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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 15, 2007 21:16:54 GMT
Guys, I will do my best to be here to chat at the end of the month ... broke my right arm (both bones!) and just had surgery to pin it all back together. Will update when I know better what my recovery timeline would be.
-- Rachel
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Post by marianne on Feb 15, 2007 22:40:32 GMT
Rachel,
you poor thing! No probs. We can postpone if you are not able to make it. Let us know. Thinking of you!
best Marianne
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Post by Chirugal on Feb 15, 2007 23:32:08 GMT
Oh, no, that's awful! >_< Hope you're not in too much pain. Rescheduling won't be a problem if you need it.
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Post by Sheyana on Feb 16, 2007 2:23:45 GMT
OUCHIE!!
ditto chir, don't worry if you have to reschedule!
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Post by marianne on Feb 26, 2007 0:16:57 GMT
Well please welcome Rachel, despite her broken arm/hand she will be here the next few days.
I would like to start by asking Rachel about her schedule. Are you very disciplined about the hours you write? I know you have an amazing schedule to manage. How many hours a day do you get to write?
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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 27, 2007 1:08:10 GMT
Hey guys! Man, modern medicine is a wonderful thing. I had surgery on the 12th, got the cast removed on the 22nd, and am able to type nearly full speed already! Apart from the scary zipper-like Frankenstein scars on both sides of my arm, why, I'm nearly as good as new!
So, back to the subject: schedule! Ah yes ... I have to be fairly disciplined about my time, that's for sure. Let me explain my challenges. I am an executive-level employee with a big worldwide company, with pretty significant job responsibilities (I am in charge of all internal and external communication, including crisis and media work, for North America) so my day job is something like 60 hours a week, normally.
In addition, I have this strange addiction to eating, sleeping, and spending time with friends and family.
And then there's the writing, which is ever more all-consuming. Scheduling is the only thing I have, frankly, to manage the load.
So, here's my usual schedule: up at 4:30 (sometimes 5, if I'm just beat) and at the coffee shop by 5:30 a.m., day in and day out. Buy a cafe mocha (sugar free part of the time, but never caffeine-free!). Write until 8:30, then go in to the office. Work until (typically) 7:30 p.m., drive home, do dinner, watch some TV while I work on email and all the business side of writing, off to bed at 11 p.m.
Friday nights I have a group of friends over to watch our favorite TV shows, and we hang out until quite late.
Saturday and Sunday, up by 5, writing by 5:30 until about noon, then the rest of the day is REST AND FUN! I don't do any other writing but that unless it's a real deadline emergency.
So if you add all that up, it's 3 hours a day on the weekdays, about 7 hours a day on the weekend -- it's not quite a full-time job, but it does add up.
My schedule this week includes rewrites on the third Morganville Vampires book, MIDNIGHT ALLEY, followed by a rough draft of a short story for the next anthology I'm in, MY BIG FAT SUPERNATURAL HONEYMOON. Followed by a teaser chapter for Book 7 of the Weather Warden series, because they just asked me for one. Then I start working on the next Weather Warden book full bore, because it's due in May.
I should probably add that this doesn't include the conventions I go to, which this year add up to about 30 days of travel.
... lord, that sounds insane, doesn't it? Sheesh. I should slow down.
-- Rachel
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Post by Sheyana on Feb 27, 2007 4:10:53 GMT
Hey Rachel, good to know the arm is getting better. Your schedule sounds incredibly insane!! I generally try to pretend anything before 7am doesn't exist... Now onto the question... How did you dream up the weather warden series? There don't seem to be many (if any) other books (at least in aus) that incorporate weather magic, genies, demons, and the many other cool things in your novels. Have you had particular influences or is it just the result of a wierd dream one night?(perhaps as a result of your 4.30am start )
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Post by marianne on Feb 27, 2007 5:30:24 GMT
Hi Rachel, that really is staggering and incredibly self-disciplined. I will never complain again!
Do you envisage giving up your corporate career for full time writing?
Also, I notice the animations on your website. How do you see marketing changing for writers in the next ten years. What are we going to have to do to keep ourselves in the race?
MDP
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Post by Chirugal on Feb 27, 2007 11:56:38 GMT
Hey, Rachel, good to hear you're feeling better. Thanks for coming on. I'm halfway through Heat Stroke at the moment, and am loving Joanne Baldwin. ^_^ First thing I have to ask is... do you share her love of fast cars? And also a technical question - do you complete full drafts of your books before you start to re-draft, or do you change things as you go along?
