Writing Life – Page 4 – Nicci Carrera

October 3, 2015October 3, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

A new day, filled with light, and a little writing stress

I hope you are having a good weekend. I really am. The light was so pretty this morning, I had a lot of fun taking pictures. Then I had some news from my editor, a bit nerve-wracking news. Details below. But first the fun stuff.

The garden is still going…as well as glowing.

These pigeons were dining on who knows what on our patio before I came out. They startled and flew away. What a nice thing to be able to do. Just fly away. They reassembled first on the power lines then over on the neighbor’s antenna.

It is October 3, but we still have a squash flower.

This big guy was watching the world from his roost atop a tall oak tree.

This plant was enjoying the sunlight.

As was this redwood tree.

The persimmons are starting to ripen.

This was the first shot I took when I came outside.

I followed up with my editor, and turns out she was just on the phone with the senior (acquiring) editor, who had a problem with a plot element. A big plot element. She wanted to know if it was realistic and wanted to know if I’d done any research. I did research it, which I shared with them, and I said I could also add things to convince a reader who might have the same question. Donald Maass says to take the most unlikely thing in your book and prove it to the reader in as many ways as possible. He gives some ways to do that. I’ll be looking through his book and my notes from his workshops if the Wild Rose Press wants the book and wants me to do that.

So, the status on the book is a little gut wrenching. I will have to follow up with my editor to make sure she received my response because she didn’t reply. (I couldn’t figure out how to do the auto reply my friend Laurie told me. I have Yahoo mail, so it might not be a feature. I know Outlook does it.) I figured I’d do that this afternoon, soon then, just to make sure she received the email, per what we agreed to after the last email problem.

No wonder I spent the whole day playing with photos. I am a little worried. Photo processing is relaxing and fun.

Now I’m off to do some critique work for a friend and then listen to more of an audio book I’m really enjoying. One of life’s great pleasures is being read to. I love the advent of audio books.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Monday I will posting about The Great Pumpkin.

September 21, 2015September 21, 2015 Nicci Photography, Travel, Writing Life

What’s a small-town contemporary romance writer doing on Monday morning?

Well at this exact moment I just finished processing this photo I took of the Flatiron Building in New York City. It’s only 10:49 a.m. and I’m ready for a nap.

We set our alarms for 5:30 and headed out at 6 a.m. emerging from the Subway just at daybreak. The Flatiron Building was so pretty at this hour.

I may not just be a small-town contemporary romance writer because the next book in the trilogy about the Cruz sisters has a bit of suspense and doesn’t take place in a small town. But I do love that sub-genre. I am reading Virgin River by Robyn Carr as part of a reading challenge for a romance genre Goodreads group called For the Challenge Impaired. We get to read at our own pace, which really suits me.

This is the first time I’ve been active in a Goodreads challenge group, and I’m really enjoying getting to share the experience of a book with other readers. Spoilers are hidden but we can discuss things in general. Once I’m through the first book, I want to delve into the spoilers and see what people think. After a bit of a slow start, I’m loving Virgin River, a small-town contemporary romance set in Northern California. I am inspired.

Being a tourist and on vacation in New York is lovely. For one thing I could take photos of people hurrying to their jobs. These two women were similarly attired and I thought tan and black was a nice color combo for work.

I’m starting to think about visual branding. I hadn’t heard that term before but recently I did. I immediately locked onto it. Anything having to do with branding and marketing captures my attention. Visual branding is a great term to know because it turns up informative articles in Google. I’m starting to get clear about what I want to do. How to do it is another matter! Stay tuned.

September 18, 2015October 1, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

Artistic choices

With writing, I receive a lot of help from my critique partners. Not only do they tell me what’s not working about a book, but they suggest how I might fix it. They also tell me what is working, so that I am careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Then I receive more help from my editor because I am lucky enough to have one! Good editing is key.

There are so many elements of writing craft: understanding and showing the characters’ goal, motivation (why they have the goal and why they think and act the way they do), and conflict (what stands between them and achieving their goal, both internal and external obstacles). Then there’s character arc (how they change and develop), and story structure, which has its own set of elements. Setting, dialog tags versus character movement, point of view, deep point of view, and so on. I think any writer who has been a member of Romance Writers of America for a while could jump on any of these when critiquing a writer’s work. With all those elements, many things can go wrong, but assuming you have those things right, well then it comes down to artistic choices among multiple right choices. Even at the sentence level, there are multiple ways of saying the same thing. One writer is going to choose to arrange a sentence one way and another will choose another way.

