I like to do things my own way. Sometimes this is to my advantage.

This week it’s not.

Take my Christmas story for example. I think it’s a good story, well written and fun. But it’s sort of out there, and it’s not getting very many votes.

Now this doesn’t necessarily surprise me, or really even bother me, at least not much. I knew it wasn’t a typical story, and as such may or may not be well received. And I was right.

But seeing the reaction to this short story has made me think a bit about my novel, and places where it may not conform to the expectations of my intended audience. Because even a well-written book may not be published if the story doesn’t resonate with readers.

So this week, I’ve worked on making my story conform. I’ve made my main character a little stronger. I changed his name. (Okay, that was last week – but it’s still part of the same makeover.) And today I rewrote the ending, turning it a full 90 degrees.

All for the sake of conformity.

Also for the sake of conformity, this will also be the last WIP Friday blog post. In looking at just how this blog fits in to building my “brand,” I’ve decided to increase the regularly scheduled weekly posts from one to three, and embrace alliteration.

As a result, my WIP report will move to Wednesday. WIP Wednesday. (I know – how original. Oh, well.)

Monday’s I will open up and share a little bit about myself – who I am, and where I’m coming from, and what makes me tick. I’ll call these Me! Me! Mondays.

Rounding out the weekly posts will be the Friday Free-for-all. I’ll share interesting things I’ve found online during the week, maybe a little bit of humor, whatever happens to be on my mind at the time. Pretty much anything goes.

In a conforming kind of way.

After the constant pace of Tristi’s July challenge, I took things a little easier this week. As mentioned below, I started work on a Christmas story for LDSPublisher’s contest. I got just over 1000 words in before I tossed out what I had and started over.

I’m at 99 words now. But I like the new direction much, much better.

No writing this weekend, though. By the time you read this, I will be well on my way to San Antonio for a couple of days at Sea World with the girls.

Wish me luck!

Here it is – the end of Tristi’s BIAM. And while technically the challenge goes through the end of the day, I feel pretty confident reporting my final numbers this morning. (Friday nights are for pizzas and movies!)

This week, I wrote 6,870 words, bringing my total word count to 37,034. (applause)

And my word count for the challenge? 29,499! That’s ding-dang close to 30,000 words for July! Maybe I’ll write another 501 words today and make it the rest of the way to 30k.

Or maybe not.

This week in writing, I had to slog through some areas that felt a bit forced and unrealistic. These will need some heavy editing. I guess this often happens in the middle of a story.

I also had to get rid of a lot of words like “walked” and “ran,” as my characters are now in space, and I’m not going to invent artificial gravity just so they can stumble around like everyone here on the ground. This might limit my chances for a movie deal, but so be it.

I also wrote a whole chapter about a malfunctioning space station toilet. Never saw that one coming. It’s funny how, even as the author, the story can still really surprise me sometimes.

This week I also sent Delivering Tuberoses to a couple of new readers, just to get their opinions before the next round of submissions. Feedback has been positive.

One reader read it in one day and thoroughly enjoyed it. She has some comments and suggestions that I am anxiously waiting for. The other reader said that, based on the first chapter, she didn’t feel it would make her want to “rip her eyes out of the sockets,” so I guess that’s a compliment, too.

I hope to do this next submission round by the middle of August.

I also have an idea for LDS Publisher’s Christmas Story contest. Now that the July BIAM is over, I need to decide if I want to direct my energies that way. The due date is August 15th, so I can still get something in. On the one hand, it could be fun. It could also be a legit publishing credit. On the other hand, I’m on a roll with SCG, and I need to get my DT submissions ready to go.

So what to do next? Decisions, decisions…

I wrote a lot this week. The story is going well. Blah, blah, blah.

While the rejection letter I got didn’t really surprise or hurt me, it sure did a good job draining my confidence. This was not appreciated, especially during the rough draft phase, where I’ve tried to give myself permission to just write and not worry if what I’ve written is any good.

Bruised confidence will insist it’s trash.

But that’s OK. I’m telling myself it’s OK.

It’s OK.

Nope. I need more than that.

I decided to reach back into history and pull out some of my recent validations. I went to Wal-Mart over lunch and picked up a couple of frames so I could hang my First Chapter Contest awards on the wall, right next to my very first fan art.

There – that helps a lot.

And I really did make progress writing this week. 6723 words, with a total word count jumping to over 30,000 today. When I originally started writing this story, I thought it might only come in at 30,000. But comparing what I’ve written to the outline, I might just hit 65 or even 70,000.

Definitely not Middle Grade any more.

In submission news, I decided to send Delivering Tuberoses to one more beta reader before submitting it again, just to make sure I’m handing in the very best I can.

6675.

That’s my word count for this week. Yay, me!

I’m up to 23,440 words. The drafting of this story is coming very easily, although some things seem to be veering away from original story intention. It’s no longer MG, for certain. The situations are skewing older – much older in some cases. And the word count is running long.

Leaving MG may not be all bad, though. I visited with middle grade teacher LuAnn Stehli at LDStorymakers this past April, getting some good information on what makes a successful MG novel. She mentioned that it was very difficult to get kids in this age group to read anything that wasn’t written in first person, and forget multiple POV.

