay #starwarscosplay

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 6, 2016 at 8:30am PDT

... to places under the sea (or the aquarium equivalent). 

We found Dory!! #aquariumlife #oceanlife #aquarium #ocean #dory #bluetang #tropicalfish #fish

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Jun 26, 2016 at 2:15pm PDT

Inspiration, inspiration, where the dickens are you??? 

What's a writer who's not writing to do?

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I blogged properly. I figured it's the end of the month, so it's as good a time as any to catch up on some blogginess. It's also my cat, Dorian's, birthday! He's three whole years old! I remember when he was a little kitten... *sniff*

Happy birthday, Dorian!! ❤️ #catsofinstagram #catstagram

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 31, 2016 at 4:49pm PDT

Anyway, this is usually the time when I go "holy SHIT it's September!", unable to believe how fast the summer (and the year) has gone by. But this year's different. This year, I'm ready for fall on so many levels. Summer didn't fly by as it usually does, and for once, I'm actually ready for the whole "back to school" feeling.

Part of it, I think, is that I haven't written properly since... forever. I finished my first draft of my most recent full-length WIP at the end of last November. The two things I've written since then have been shorts--LET ME FLY FREE (my fire nymph novella) and THE ADVENTURE OF THE SILICON BEECHES (the little Sherlock short I wrote in June just for fun). While that's definitely something, working on shorts just don't feel the same as working on a BOOK book. BOOK books are all consuming... I dive in, and the next thing I know, a month has flown by and I don't know what I did other than go to work and write. That does happen with shorts too, but shorts are, well, shorter. So I only lose a few days instead of entire swaths of time.

Don't ask why I haven't written properly in so long, because I have no good answer. Part of it's because seasonal affective disorder hit me like falling airplane last winter. That coupled with the crushing of my dreams meant I spent months depressed as all hell (Yeah, yeah, I know. Vague-blogging). Part of it's because the next project I have planned--one I've been thinking about and telling people about for well over a year now--is different from what I've written before on so many levels, and I'm completely terrified of it. So of course, I've been procrastinating like all hell.

What have I been doing these past few months if not writing, then? Watching TV, for one. I gorged myself on episodes of The Flash and Make It Or Break It. Hanging out with people, for another. The one upside of not writing is that my social life has improved. And reading, of course.

And traveling! I kicked off the summer with a trip to Lake Tahoe with some college friends, doing all kinds of awesome outdoorsy stuff (hiking, fishing, kayaking, whitewater rafting, horseback riding... we did it all!). At that point, I'd already been in a writing slump for several weeks and was hoping the trip would hit the reset button on my life. It did motivate me to knock out that Sherlock short, at least.

Lake Tahoe!!! It is cold as f***!!! #laketahoe #travel #travelling #travelingram #travelgram #traveller #nomakeup #butdefinitelyafilter #lake #yesthatsmyfinnjacket

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on May 20, 2016 at 4:49pm PDT

Well, that escalated quickly. (I swear I literally just took this pic. 1 hour after the sunny lake pic). #travelgram #travelling #travel #travelphoto #traveller #travelphotography #northstar #northstarvillage #coldaf

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on May 20, 2016 at 5:15pm PDT

Kayaking!!! My stupid little T-Rex arms are not happy... #worthit #laketahoe #travel #travelgram #travelling #travelingram #travelpics #traveller #travellife #kayak #kayaking #kayakingadventures #nofilter

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on May 26, 2016 at 10:56pm PDT

Then, mid-June, was my annual pilgrimage to Firefly Festival, which I've attended every year since it began in 2012. God, I felt old next to all those teenagers. But also there was my friend's 60-something-year-old mom, who was rocking harder than all those whippersnappers and proving that age really is just a number.

FIREFLYYYYYYYYYY #fireflymusicfestival #firefly2016

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Jun 17, 2016 at 2:47pm PDT

*sniff* Farewell, Firefly!! See you next year! #firefly2016 #fireflymusicfestival

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Jun 19, 2016 at 5:00pm PDT

With July came Shore Leave and all its awesomeness. Cons are exhausting, but loads of fun. I've been pretty con light this year, and I'm feeling it! Thought it'd give me more time to write if I wasn't traveling all the time, but obviously that didn't work.

