Nadia Lee :: Paranormal Romance Writer

As I was revising All the King’s Women, I had this feeling that maybe I needed to put more thought into the culture. I’m creating this world where one’s status is paramount, but nothing in their language seems to suggest it. Everyone in my book speaks English. By that I mean their language does not reflect their culture and mindset.

For example, in Asian languages, you have honorifics and levels of politeness and formality, and you must choose the correct combination to use. Failing to do so usually means one of two things:

1. You’re ignorant / uneducated.
2. You’re deliberately trying to insult the other person.

In Korea, if your speech is too formal and polite for the other person, you’re being sarcastic and/or insulting. If it’s too informal, you’re being insulting or showing your lack of social grace. Furthermore, each level of politeness / formality shows the speaker’s relationship to the person she’s talking to and the situation. So one person may use one type of speech, while his conversation partner may another. And the same people can use different levels if the situation changes, i.e. work v. social. (It can get very confusing for foreigners…!)

But it makes sense given Korea’s history. Social status, occupation, age, gender, etc. were all very important.

So when I looked at my own world, I had to consider its history and what mattered to these people (other than power and sex). They care a lot about social status, proper protocols and the type of relationships they have with one another. So their language needs to reflect this.

Took me about an hour, but I came up with six different levels for my people. The fun part is incorporating them into the story and seeing how my characters can learn so much about the situation and people around them, even strangers, by the way they speak. I just love how things come together.

P.S. No, I didn’t invent a new language. It would be cruel and unusual to expect my readers to learn six new dialects to read my story.

mood: slightly sleep deprived
currently reading: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Shiro’s status: hanging in there; gained 2 grams

I can’t believe Margie Lawson’s Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors workshop is over. For those of you who know me well probably know that I’m not the one to get all spiritual and frou-frou, and Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors doesn’t sound like something that would tempt me to sign up. You’re right. It’s not. But I’m glad I did. She teaches it once a year in January, and I encourage everyone to take it if they can. It’s worth every penny and more.

Margie also teaches Empowering Character’s Emotions (ECE) and EDITS workshops. I bought her lecture packets for ECE and EDITS, and already went through ECE and took tons of notes. Again, I encourage people to take the class. (She’s teaching ECE in March.) The only reason why I decided not to sign up is because I’m planning to outline and draft a new project in March, and I honestly can’t take a revision class while drafting a project. My internal editor will go crazy.

For All the King’s Women 1st round of revision, I plan to do something a bit different. I’m going to revise backward.

What does that mean?

Instead of starting from the first chapter (my standard M.O.), I’m going to start from the last chapter. I tend to rush the ending, and I want to devote the most time and energy on making the ending very strong. Of course, I’ll do a read-through from Chapter One to make sure everything flows correctly before sending the revised draft to my beta-readers.

Lawrence Block wrote in Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print, “If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.”

Why?

Because it’s very very difficult to write a novel.

If Block’s advice fails to change your mind, then start writing. But even as you embark on your journey, read the following books to learn your craft and get some inspiration along the way.

Writing the Breakout Novel Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook: Hands-On Help for Making Your Novel Stand Out and Succeed The Writer’s Journey, Second Edition: Mythic Structure for Writers Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles On Writing

When you’ve written your first novel, then read the following books:

• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print
• How To Be Your Own Literary Agent: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published

As you repeat the process over and over again, don’t forget to have a little sense of humor and learn to prioritize and put things in perspective. It’s OK to get a rejection (or two or three…or…a million) on your first novel. Most people don’t sell their first novel anyway. Think of this as a learning opportunity, a journey to self-discovery.

And always remember that you’re a writer and that writers write.

I’m done with revising The Last Slayer for the moment. Which means Agent thinks it’s ready to be shopped around, and I’m happy with it, too. I can’t thank her enough for all the suggestions and notes on how to make the story better. I really think the entire story hangs together so much more cohesively now.

Coincidentally (or otherwise) Colleen Lindsay blogged about revisions / rewrites and ego landing. I’d never heard the phrase “the ego has landed”, but it’s from a blog post by Del Rey Editor-in-Chief Betsy Mitchell on revisions / rewrites. It look like there are many writers who are very resistant to revisions / rewrites, even if they’re going to make the story better, because they’re so convinced of their own brilliance or something.

I hope I never become one of those writers. Agent, May and Hero Material have my permission to smack me hard when my hat becomes too snug for my own good.

Status: Am feeling a bit better about life in general. I realized that I had a little more cash than I initially estimated, so that makes me feel relaxed about it, somewhat. (see below for why)

I’m convinced that there’s some kind of evil retrograde somewhere.

Why?

My RAM died. The merchant’s being as difficult as possible with the return.

My dishwasher died. It needs to be replaced, most likely, since the current unit’s old. This is a completely unexpected and unplanned expenditure, but it must be spent.

Yesterday, my site died. It was the new plugin I installed for WP, and it killed my blog. MySQL refused to import my back-ups. I almost died until I found a file that it would import. If you see any errors on the site, please let me know!

Despite it all, I’m trying to stay optimistic. I’m going through the latest draft of Slayer. I can’t believe I missed some of the continuity errors that occurred when I made some changes to the story. I was 500% embarrassed when I discovered them.

One thing that’s really difficult for me is the amount of work that is required for the newly added materials. Unlike some writers who I envy, I’m not the most polished writer. It takes me a while to get it to flow just right. So the new materials take several days before they’re on par with the other more polished scenes.

Currently I’m using iPod Touch to review my manuscript. I downloaded an app called Files. It works great for me because it can read *.doc and not destroy all my formatting. (I’m very particular about formatting.) So I’m saving money on paper & printer cartridge. The price of paper went up about 50-100% in Japan, depending on what grade, size, etc. So I’m trying to find ways to reduce the amount of paper, etc. I use as much as possible. Does this mean I’ll never print my entire ms? Nope. I like to see stuff on papers. I catch different things on different medium. But Files is one of the tools I can use.

I’ve heard many people say they just want to write something “good enough” to be published. After all, it’s not like they’re writing a Shakespearean play, right?

Wrong.

How can you be a good writer if you plan to do just enough to get by? How can you call yourself an artist?

Some people actually say, “But it’s just romance (or insert any other genre)! With the limitations of the genre and word count, I can’t do the story any justice! What’s the point of writing something deep and meaningful for just a genre novel?”

If you can’t do the story justice in the genre for whatever reason, shouldn’t you change your genre and/or write a literary novel? Why show such contempt for the readers and the genre when you yourself can’t write the story that they want and expect from you? What are you really afraid of?

We, romance writers, bemoan lack of respect, promotional dollars, ridicule, etc. But isn’t that because many of us look down upon the genre ourselves? When you’re going for a job interview, do you tell the prospective employer, “I’m the best candidate for the position” or “I’m good enough for the position”?

If we hope to become published, improve the genre’s image, and perhaps join the NYT bestsellerdom, we must promise ourselves to do the following:

1. Regardless of the genre — romance, mystery, SFF, etc. — we’ll respect it.
2. We’ll master the craft so when our Muse comes calling, we’ll be able to answer the call with confidence and the right tools.
3. We’ll write consistently and regularly — the only exceptions: family emergencies and/or serious illness.
4. We’ll always strive to write the best book we can even if it feels like slicing our veins open with a dull spoon at times. There are times you absolutely just love writing, but there will be times when you hate it (because you’re revising or whatever). Suck it up because it’s all going to pass. (And if it never does….well…then you should probably reconsider your decision to be a writer.)

When we do all of the above, we’ll be one step closer to our writing goals. And please don’t say you tried. “Tried” isn’t good enough.