Space Corp General is told in third person, and the POV rotates among the three main characters. Granted, this style may not work in YA, either. But so far I like writing in the three different voices, getting the perspective of the three different characters.

All three sound fairly similar right now, but as I write I’m picking up differenatiating clues about each of them, and I should know them pretty well by the time I start editing.

Hey, this BIAM thing is working out pretty well. The last six writing days I’ve come up with 7,167 words. The story is moving right along.

The drafting of this story is going so much more smoothly than the last one. I think the reason is all the edits I did on Delivering Tuberoses. See, when I was drafting that first novel, I was always very concerned about word choices and character motivation and story continuity, and I found myself starting and stopping and hesitating during the whole drafting phase.

But then I learned that those things are best worried about in the edits. What’s more, edits can take care of even the most egregious writing sins.

So now I’ve given my muse free reign to write the most outlandish stuff, while promising my internal editor a chance to tear it all to pieces next month, after the draft is finished.

A couple of things have happened this week as a result of the free flow of writing.

First, I think this story has finished moving from Middle Grade to Young Adult. The process started when I changed my character’s ages from 10, 11, and 12, to 12, 14, and 16. They were just way too young for the adventure they were taking. They’re still pretty young, but old enough to be believable.

This week I think I completed the YA transition by writing a couple of violent acts that may just be a bit much for MG. We’ll see.

The second thing that happened when allowing my mind to write freely was I invented a new pizza delivery model. It’s called the PizzaBot, and it’s a two-wheeled computer-driven delivery system. Imagine the vehicle at left, but with a pizza oven instead of a passenger compartment and driven by a computer. Time the drive to coincide with the oven, and presto – hot, fresh pizza delivered right to your driveway, with the baking happening during the drive, significantly cutting the overall time.

Yum.

Hello, all. Or both. How many people still read this thing? I need to get me a good hit counter.

Anyway, this past week has gone pretty well. My word count for the last six days is 5,430 – not quite the 6,000 I had in my goal, but pretty close.

Friday – yesterday – was a work holiday, and I expected to get a lot of writing done. But the mowing and the honey-dos and emergency vet trips and barbecue pool parties all kind of got in the way. I didn’t even have time to blog.

Hopefully today won’t be quite so packed, and I’ll get today’s word count and make up for yesterday (ha – there’s proof of my delusion).

I’m finding as I really get into the drafting of this story that it is much different than my previous work – and not just because one was a college romance and the other is middle-grad (YA?) science fiction.

The first story was all about learning and exploring writing, discovering the thrill of living vicariously through my main character, and tying together disparate plot points into a cohesive whole. The process was challenging and therapeutic.

This second book is simply a whole lot of fun to write. It’s the kind of book I would have picked up in a heartbeat thirty years ago. The kind of book I first tried to write twenty-five years ago. While I wrote my last book, I often wondered why I wasn’t writing a book like Space Corp General.

I guess I just needed the therapy of the other story.

As I feared, writing and a working vacation simply could not mix. These last two weeks have been wonderful but exhausting, with me working all day and spending time with family and friends in the evenings and on the weekend. It simply seemed inappropriate to try and steal time from loved ones I see so infrequently to hole up and write.

The one good writerly thing that happened on this vacation is that taking two weeks off has given my muse the chance to shift gears, so I’ll be ready to hit Space Corp General hard next week.

I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, this entry is being posted automatically while I zip across West Texas. Woohoo!

Despite the trip preparations taking up all of my time, I did actually get to write this week. Actually, it was probably because of the trip prep – I had a few minutes while waiting for the oil to get changed in the van.

So, in the last three weeks, I’ve written exactly twice. How is it that I managed to write an 80,000 word novel again?

These challenges have highlighted what I feel is the secret to my ability to write successfully – routine.

I wish I were the kind of person who could take any spare chunk of time and turn it into a steadily increasing word count. Hopefully I can someday become that kind of person.

But for the moment, my writing relies on routine. I have a set time when I sit to write, and I do it, and life is great – as long as that routine remains intact. Throw off my routine, and the writing suffers.

It will be interesting to see what happens while we’re on this trip. Summer vacation and routine are almost antonyms, so if I want to get any writing done, I’ll need to practice my “write at the drop of the hat” skills.

Failing that, at least I can expect my routine to return in full force once vacation is over.

In an attempt to look at the glass as being half full, I’m happy to report that I actually worked on Space Corp General this week. I wrote real words and everything.

Never mind that I only did this one of the five potential writing days. Pay no attention to the fact that I was really only rewriting one of the scenes that I discovered was lost when I had to rebuild my computer following a nasty virus infection. And forget that I don’t like what I wrote.

Just focus on the fact that I wrote something this week.

It’s a start.

Next Friday marks the first day of a major 17-day road trip that will take the girls and I through 7 states. Writing may be a little sparse, but then driving provides a great opportunity to plot and script in my head, so I may actually have something interesting to write when I finally make the time.