Open thread: characters and gender

Good morning, everyone! I hope you had a fabulous weekend and MLK Jr. day.

On my post about narrative "kinks" a few months ago, I talked a little about how I love when writers switch up traditional gender roles. Last night I was talking with a friend about adaptations or remakes where a previously-established character was written as the opposite gender. I can think of a couple examples off the top of my head: Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, Kono from Hawaii 5-0, and most recently, Emily Thorne in the new soap Revenge, which is very loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo.

So for today's post, I'd love to hear from you: what would your current WIP be like if you flipped your protagonist's gender? What would change? What would stay the same?

What do you want to hear about?

EPIC BECKYFAIL. I'm so sorry for the radio silence. Revisions, day job stuff, holidays, and various technical difficulties have combined in the best and worst ways possible over the last couple of weeks. I also received my first blog award, courtesy of the awesome S.L Hennessy, but since I haven't had a chance to pick my own set of winners yet, you'll hear more about that later.

Revisions are actually ALMOST DONE, which fills me with joy and indescribable terror at the same time.  I made it official by e-mailing Secret Agent Man the other night to let him know I'd be finished by mid-January, and now I have permanently entered freakout mode. I've been revising in my own little corner for so long, I'd sort of convinced myself that I was calm and with-it and used to the submission process. Not so, as it turns out.

Since November was pretty hectic, I want to try and update on a fairly regular basis until the holidays... but first, I want to hear from you! What do you want to see on the blog? If there's anything in particular you're curious about - the manuscript, the Tokyo subway system, my recipe for salmon risotto, anything goes - leave a comment, and I will write a post to that effect!

NaNo Open Thread

You guys! I'm so sorry for my epic fail for the first week of the Dark YA Blogfest. My excuse is not a very good one - I couldn't choose a favorite book. D: I definitely intend to join in again this week with the flash fiction prompt, though.

But enough of that. Let's talk about NaNo! I can't do it this year because of revisiony things, but I still want to join in the excitement, so I will have to live vicariously through all of you who are. It's always fun to hear about what my friends are doing - I know someone who's aiming for 200,000 words, and is up to 30k already. (Yeah, I can't even comprehend how efficient she is. If I hadn't seen some of the novel in question, I would think she was re-enacting a scene from The Shining. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...")

So for this post, if you feel so inclined, tell me about your NaNo! What's it about? What's your main character like? What is your word count goal, and what are you up to now?

On a revisiony note, I am plugging along over here. Factoring in my current pace, the holidays, and additional read-throughs/beta edits, it looks like I'll be sending it to Secret Agent Man in January. Eeeeeek!

Open thread

First of all, welcome to all you fabulous new people from the Blogfest! I hope to get to know you all better soon. Thanks to everyone who visited Tiffany, Katrina, and Casey's blogs as well!

My posts here have been kind of sporadic as of late. As you new people will learn quickly (seeing as I never shut up about it), I am in the middle of extensive revisions that are basically eating up all my free time. In two chapters, I'll be halfway done - with this pass, at least. I definitely want to do another pass before sending it off to my betas, and then I imagine that I'll have several more tweaks to make before sending it off to the agent.

So yeah. No pressure or anything. But I'm loving every minute of the process, even if it's completely and utterly terrifying.

Anyway! I wanted to open up this post for introductions, Q&A, and whatever else strikes your fancy. If you'd like to know something about me, ask away! And if you'd like to tell me a little about yourself, your WIP, your favorite cheese, or whatever else, that would be really awesome!

(I'm only half-kidding about the cheese, by the way. This cheeseaholic is always looking for something new to try.)

Have a fantastic day, everyone. I'm off to get a closer look at some of these new blogs!

Getting to know you

So it looks like I have a lot of new people around here! Welcome to my blog, guys! My name is Becky, and I'm ridiculous.

I thought I would hold another open thread today to let everyone get to know each other. So come on in, tell me about yourselves, and tell me a little about your WIP if you like! And if you have any questions for me, I'd be happy to answer them. :D

I've been tagged!

Good morning, all! I had a wonderfully restful weekend, and I'm feeling vaguely human again. And as it turns out, I have also been tagged by the lovely Tiffany to post ten random facts about myself!

Since I did post some facts not too long ago (bad Becky, getting ahead of yourself), I'm going to do something slightly different with this. Since last week sort of made me want to punt my desk through a wall, I'm going to post Ten Things To Be Happy About Today! So without further ado, here I go.

