Rae Roy

I have been pretty busy since my last post. I worked through some issues with my book, though the word count has not changed substantially. I made a new friend who got me hooked into the writing scene in Ottawa. I've been attending writers workshops and I am learning a lot about things beyond writing my novel. I went to a workshop on how to pitch my story to an agent. It was very informative. I learned that my book needs to be clarified some. For instance, I have always said I am writing a Social Science-Fiction novel. In actuality, I may be writing a New Adult Science-Fiction novel, which may fall under the Romance genre. So I have learned that New Adult is the age group of my audience, and I have also learned that there are a lot of keys to pitching. Some of the things I learned are common sense and others are interesting... 1. You'll never get an agent or publisher interested by trying to shove your manuscript under a toilet stall. Totally makes sense. Why woul...

I practice a martial art form called Iaido (pronounced Eee-Eye-Doe). So, what is Iaido? According to Wikipedia, "Iaido is a modern Japanese martial art, associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard or saya, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard." That's a very literal and mechanical interpretation. How one achieves smooth, controlled movements and strikes the opponent with full effect, is not so literal or mechanical and that is why it is an art form. To do art well, one must feel. According to iaido.org , Iaido is "The way of harmonizing oneself in action". This is explained through the meaning behind the word. I means being, AI means harmony, and DO means way. There isn't a word in there that means action, but Iaido is a martial art that uses a sword and if you aren't going to do something with the sword, then why would you have it? Y...

So my writing on this blog has been extremely sporadic. In the beginning I didn't like to blog, so it seemed like a chore. In fact, with this blog in particular, I felt like I should be writing my novel instead of writing a silly blog about writing my novel. I think occasionally writing this blog helped me stay on track with my novel though, so it isn't silly, but a tool to help me finish it. Since I've copied all of the old posts from an old location, I'm glad I didn't write too much previously. Recently, I've come to enjoy blogging. LIFE Life has been pretty crazy. In November 2011, I suffered a loss that was very difficult to bounce back from. It was something that only another woman could truly understand. There are few things in this world that I would say that about. After the divorce, I continued to live in the same house with my ex for about a month and that had its own unique stresses. Despite how everything turned out, I don't hate him and I ...

I know I should post more often, but though I love writing, I don't love blogging. There have been a lot of changes in my personal life over the past few years and quite a few things to overcome. I won't get into everything I have been dealing with, but the themes include various medical scares stemming from a combination of food allergies and a misdiagnosis of a very treatable condition as a lifelong, incurable disorder requiring medication; working at a wonderful company that became dreadful under a proclamation of divestment; divorce; job changes; several home moves; financial scares; and other losses. Such things take time to bounce back from and become whole again, but they also provide experiences that, I feel, help me understand the struggles of others, at least, in part. I continue to work on becoming a better version of myself. I continue to go out and do things even if it means doing them alone. I chunk away at my first novel. Scrivener has been a beautiful t...

I've been quite busy, so I haven't been updating this blog. My novel is hovering at the 50% mark or 25,000 words. Yay! So while I haven't been blogging, I have been writing, a lot. Life has been pretty crazy in the past 9 months. The company I work for is being divested and many of us feel like we are stuck in a slow death. The hubby and I are applying for other opportunities and may relocate. Several friends have had or will be having their first babies soon. It has been a little hard to focus on my writing, as last week we received the first concrete date given of anything in the divestment process, and so I having been thinking about my career lately. I am trying to find telecommuting options for myself, so we can be wherever my husband needs for his next job, and so I'll be less likely to end up in this situation again. I am working on putting together a Writer's Resume for myself. I am also trying to figure out what to say about my novel when people ask t...

I have made great strides in the last while. Today alone has been full of progress. I realized a large issue was that I was writing from no point of view. It was difficult because the story is about a particular character, but currently he is a baby and unlikely to know or understand what is happening around him. So I decided to pass the puck and whoever has the puck gets the point of view. It's National Novel Writing Month, so I hope to get as much written as possible. In order for it to be considered a novel, it must have at least 50,000 words. I am at 9,242/50,000, so only about 18 percent complete to hit the minimum. I know I shouldn't focus on that, but it can be helpful to have a target. I stumbled onto a blog post by author Justine Larbelestier about how to write a novel and well much of it I am going my own way for, the spreadsheet tip and discussion around balance between action and inaction, was very helpful. If not for this I probably would have continued not k...

... writing stuff I think needs to exist in my book, but isn't my strong point or what I'm interested in. Specifically, my characters have quite a literal journey ahead of them and although I have plenty of what I think are neat ideas, there are bits like their birthdays that I feel I should write about because I think my eventual readers will want it in the book. Maybe I'm way off the mark there and should just write what makes me happy and worry about that stuff when I get close to publishing or I may never get close to publishing... That's another thing. Do I self-publish? There are a lot of benefits to that and the old view of security in having a publisher marketing and distributing is becoming outdated. I've read several articles suggesting that many publishers today are not working too hard for the author. Perhaps I just need an editor, a website, and a marketing agent. I say just, but really that could be nearly as expensive or more expensive and may still...