I met R2!!! #starwarsfan #starwars #geeklife #geekgirl #nerdgirl #nerdlife #r2d2

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Jul 17, 2016 at 9:06am PDT

Also, all those depressing news stories hit me weirdly hard in July, and I avoided the real world by inviting Twitter to flood me with fiction (as part of the #WordsForChange campaign, I offered to review or critique the books or manuscripts of anyone who donated to certain civil rights causes).

And then came my August travels. The month started off with my road trip to Indianapolis for Gen Con. Even though the novelty had worn off (since it was my second year), it was still completely amazing and totally worth the 11 hour drive. Will definitely be going back next year...

Whew! Made it!! #gencon2016

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 3, 2016 at 12:43pm PDT

We are the #scifi gals 😃 #LadyFinn #LadyJayne #gencon2016

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 4, 2016 at 12:48pm PDT

Fun with The Force Awakens cosplay 😊 #gencon2016 #starwarscosplay #genconcosplay #starwars #theforceawakens

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 6, 2016 at 4:39pm PDT

Then I went to Greece! Man, that was fun. Lots of old stuff, lots of sun and sea. And it was HOT! Another reason I'm ready for fall... I'm so sick of being overheated (running around Manhattan in a black interview suit while it was 95 degrees out was especially fun).

At the temple of Zeus! Kept expecting some guy to come up to me claiming to be the king of gods in human form, and that showing me his true form would cause me to burn to death 😜 #travel #greece #travelling #travelgram #traveller #travelbug #ancientgreece #ruins #globetrotter #globetrotting #zeus #temple #athens #travelpics

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 23, 2016 at 6:12am PDT

From one of the bastions at Palamidi Fortress in Nafplio, Greece #travelgram #travelphotography #travelpics #traveler #travellife #traveling #travelbug #travel #greece #fortress #castle #palamidi #nafplio #globetrotting

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 22, 2016 at 9:27am PDT

Temple of Athena at the Acropolis #travelpics #athens #temple #globetrotting #athena #acropolis #travel #traveling #traveller #travelgram #travelphoto #travelphotography #greece #globetrotter #ancientgreece #ruins #travelingram #instatravel #traveltheworld

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 23, 2016 at 6:27am PDT

🎶Mamma mia! Here I go again! My, my, how could I resist you?🎶 #greece #santorini #traveler #traveling #travellife #travelpics #traveltheworld #travelgram #travelbug #travelingram #travelgirl

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 27, 2016 at 6:56am PDT

I miss Greece already and I haven't left the airport... *wistful sigh* #sunset #nofilter #greece #traveltheworld #travelbug #travellife #travelphotography #travelpics #traveling #travelgram #traveler #globetrotter #travelingram #travelgirl

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 27, 2016 at 9:33pm PDT

Anyway, I'm still slightly jetlagged and my brain's all askew adjusting to a new job, new coworkers, new commute, new sleep schedule... a whole new routine. But I've decided that this weekend is the weekend of NO MORE EXCUSES. I've got lots of background reading to do still for my next project, and so far I'm mostly on track with my reading schedule, but I aim to at least get some writerly brainstorming done.

WHEW that was a therapeutic review of where things are. I'll admit, all this not-writing has been giving me a weird existential crisis... especially since the not-writing was all my own fault and not because other obligations ate up my time. Am I still a writer if I'm not writing?

Don't know what this expression was supposed to be but it fits this post

Yes. Yes I am. Because I'm still active in the writerly community and still plotting the next thing. And while it sucks being in this rut, waiting waiting waiting for dreams that'll probably never come true to materialize while others seem to get twice as much for a fraction of the effort... this isn't a competition. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Each day, it gets harder to congratulate people who are doing awesome... with their new book deals, their new releases, their new bestseller status... while I feel like I'm languishing. And I gotta keep reminding myself... this isn't a competition. Then I think about what the me of five years ago would have thought of the me of today, and I realize that she would have had a hard time being happy for me while her first manuscript got rejected over and over in a seemingly endless whirlpool of despair. So yeah, this isn't a competition.

Also, I got to go to Lake Tahoe and Firefly and Shore Leave and Gen Con and Greece.

Anyway. Back to work.

Also, my hair is purple now. Just like Jane's on the cover of what that first manuscript became... ARTIFICIAL ABSOLUTES :-)

Fun fact: On the cover of Artificial Absolutes, Jane's hair is actually dark purple (and in one printing, the colors got extra saturated and her hair was obviously purple on it). So now, I match my book cover 😊 #writersofinstagram #authorsofinstagram

A photo posted by Mary Fan (@astralcolt) on Aug 31, 2016 at 4:41pm PDT