The Second Story

I've heard hundreds of accounts of well-known authors whose first novels have never been published.

I figure they wrote that first story because they felt it was just too important not to write, or because the characters kept bothering them, gnawing at them, needing to be put on paper (or the computer screen). Awesome: a new writer is born. But eventually that first manuscript, over which they'd toiled and cried and offered blood sacrifices, was eventually and quietly abandoned. Maybe their idea was too out-there for the current market, the writing wasn't quite up to par, or the structure just didn't work.

And then, they wrote another one. And it was this second story that ended up being the one that launched their careers.

Why does it seem to work this way? I'm beginning to understand.

The first novel I ever wrote on purpose, The Front Range, is done.

The first draft is completely unrecognizable from what it is today (it even has a different title), and while I like it, it was sure a pain in the patooty to get it there. I still don't understand what the hell I was thinking when I wrote some parts of it; some really should-be-dramatic parts were not very dramatic, my characters occasionally acted completely out of character, and some of the language was just plain flat and boring. It's come a long way since then. And now it's "done" (in quotes, because, well, if it's not published, it ain't done). Yay!

So I started another one.

As a new author, I'm almost as intrigued by this whole process of writing as I am by the stories themselves (after all, we write because we have intriguing stories to tell, right?). After I "finished" The Front Range, I started about a half dozen other little WIPs that I got excited about for maybe a day, which usually involved typing a million words per minute into my favorite muse (Notepad). Settings, plots, character profiles - you name it, I wrote it down, and then plunged ahead into the actual story while the fire was still blazing.

And, inevitably, that fire burned out.

So I'd go back into The Front Range, do a little tweaking, a little querying, a little changing, a little sequel-working.

Then I'd get another awesome idea and start the thinking-Notepadding-brainstorming-firestoking process over again, hoping this next one would stick.

And then, one day, one of them did. And it's completely different. The Front Range is a fantasy/adventure, and this new one is a romantic thriller.

no no no, not that kind of thriller

I enjoy thrillers, sure, but honestly, the idea of doing all the necessary research into police procedure, types of weapons, and the intricacies of criminal enterprises never really appealed to me. But for some reason, I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I started writing. Granted, the fire did burn low like I expected it to, but I plunged through the doldrums and came out stronger on the other end.

And MAN is it different. I'm taking risks with style, voice, and flashbacks that I never dreamed of when I wrote The Front Range (the quality of which I still stand by; narrative complexity isn't a prerequisite for a good book, after all). Perhaps the most interesting part is that, because this is a thriller, there are multiple subplots, mysteries, and plot twists I'm planning, and putting them all together in such a way as to keep the reader guessing while providing the proper hints in the proper places is entertaining as hell. It almost feels like the story is a great big fluffy blanket and I'm hiding stuff in its folds, making sure every little hidden item is evenly spaced, adequately concealed, and then revealed in the plot at just the right time so that when you shake the whole thing out, nothing falls and shatters on the floor.

The point is, I've come into it with a better plan this time and, more importantly, with experience.

I must admit part of me is still stubbornly holding onto The Front Range, but I can understand the aforementioned phenomenon a little better now, and I won't be so heartbroken if this story is never published.

I'm still grateful it exists in the first place, for it taught me so much.

It taught me what works for me and what doesn't when it comes to plotting and writing a story.

It taught me how to be comfortable with my writing, helping me find a pattern, language style, and voice that is uniquely me.

(An interesting side note: since I began writing, I've discovered I am better able to communicate orally, with clients and coworkers, almost as if I had unlocked a source of language in my brain that I had never accessed before. I find I am wittier, quicker, and more comprehensible than I was before. Anyone else had this happen?)

And, of course, it taught me the basics of revising, pitching, querying, and publishing. (I still kick myself thinking of all the awesome agents I missed out on simply because I didn't know how to query yet.)

I have high hopes for this second novel. I'm about 16,000 words in and can't wait to finish it, and I already feel like it's a stronger piece than The Front Range.

I'm not saying that, if you're a new author, you should give up on your first piece. By all means, try your damnedest to get it out there; even if it doesn't work out, the process is extremely valuable. But don't let it hold you back, either.

They say that, just like anything else, writing takes practice. Maybe some people get lucky. Maybe some people are naturals.

But many debuts are the second story.

On the Road Again

West Texas.

Miles and miles and miles of road stretching between a handful of tiny towns in the Chihuahuan Desert.

On the busier roads, like US 67 between Alpine and Fort Stockton, maybe you'll pass two dozen other cars on the one-hour drive.

