To do, or not to do, or did anway.

I love deadlines. I really, really do. I get things done when I have deadlines looming over my head. That is, I get manuscripts done. Everything else falls by the side, like discarded toys.

What I haven't done the last three weeks: 
Read my letters - Oh, yes, I get lovely letters in the mail sometimes.
Answered messages on my phone. So if there's anyone out there who wants to get a hold of me, like an agent or a publisher, use my e-mail. It works. And I do read that.
Read a good book.
Read any book, good or bad.
Gone for walks and discovered Spring - outside my window there's still snow. So why bother, right?
Updated my blogs.
Been to the library.
Seen a movie - again, bad or good. No, that's wrong I did go to see The Fighter. Good movie, actually.
Done any useful research.
Called people - any people.
Gone to the hair-dresser. I'll qualify for the best scarecrow outfit if this goes on.
Left dry-cleaning with the dry-cleaner.
Forgotten about the loose buttons on my coat - right now four of them is sown with purple thread, one with white and the last with black.
Cleaned my windows - the birds are leaving "marks" all over the glass.
Slept more than five or six hours at night - I forget to keep track of time when I'm in a good writing space.

And why, you might ask, do I committ myself to this hermit-like state?

Rewriting two manuscripts at once. It's a foolish attempt, but then again, I can be pretty foolish. And right now, that works for me. This manuscript involves the two of us, and that makes it easier to not be stuck on a particular plot detail. This manuscript is finished, and was today copied on to the editors reading gadget to be read at leisure. Or at the lates after Easter. Which ever comes first.
I'm  well into the next manuscript, but alas, there I'm on my own. On the other hand, it's way shorter, and a lot more finished, so there's not that much new writing, more like tweaking and pruning.
I seriously love my job ...

Finishing a new/old manuscript ...

We're having busy days now. I've just delievered a manuscript in my romance series, and the next three weeks is dedicated to finishing a new thriller. (It's not new, it's old, but it's new because it's not finished).
Sounds great, yes?
We've been working on this particular manuscript so long we just refer to it as The Manuscript.
Anan has been working on the characters and the text for a couple of months, and at one point he realized the whole thing has to be re-plotted. If that's a word.
What it means is that the story has flaws. Well, that's not much of a schocker. Every story has flaws - there's no such thing as a perfect story. Not if you start breaking it down.
So we have gone through the story scene by scene, and have now agreed on a storyline we are sure will work. Well ...
The first 80 or so pages are in good shape, I can see the story starting to connect. The manuscript is about 350 pages (we've cut out 50 already), and if the rest are in the same shape, we'll be finished in a week, or three ...
We even have an ending!
I can't wait to finish it - I've loved this story for so long, and I can now see the end nearing. It's really a matter of getting everything together, making if work - and hopefully it will fly!
Besides three weeks is all I have. I have to start on a new series-manuscript asap if I'm to finish before Easter. And I'm alone on those, so it's all on me!
Natalie

The hardship of rewriting ...

I'm sitting here with a manuscript I've gotten back from my editor. And although I very much appreciate her feedback and enduring encouragement, as well as her sense of language and drama - I'm not happy right now. It'll pass as soon as I've done the necessary rewriting - I'm sure - but I do not like it.
Some writers love rewriting, going over their words over and over again, cutting here, tweaking there - and I do. Sometimes. But mostly when it's done.
The rewriting is something that only you can do on your own manuscript. There's no substitute because the vision is yours and yours alone. So you have to accept all of it, all of the work going into a mansucript, everythying - warts and all.
These are warts from the manuscript: What time of year is this, and please write something about the nature. What are they wearing? Too much repetition. More drama and feeling (that's a popular one), more horror and fear. Another popular one is: no, no, no! Or you can't have person A doing ... when person B is ....
The list goes on.
Every time I figured that now I've got it, now I've cracked the formula or the secret, there's more. I'm learning to accept the process, I guess. I'm very oriented towards the end result, wanting to finish as soon as possible, so I can write something else. But that's not always the wise thing to do. Sometimes words has to be tweaked and cut, sometimes more than words, sometimes even whole pages, has to go.
The story is everything, and anything standing in the way of a smooth reading, just has to go out. It doesn't matter that I worked like a mad on those two pages - if they're wrong for the story.
So I am grateful for my editor who never lets on that she can sense my resentment or hurt feelings (they never last), and never gives up. There's an awful lot of inspiration in that feedback, and my novel is all the better for it.
If I can just get started on that blasted rewriting!

Choices ...

I distrust choices. I don't like to make them, I get a headache from thinking about it, and I'm more than happy to let things work themselves out - go with the flow, so to speak.
Now I know this about myself. Making choices is hard, and mostly I'll do what's easiest at the moment. Then it doesn't interfere with what I really want to do: to write.
The irony of course, is that writing is all about choices.
You start with the idea; that one or that one? Then the characters: who are they, what do they do, how do they look, what to they want; then the story: what happens next?
There's an infinite number of "what happens next" - there's no clear path - just decisions.
Every choice will lead to another choice, there will be consequences in the text, leading to other choices.
If you're anything like me, you start with an idea, write until your fingers ache, and postpone the decisions until the editing process - and then you really have to start making choices.
And right now, it's making my head hurt.
I can't even decide whether or not to go to bed. Perhaps I'll just fall asleep on my keyboard, and that'll be that.
Or I could close my computer, go to bed, sleep, and go back to writing again sometime tomorrow afternoon. Or not. 
The birds are singing. It's five in the morning, and I ... oh ... I wonder if there's anything on the telly?