For me, getting to the artistic-choice stage is incredibly rewarding and exhilarating. Getting to choose is worth all the work and frustration involved in learning to write and in producing books.

I went out with a group of four photographers yesterday in New York City, all of them professional. I have been learning all kinds of technical tricks with my camera and some artistic suggestions, but ultimately the choices I make are my own. When I get home and look at my photos, which ones do I like? How do I want to develop them? I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere near mastering the craft, so some things are “wrong,” but each of us who posts photos is making choices, and even for amateurs, that is fun and interesting.

Some of the images below are not perfect, I know that, but I still like them. That’s what I find interesting–why did I choose these images?

The first one reminds me of the famous painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. My photo is not very much like that painting, but for some reason, the scene reminded me of it. Our brains are so individual–we are reminded of or pleased by different things. I like the people sitting inside plus I like the colors, textures, lines, curves and that the scene looks three dimensional. This is my favorite photo in today’s group.

The Oyster Bar at Grand Central — Grand Central Station

An old-fashioned info booth with modern displays, Grand Central Station

The next one is another favorite of mine. I like seeing people reading, looking at their smartphones, and talking, a slice-of-life moment in New York City.

Who doesn’t like a carousel? These are always so beautiful. The bunny was pointed out by two of the other photographers. It’s fun to see what artists notice. When I went up to take the photo, I was captured by the words on the horse’s saddle, Granny’s Folly, so I included that in the foreground.

I had to cut off the day early because I have a cold, but I made it out to our deck for a sunset photo.

Nightfall at the apartment, photo from the deck

Well those are my artistic choices for the day. Do you enjoy getting to make choices in whatever your specialty is? Whether it’s choosing a recipe, an outfit, how you will approach a work project, or choosing how you will tell a story, it all reflects your uniqueness.

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015 Nicci Photography, Writing Life

Waiting for an answer…oops!

I’m eagerly awaiting word on the next step for Third Strike’s the Charm, hoping for a contract.

I had to fill out a form, which I did. After not hearing back from my editor, I decided yesterday to be a pest and make sure she received it. No, she didn’t!

I thought I sent the form four days ago, but she never received it. (The form is for the Lobster Cove series, which is a fictional small town on the Maine coast. Many authors are writing books set in this small town, so we all have to coordinate the setting and characters. We have a reference spreadsheet that is our “bible.” When we submit a manuscript, we fill out a form identifying the shared information we’ve used, things like street names, minor characters, major buildings, land marks, weather events, newsworthy events, and the physical characteristics of the main characters. The editor who is managing this series makes sure all that information goes into the spreadsheet.)

I checked my Sent Items folder in Yahoo mail. Somehow I managed to email the form to myself! Well, I could have been waiting a very long time! I now understand that if I don’t hear back from my editor confirming that she has received an email, to follow up. At least the clock has started now, plus I also learned more about working with my editor. She said she’s always there and will always send confirmation. We had a laugh about me sending the form to myself.

Have you found that your communications are getting mixed up lately? Apparently it’s in the air, so if you don’t hear back, double check.

I have a confession to make though. If I don’t get my first round of edits until October, that would work out well for my vacation. I am in New York. I wandered around the city today. Here are a collection of photographs. I read recently about photographic voice and making one’s own stamp on pictures. I was excited about these concepts in theory, but in reality, I found myself not sure what to photograph! My friend said just shoot everything. That I can do. These were my favorite today.

New York City fall day (13 of 17) — Newspaper vendor outside Penn Station

New York City fall day (12 of 17) — US Post Office

New York City fall day (10 of 17) — My husband worked in this building many years ago.

New York City fall day (2 of 17) — A kasha knish at 2nd Avenue Deli (now on 33rd Street)

New York City fall day (16 of 17) — Penn Station

New York City fall day (15 of 17) — Penn Station

New York City fall day (14 of 17) — Penn Station

Good night!