And on the less busy ones, like US 385 from Marathon to Big Bend National Park, you might drive the entire thing and never see a soul.

I am the county biologist for the second largest county in Texas, which is larger than the state of Delaware and only slightly smaller than Connecticut. It's almost 100 miles from east to west on I-10, slightly shorter from north to south on the US highways.

central Pecos County

As a member of the District 1 team, I'm often asked to help with my coworkers' tasks too, ranging from El Paso in the west, Midland in the north, Sanderson in the east, and Alpine (where our district office is) in the south. It's a big district; the entire West Texas region is roughly the size of Maine.

Thus, I drive. A lot. We all do.

the road to Alpine

Somewhere in a previous blog post I wrote about how I've begun treasuring these long hours on the road. 

my chariot

There are only a few radio stations, and my truck, with which I have a love/hate relationship, doesn't have a CD player or auxiliary jack and only picks up the radio stations when it feels so inclined. The truck itself is also loud, with shot suspension and doors that don't close properly, so when I do listen to the radio, I have to turn it up so high my ears are often bleeding when I arrive at my destination. 

Thus, most of the time I leave it off, and I drive 75-80 miles per hour (yes, these are the actual speed limits) on the deserted desert roads, sometimes late at night after spotlight surveys, sometimes early in the morning to catch the plane or the helicopter for aerial surveys, and I think about my novels.

There's an actual shift that takes place in my head when I set out, a switch I can almost feel, turning my brain from real life to imagination. Sometimes my real-life worries are too great or I'm too tired, and it's frustrating then, like I can't quite reach that switch no matter how hard I try. But when I can reach it, it's magic.

Yucca, ocatillo, rattlesnakes, and mesquite fly by, and maybe another car or two (to which my fingers automatically lift from the steering wheel to offer a friendly salute, like the fingers of all good West Texans), and I barely notice. I'm thinking about my scenes. I'm thinking about that awkward moment when my two main characters meet, the build-up of romantic tension as they travel through Europe, that climactic moment when they first kiss. I'm thinking of enemies, attacks, close calls, and tragic ends. I'm thinking of witty remarks to impertinent questions, lies told to mask emotion, declarations of love and loyalty that are neither cheesy nor understated. Winks, nods, shrugs, frowns. Plot twists, hidden agendas, secret ambitions, driving forces. I put it all together.

I even keep a little notebook in my center console so I can jot particularly good ideas down. Not while driving, of course. Sure, there's never any traffic, but you never know what might jump out in front of you on these roads, like a deer or an aoudad...

...or something else.

black-tailed rattlesnake in Pecos County

I feel lucky that I get to have these moments, these hours of faraway thought, this valuable time for imagining and plotting and fine-tuning. As someone who's sort of ADHD, I have a hard time sitting still at home trying to come up with ideas. I can't even do it while hiking, one of my favorite things to do, because I'm so stimulated by everything around me.

Driving is it. Driving is key. Driving is crucial. I'm not sure why.

I have always loved driving, probably for this very reason. Sure, I'm useless in places of unending beauty (and road-happy wildlife) like Colorado or Montana, or places with heavy traffic, or places I've never been, but I now know the roads of West Texas so well, each twist and turn, each blind corner, each patch of cedars where I know the elk are lurking, that I can do it on autopilot. Don't get me wrong - I'm still aware of what's happening. I can still spot the eyeshine of a deer coming up on the shoulder and press my foot to the brake, or watch an approaching oil truck to make sure he stays in his lane. I have damn good driving instincts and I'm not ashamed to brag. Maybe this is why I love it - because I can do two things at once, a perfect, guilt-free combination of work and pleasure.

Maybe I love it because it keeps me sane. Because I'd go nuts with all this driving if my brain didn't have a way to amuse itself.

Maybe I love to drive because I'm a writer.

Maybe I'm a writer because I love to drive.

my personal car in Glacier National Park

I suppose I should write something new?

Alas, I have not a thing to write about today.

Except #PitchWars is going on, and I've already submitted, and no matter how much I try to stay away from the Twitter feed, it beckons like a siren - like the Starbucks siren - until resistance is futile.

Oooh. I'm going to go get some coffee.

#MyWritingProcess Blog Hop

Time for my round in the Blog Hop! I've never done one of these before (though I used to do art memes all the time; I forgot how much fun these things are!).

I was tagged by Tracie Martin, who can be found blogging here and tweeting here. I met her recently through a Twitter contest and can't wait to read her stuff; from what I've seen on her blog and in personal communication, she's a pretty damned good writer.