Two manuscripts and so little time ...

I may just have written myself into a corner, so to speak.
I have comitted myself to finish a manuscript by mid February, and another by March 15.  And that's not very much time ...
For some reason dates that are more than a week away, always seems so far, far away. Like it's never going to happen, and there's an infinite number of days ahead of me.
It was the same way in school. Exams? I didn't have to study for this exam or finish that paper now! I had so many other interesting things to do, so usually I'd forget about it. Until about a week before, or in most cases, the night before - I'd suddenly remember, work like possessed and sort of slide through it. (I wasn't much of a scholar, I'm afraid).
Of course, I can't do that anymore. For one thing I'd starve to death... and the publisher wouldn't be very pleased. And also I love finishing a book. There's just no better feeling.
I actually have to work pretty hard every day to finish, and since two manuscripts is a bit much, I'm worried.
The only way to manage the deadlines, is to work everyday. Which I do. But there is only so much you can do in one day.
The first manuscript is the second book in a new series. I have a contract for that, the first book has been approved, and I should have finished this manuscript by now. At least a first draft. And I'm halfway. I'll get it ready, I'm sure of it. This is the 13th book I'm writing in this genre, so it's not like I don't know what I'm doing. (or at least pretend I know).
The second is a new thriller, and I want to finish it so badly, I can't sleep. Anan has been rewriting and doing extra research on it for a couple of months, and now it's my turn to work on it. A first draft has been completed, it's just not good enough yet. There are so many holes in the story, it's not fit for editorial eyes.
We have been working on it for years, and we are way past the point of no return.
Deadline is looming ...

The 2011 Stephen King Challenge ...

Oh, I just found a great challenge  - to read between 6 or 12 Stephen King novels in 2011. How could I resist? I love Kings books, and although I've read quite a few of his books, there are still more. Since I'm an avid reader, there's nothing better than a productive writer!
This will be fun!
And I get a great looking button!
Here's the link to the site: Book Chick City

The Writer in conversation with the Writer ...

I wrote this on my Norwegian blog, but since the manuscript in question is a Singh & Normann book, it should be here too.

In my head there's room for two strong personalities: The Sensible side and The Creative side. Sensible represents everything practical in my life. All the things I have to do to keep the taxman away and get my bills paid. Creativity just wants to have fun.

Sometimes discussions like this flare up:

Sensible pricks Creativity on the shoulder: Hey! You have got to pull your self together!
Creativity is absorbed in the computer: Shush! Can't you see I'm working?
- Don't shush me! You're just playing Solitaire, for Gods sake!
- I'm thinking while I'm doing this. It's part of my job!
- We are up to our necks in dustbunnies and dirty coffee mugs! Sensible is not about to give up. - Can't we at least vacuum? How can you think in this mess?
- Stop nagging me! Can't you take the dustbunnies out for a walkie? Creativity flashes a charming smile.
Sensible rolls her eyes and looks for something else she to pick at. - And when do you intend to finish that manuscript in your drawer?
Creativity gets a confused look on her face. - What are you talking about?
- Well, there's a big pile of papers you have to complete before sending it out.
- Oh, that. Creativity waves her hand. - That's finished.
- No, it's not! Sensible scents blood. - It has to be rewritten, reorganized, recut, and edited properly.
- How boring! It's fine the way it is.
Sensible is in shock. - What? Are you insane? You can't send that to a publisher the way it is now? You do understand that, right?
- I don't see why not. Creativity is so immersed in herself she misses the danger signals.
- Because there's no proper ending, the story sags in the middle, and you need a hell of a better opening than that lazy trash you've stitched together! Sensible drops the manuscript on the table, causing the dustbunnies to fly.
Creativity ignores the manuscript. - I'm telling you it's finished.
- It will just get rejected! And what's the poing of sending it out then? Hm?
- But it's already 400 pages long! Creativity whines. - That has to be good enough for them. What else do they want?
- It doesn't matter how long it is! You HAVE to finish it!
- Blah. It's boring. Creativity lights up and points at the computer. - What I'm writing now is sooo much more fun to write. Have I told you the story line?
- I'm not listening! Sensible covers her ears. - You have to learn to finish things. Finish one thing first, before starting something else. Why is that concept so impossible to get in your head
- Oh, shut your trap. Creativity turns her back. - I have to write what inspires me. Don't you get that? Stick some stamps on that thing and send it out.
- I'm telling you, there's no editor in this world who is going to understand what that book is about. The story is absurd! Sensible is loosing her voice as well as her patience.
- Can't we just say  tell them it's a surrealistic crime novel? Creativity is deeply impressed by her own ... eh ... creativity. - We can start a new trend or something. Wouldn't that be the great?

At this point Sensible either gets a headache or screams at the top of her lungs. Creativity turns the volume up on her music, and fills the computer with words, happy in her world. For as long as it lasts ...