Pantsers, Plotters and Finishing Draft 3!

So here's the scoop fam--I thought my book was going to be kinda easy.
If not after the first draft, then probably after the second, I imagined I would at least have things written down in a coherent way that I could be proud of. But let me tell you, I have just finished draft 3--and this huge baby just seems to have more and more poopy diapers as I go on.

I had a pretty good plan for my story when I started writing it. I remember I wrote out a list of 11 major plot points I planned to hit in the story as I wrote, and plowed ahead in my writing with more than just a creative fever. So I anticipated that things wouldn't get too ugly in the editing process. After all, it's not like I was just writing "wherever-the-wind-may-take-me". But HAHAHA. If one of you is a time traveler, and could go back and tell younger Jessica that actually, this was going to be a lot harder and longer than she thought, please don't. We don't want to discourage her.

Finally it's getting to the point where I don't think there are many major plot holes left, or maybe there are, but at least a good number of the character inconsistencies have been smoothed over. Or maybe they haven't.
Honestly it's exhausting work, editing. I confess, after going over so much content for hours and hours and days and days, I begin to see a problem and go, "Oh well. That's just how it's going to have to be then." Even though I know that is the wrong attitude.
The real solution, is just to work until my brain is fried, then take a break, and come back later when I have more energy and fresh eyes. Of course I don't want problems to stay, but it's just the thought of facing more brain work that keeps me from fixing it.

The moral of this story is that editing is going to be the more difficult part of the process, probably. But also the most rewarding. I get enormous satisfaction when something finally reads right or makes sense. Whether you plan ahead each detail to include, or let the tides of your imagination float you to your destination, it's still going to be work.

On that note, I wanted to share a funny analogy I heard about writers. Not everyone is going to write the same. Someone described writers this way once, and I think it's at least a little bit true-- there are two types of writers: ones we call "pantsers" and others called "plotters."

"Pansters" are those creative geniuses that can't be hampered down with a plan. It derives from the phrase, "Writing by the seat of their pants," or basically--making it up as they go--and there are many writers that flourish and become successful by this method. Their creativity flows best when it's running rampant across the page, leaving a trail of story that can be edited down later, hopefully to resemble something close to a coherent plot. These stories are probably the ones most able to break boundaries and delight readers with their unexpected twists and turns. I love a good panster novel.

"Plotters" on the other hand, must have a plan going in. I am one of those.

I start with a general plot, and then plan carefully what will happen and where I will go in each chapter. I mold people and events around to bring the book to a climax at the proper time. I may be slightly OCD in handling the book's progress.

And I thought being a plotter was going to make it easier for me in the editing stage, but I don't know man. It's still pretty hard. I'm hoping the inspiration of a New Year will be enough to kick me into gear and begin editing and writing faithfully again.

May all your writers out there struggling to edit your work feel sympathy from me now. I totally get it. It's awesome, awful, fun, and difficult--but rewarding. Carry on.

Castle Painting

And here we have the 7 frame picture progression of my latest painting. I had a really large space on my wall, and I knew I wanted to be painting stuff for my book--so I bought a giant canvas to fill the spot and then I had to decide what to paint on it. I've been trying out oil paints, so that's what this is! Was it ambitious for only my third oil painting ever? Yes, absolutely. I have learned my lesson though--from now on I am going to paint only very small paintings. This was really hard.

So for several weeks, I have been pondering and working on this puppy. With a little help from LDS general conference, now it is done!! It's amazing what you can do with 8 hours of guaranteed uninterrupted painting time as you listen to the Lord's anointed. 

Here is the finished product

And here is a fun photo progression of how it came about!

Conclusions on a Long Summer

Well--so it's the end of summer folks. And having been in school for most of my life, summer has always been synonymous with vacation, and relaxing--but let me tell you what, not this time.
This summer I feel as if I have been working like crazy and only now that school has started are things finally starting to settle down!

A little real talk here. The place I had been working this summer off and on for the last few years, was an awesome place, and I totally loved it. Physical Therapy (PT). It was really social, all my coworkers were hilarious young hooligans, and I felt fulfilled helping people recover from injuries. However, there was the small problem of they only paid minimum wage. And I now had a college degree and my own rent to pay--I needed to go look for something else.

I must have applied to around at least 30-40 positions, which is embarrassing to say. Some of them I interviewed for and actually got the job, but realized during the interview process that it wasn't for me. AKA sales. I know, I know, I should have known that already. In any case, it was a huge emotional roller coaster--so many times, a job would come up that seemed perfect, and I was basically promised it, only to be let down at the last minute because "HR had hired someone else" or they had narrowed it down between me and someone else and chosen the other person. Sigh. It was rough, especially since I was trying to squeeze all these interviews in while still working full time at PT.