OK, without further ado...

1. What I'm working on
I've got a novel I've been querying out to agents called The Front Range, but it's beginning to feel like an albatross, in all honesty. It's an adult fantasy/adventure about a biologist, a hidden world, and a mythical spirit that exists in Nature but has been forgotten by pretty much everyone. I may never get it published but it's been a joy to write and has, hopefully, made me a better writer.

one of my TLK fanarts

I also have started three other WIPs that are much different (more contemporary). I tend to like writing Adult fiction rather than YA or MG, though I've toyed with the idea of  making a picture book since I love to draw wildlife (especially cartoony wildlife).

2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?
I'm really not sure I know how to answer this question, partly because I'm not sure what my genre is (at least for The Front Range). In general, I feel like there's not as much just plain Adventure writing out there for adults anymore - it all has to be either contemporary, or fantasy, or science fiction, or romance - but I like all of these things rolled up into one, and that's what I tried to do. The novel is very much based on real life, with real-life characters, real-life settings, and real-life problems, but with a secret, grand, almost fantastic mythology rooted in old legends and theologies.

Maybe another thing that's different is that I like to incorporate my own life experiences, which, in my case, might be considered unique. I'm a scientist (wildlife biology as well as genetics) with a passion for wildlife conservation, and I want to instill a love for animals and the outdoors in my readers. One of my current WIPs stars a girl (like me) who's a nerdy geneticist (like me), and while genetics ends up playing a minor role in the plot, I love the chances I have to take something as complicated as DNA and PCRs and make it interesting for laymen (without losing them in the process - it's a fine line, and a great challenge).

3. Why do I write what I do?

a little non-TLK art

Like I said, I've got a passion for wildlife/wilderness. When I was little I was always writing stories about talking animals (usually either wolves or, after 1994, The Lion King fan-fiction). I drew (and still draw) wildlife all the time. Watership Down is one of my favorite books of all time; unfortunately talking-animal stories aren't really marketable anymore, or so I'm led to believe, at least not for adults.

me with a bat I caught in TX

However, I ended up becoming a wildlife biologist, and I've come to believe that the human dimension is often the most interesting facet of conservation - the conflicts between predators and ranchers (I have worked with both), the problem of exurban development into wildlife habitat, etc. It's still amazing to me how clueless people often are to these very real problems. My greatest fear is that I'll wake up one morning to a world where the animals and wildernesses I love no longer exist and it's all because people just have no idea this is going on. I think that drive to instill an appreciation for our natural world is what inspired The Front Range.

For my other WIPs, that inspiration is still there, but to a lesser degree. A side effect of writing the Front Range was learning that I like to write characters (usually NA-aged) who learn and grow from adversity in life, or who think they're happy living in a sheltered bubble only to discover things are so much more interesting on the outside. I've had many experiences to help me with this!

4. How does my writing process work?
It started off with me taking a cute little notebook to Starbucks on my time off (I was working at a different Starbucks at the time) and just writing things down for hours. Then I built a vague outline on my laptop and started writing (still at Starbucks).

arg this makes me want a latte every time I look at it

Things are a little more structured now, I guess. Instead of a notebook I prefer Notebook - I can type really quickly and for some reason, the simplicity of Notebook is just perfect for brainstorming. Then I may or may not come up with an outline, but more often than not I just write down the main plot points so I don't forget them, and start writing in Microsoft Word.

I do have a full-time job as a wildlife biologist, so it really limits how much time I have to write. I hate my current situation right now - I love writing in coffee shops and there AREN'T ANY where I live. So I basically just sit down in my chair and write whenever I feel like it, mostly on weekend mornings when I can do it right when I wake up.

A few little things, though:
-I write things as I feel like it, not necessarily in order. I wrote the climax of the Front Range's sequel when I was only 1/3 or so done with it because I just couldn't get it out of my head.
-I can't listen to music when I write. I love music, but I pay too much attention to it to be able to write simultaneously.
-I don't revise very systematically. I should probably change this.
-I like to spend a lot of time driving/walking so I can daydream my books and flesh things out in my head.

And now it's someone else's turn!

I am tagging Eva Gibson! Her blog at http://mamamuzzle.com is frickin' hilarious and makes me both want and not want kids at the same time. She tweets at https://twitter.com/EvaVBGibson.

I also tag Carl Hackman, who blogs at http://www.carlhackman.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/CarlHackman. He's a fantasy writer, SCBWI member, and woodturner (check his blog to find out about that!).