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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 27, 2007 14:51:51 GMT
How did you dream up the weather warden series? There don't seem to be many (if any) other books (at least in aus) that incorporate weather magic, genies, demons, and the many other cool things in your novels. Have you had particular influences or is it just the result of a wierd dream one night?(perhaps as a result of your 4.30am start ) The Weather Warden series started out as more of an action/adventure suspense novel that began to accumulate fantasy elements along the way, starting with the weather, although in the first incarnation of the story Joanne was just haunted by the weather, not in control of it. The Demon Mark was originally cancer, believe it or not ... but along the way, having a real-life illness seemed less and less appropriate to the plot, and once I realized the illness was related to the universe I was creating, everything else followed. I decided on the Djinn almost by accident; it started out kind of a passing thing, the idea that the Weather Wardens had Djinn as their servants, and quicky became one of the most important parts of the universe for me. I'm still finding new, cool, interesting (well, to me) things about the Djinn and how they relate/don't relate to the human world. I think that will be particularly evident in THIN AIR. -- Rachel
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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 27, 2007 15:01:04 GMT
Hi Rachel, that really is staggering and incredibly self-disciplined. I will never complain again! Awwww, c'mon! I still go the movies, watch sinful amounts of TV, read, cook ... I'm really not *that* disciplined. And besides: complaining makes the world go round! Do you envisage giving up your corporate career for full time writing? ::checks for boss lurking on board:: Um ... actually, someday. Although likely I'll drop back gradually to a less time-intensive job. I still like to have work, get out of the house, have structure ... so although I'd really like to have less of the toxic level of stress I do now, I'm not sure how long that will take. Also, I notice the animations on your website. How do you see marketing changing for writers in the next ten years. What are we going to have to do to keep ourselves in the race? Interesting question! I'm always interested in advances in graphic design, internet, etc. -- I'm just a technogeek at heart, so I do all my own web design work and stuff. The animations were just something fun I wanted to try out ... not sure yet how successful they are, but they were entertaining to create. I think THIS is the future of marketing for writers ... chatting, word of mouth, being part of communities online. The internet has made it possible to make friends all over the world, and it really is amazing how many great people you can connect with this way. Social networking sites are going to become more and more important, I suspect, as the current generation grows up and brings that even more into the mainstream culture. Haven't really checked it out, but it could be that some of the virtual reality communities like Second Life are a place where it might be possible to create marketing opportunities by setting up character avatars who can interact with other players. Hope that makes sense! Rachel
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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 27, 2007 15:03:53 GMT
Hey, Rachel, good to hear you're feeling better. Thanks for coming on. I'm halfway through Heat Stroke at the moment, and am loving Joanne Baldwin. ^_^ First thing I have to ask is... do you share her love of fast cars? And also a technical question - do you complete full drafts of your books before you start to re-draft, or do you change things as you go along? Thank YOU! I really appreciate the kind words, and the warm welcome. I love cars, but I'm not really as much of a car fan as Joanne ... but I have friends who are. I've been the bystander in intense debates about the merits of Mustang vs. Viper, for instance. The loyalty is intense! Regarding the drafts, I rework as I go, mostly, unless I'm under tremendous deadline pressure (like I was with MIDNIGHT ALLEY last month) ... then, I just go and do minimal editing, then clean up on the second draft after editorial comment. Best wishes! Rachel
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Post by Chirugal on Feb 27, 2007 22:12:54 GMT
Thanks for all this info, it's great. I was asking about the drafting thing mainly because I'm finding that I'm redrafting something I'm writing to death - it started out as my baby but now I just don't want to look at it because I've read it through so many times! *lol* When you're creating characrers, how do you avoid making them archetypes?
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Post by rachelcaine on Feb 27, 2007 23:20:59 GMT
Thanks for all this info, it's great. I was asking about the drafting thing mainly because I'm finding that I'm redrafting something I'm writing to death - it started out as my baby but now I just don't want to look at it because I've read it through so many times! *lol* When you're creating characrers, how do you avoid making them archetypes? I know exactly what you mean about the "just don't want to look at it" -- by the time I'm through the page proof process I'm just as glad to never see it again. I'm always pleasantly surprised afterward if it doesn't suck, frankly. I'm horribly not in love with my work, and I always see the flaws more than the graces. ... regarding archetypes, it's interesting you should bring that up. I started out writing archetypes when I was starting out, then wanted to write "characters with flaws" and ended up with totally unlikeable characters. I realized that there's a balance that has to be struck -- your character needs to have a certain *amount* of archetype to make them resonate, but just enough quirks to be endearing rather than annoying. (To the majority! You can never please everyone, and there will always be a certain percentage who just don't like anything you do.) I think about my friends: their great qualities, and maybe even a few of their not-so-great ones. Or my own worst habits. I don't set out to make even my villains irredeemable; that's what's fun for me is creating that balance between good and evil that makes a character just human. (Or, hey, Djinn. Or vampire.) Um, that sounded a bit incoherent, but hey. Pain medication, woot! -- R.
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Post by JM on Feb 28, 2007 3:34:52 GMT
Hi Rachel. I was wondering (because I am attempting to write some stuff myself), how do you get going when you are writing? I mean do you just force yourself to write, even when you don't feel like it? or do you wait untill you feel creative enough to put something decent down? Or do you take the Douglas Adams approach and have somebody lock you in a room with a pad and pen and not let you out till you've written?
I ask this because I am about halfway through writing one book and just started another, and whenever I plan to do some writing I get dispondant and walk away but when I get one tiny idea I'll write for hours on end.
So I guess the the real question is, do you need a jump-start when writing, or do you just start writing and see what happens?
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