Friday, March 13, 2009

Is it play time yet?

Tip of the day: Don’t forget to wear green next Tuesday, the 17th! It’s St. Patrick’s Day!!

I’m deep in the middle of revisions for my next YA right now. Adding pages in an effort to slow the pacing and make my characters struggle more. Ah, fun times. I really think the revision process is where authors earn their money. I mean, my editor told me what the book needs. But he didn’t really tell me how to accomplish it. That’s up to me. Sometimes it’s clear, and sometimes, not so much. And no matter what we do, we question whether it’s the *right* way. What if another way would work better? But we can’t do that to ourselves. We have to figure out the course of action and go for it. With everything we have, we dig in, dig deep, and hope for the best in the end.

So that’s what I’ve been doing. And guess what’s been happening at the same time? I’m in the shower, and bam, a new book idea. I’m in the car and bam, another new book idea. Yay me!

Remember, the one who bought a journal to help find new ideas because I didn’t think I had any? Yeah, now I have bright, new, shiny, SPARKLY ideas that whisper to me, come and play, over heeere, it’s so much more fun over here!

And it IS more fun over there, I have no doubt about that. But, I must work first. Get the job-at-hand done. Then I can play.

In the meantime, here’s what helps me. I think up titles. Because I’m one of those weird people that can’t start writing a book until I have a title. Even if I end up changing it later, I HAVE to have a title on the first page.

I’m not going to tell you anything about the idea I’m most excited about. Oh no. New ideas are fun to play with but only one-on-one. Release them into the world and they aren’t so shiny and sparkly anymore. But I CAN tell you the titles I’m tossing around. And for fun, you can tell me which one you like! How’s that?

6 comments:

Emily Marshall said...

Sounds cool. I'm so glad you have a new book idea, and that you are disciplined to keep it in the distance till you get revisions done. Good for you. Love all the titles, but I voted for the first one. Just sounds cool.

Kate Fall said...

Fun, fun, fun! I love polls and I love shiny new book ideas! You never see the dents until you've already bought them.

Is it any consolation to think that when you're plotting and drafting the new book, you'll miss doing revisions instead? Probably not, huh? ;)

Lisa Schroeder said...

Thanks for voting, girls. Do you like how "Answer 5" is on there? Oops, guess I didn't realize if you don't have five choices, you're supposed to delete the others. :)

Kate, ha, you are so right! About 75 pages in on the new book, I'll be wishing I had a completed manuscript to work on.

DeenaML said...

I love the sound of INDIGO CITY, but if the book is lighter, AQUALAND is cool!

Tana said...

I'm knee deep in an edit as well. It's true this is where the story comes to life.

I'm the same way with titles! I'm having fun coming up with some new ones for some future WIP'S. Good luck!

Christina Farley said...

No wonder you have such great titles! I know what you mean about wanting to write all those fun new ideas that pop into your head. Glad those juices are flowing.