1. I finished my line-by-line notes this weekend, and I'm going to start rewrites tonight! I'm really happy, because this is the fun part. I feel like the reread was some kind of editing triage: figuring out which passages would be okay with a little patching, and which ones needed more intensive rewrites. But now I actually get to start fixing it. I can't wait!

2. My favorite time of the year is quickly approaching! I may be alone in this, but I think that October, November, and December are the best months of the year. I can't wait to bust out the sweaters and scarves, and I especially can't wait to curl up with some hot chocolate or a pumpkin spice latte.

3. I am flush with fantastic reading material lately. Besides all the great books in my to-read pile, I plan to pick up Wildwood (which is going to have a stop-motion movie adaptation, BE STILL MY HEART), Possess, and Isle of Blood. Two horror novels and a quirky fantasy - that's pretty much all I need to be happy.

4. After my sudden burst of productivity over the weekend, my apartment is sparkly clean. This is more monumentous than I care to admit.

5. Inspiration struck last week, and now I think my next project is all set to go. I may still change my mind while I'm revising this one, but I think this new idea fills in the gap that had been preventing me from getting invested.

6. It's so wonderfully quiet today. I am taking the opportunity to bask in it. 

7. I talked about writing with non-writing people yesterday! And they didn't look at me funny! I have always been a bit nervous about discussing my writing with people for the first time, but my friends seemed genuinely interested in the manuscript and are cheering me on. I was going through some slight revision panic that day, so it was good to hear.

8. Maybe as a result of all the things above, I am feeling relaxed and confident. And that's always a wonderful thing.

9. I have you guys! When I started this blog, I thought I'd have one or two subscribers, but I managed to find some really great people. I love logging on in the morning to check your posts, and I'm really enjoying watching you all follow your dreams. I can't wait to see where you end up!

10. I am buying brie tonight. And yes, that totally belongs on this list. Brie is delicious, y'all.


Tagged: I think most of you have already done this (or have already been tagged) but feel free to share a random fact/something that made you happy/etc in the comments!

Ego Boost Friday

When you're revising, it's pretty easy to lose track of what you like about your own writing. Last night I reread the pivotal chapters at the midpoint of the manuscript, and the number of notes I took and passages I marked up was a little overwhelming. I know a lot of you are going through revisions as well, and I'll bet some of you are sitting there and thinking about your flaws, just like I am right now.

Well, don't get me wrong, it's so important to stay critical of your writing. But every so often, I think it's important to remember that you're not some hopeless, worthless hack. So I declare today Ego Boost Friday! How do you participate in Ego Boost Friday? Easy. Just comment here and tell me one thing you like about your WIP. It can be as tiny or significant as you want. Feel free to send your friends over to play, too!

As for me... hmm. I'm probably happiest with the reveal in chapter ten - I marked up comparatively few passages in the last scene. And in general, I'm excited for some of these new scenes I'm going to write!

Your turn, bloggers!

Happy WriteOnCon!

This is a thread for everyone to link me to their queries, synopses, and excerpts. I'd love to see everyone's work, and I will provide as much feedback if I can! Just because I can't participate in the agent free-for-all doesn't mean I can't have any fun. :D

And if you're unaware, there's a FREE WRITERS' CONFERENCE going on this week! What are you waiting for? Come play with us! There are "ninja agents" lurking in the forums, so by posting your queries and excerpts, you might get some valuable feedback... or maybe even catch an agent's eye!

So go forth and share your work. (And once you do, leave me a link in the comments!)

Your writing speed

Good morning, all, and thank you for letting me vent yesterday. Now today, I'd like to hear from you, if you're feeling so inclined!

It's always interested me how some people can write the first draft of their MS in a matter of weeks, while some people take years. I don't think one way is better than the other, I just think it's a difference in the process. I like to sort of write the "first draft" in my head before I type it into the document, for example, so I'm not one of those uber-fast writers.

So I'd love to know: what's your writing speed? What's your record time for completing a story? And why do you think you work at the speed you do?

(And for the record, my quickest time is nine months from first chapter to final draft, and that was mostly because I wrote more than half of it within two months. I could probably go faster if I wrote full-time, but that's not exactly in the cards!)

Open question day!

Good morning, all! I am le tired, but hopefully the coffee will kick in soon.

I am opening the blog up to questions today! If you'd like to know something about my writing or my stories, awesome. And if you'd like to know my name, my quest, and my favorite color, that is also awesome.

Have at it!