Krissy Owens was my angel and helped me make my resume look so sleek!! This is one of our head shots

At the same time, my amazing friend Jenn and I were working on submitting our applications to PA schools. Physician's Assistant. You wouldn't believe how hard this all was. We met every weekend at least for several hours since April to work on it and barely were able to submit it come August. This could totally have been a college course. You needed several letters from specific types of people, AKA medical professionals you had worked for, professors of science whose class you had aced, and a PA you had shadowed for a certain amount of hours. You needed essays, official transcripts sent, then transcripts entered manually into the computer--besides all the research you had to do on each school you applied to, to know if you were qualified, or if you could afford it, or whatnot.

It wasn't that any of it was undoable, it just was also very emotionally taxing on top of the job search and everything else. It's hard to weigh yourself so thoroughly and document your whole life up to this point for an application. Besides paying my entire paycheck from that summer on application fees.

But through it all, I saw a lot of blessings. First, I realized, that if I had gotten another job right away, I wouldn't have been working for the medical professionals I needed to give me letters to PA school. And one of the new therapists personally knew the Dean of my first choice school--had gone to Africa with him the summer before just for fun-- and wrote him to say I would be a fantastic student and he should definitely admit me. So what seemed to me at first to be a super unfortunate thing, that I couldn't get a job elsewhere, turned out to be a very big blessing. The Lord knows better than we do, that's for sure.

And then, a few weeks ago I was sitting thinking about my job predicament, when I realized, I hadn't paid my tithing all summer. I had been saving up for application fees of course, but that shouldn't have been my first concern. So I went right then and wrote out a check to tithing--knowing temporal blessings often come to those that are faithful with their tithing.

Two days later, an employer that had interviewed me, and then hired someone else, called me around 7am and said,
"Hey, are you still looking for a job?" Yes, yes I was. He then told me they had hired another girl, but it hadn't worked out--she had more experience than me, but they didn't like her. She was mean, and difficult to work with. I on the other hand, had no experience in their field, but I was nice enough, and bright enough it was worth it to train me.

Hollaa!!! I loved everything about this job! It really was the best of all the jobs I applied to, and to have him say he felt as if he should call me back when they let that other girl go--I knew that wasn't an accident. Tiiiithiiiing. Of course, this is where things really started to turn around. I finished my PA school applications, gave my two weeks notice at PT, and furthermore, I got another thing in line as well.

During my last week at PT I was working with a patient and started humming, and she turns to me all excited, and was like, "You are a really good singer, aren't you?" I looked at her in surprise, and said, "Well--I used to sing quite a bit." She nodded her head and said, "I could tell your voice was trained, just by the way you were humming." She told me then she was a voice teacher, and I proceeded to tell her how last summer I had studied with an opera teacher in Vienna who had taught me amazing things, and she was like, "I want to meet with you and hear what she taught you. You want to get back into it, don't you?"

And here's the thing--I did. I reeeeally did!! I was suddenly thirsty again for singing, so I called up my old voice teacher from High School, probably the finest singer in this half of the US, if not the whole US, and got signed up for lessons again. I mean, why not? Soon I would be making much better money to pay for them. And that has been a huge blessing to me as well. I am always conflicted about my scientific pursuits--because I have been raised on so much music, that I know I would love to do that too. This life isn't long enough for me to do everything I want to do.

I just want to say, trust in the Lord thy God. I've seen his hand many times this summer, and have felt his love. And furthermore, it isn't weakness to see the small miracles in life. That actually is where you can see the most power manifest. After all, by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

After a long hard summer, I'm hoping things will calm down--now that I have some important things sorted out. The most important of which, is knowing that God cares. He's looking out for us. If none of these life changes stick, and in a year from now my life is completely different, I will still know that God was there.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father.
But the very hairs on your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."

One Grand Graduation Ball

Once upon a time, I had a lovely mother, with a taste for the romantic, and fantastic. She was completely loving and kind, and when she was forced to miss both my graduation from BYU, and Sarah's graduation from High school, she decided to throw a silly ball in the back yard to celebrate instead!

A very worthwhile trade-off, in my opinion.

She set about nearly two months in advance, buying any dress from DI that looked remotely suitable,  including wedding dresses and deep purple victorian gowns. She also called our musician friends and set up various decorations left over from the weddings thrown a few summers back--believe me those supplies were plentiful, having had three siblings married two summers back. They also found a gigantic box of actually nice looking jewelry at a garage sale for $8. EIGHT DOLLARS. All of the girl's jewels you see were pulled from that one box. (Also I think I may have found a real diamond in the box, but aside from the certificate of authenticity found with it, I have yet to confirm that) 

Anyway I was minimally involved in the planning, but my mamma and her sister did 98% of the work. Her party planning is truly on point.

With pictures from an old medieval calendar, she sent out the invitations to our cousins that lived nearby, and they began fitting into and claiming gowns. This is where the first miracle occurred. Each dress FIT SOMEONE. There were maybe two dresses left over, but everyone at the party was able to simply arrive, pick a dress and dance comfortably in it. I seriously have no idea how this happened.

But wait a minute you say--you selfish girl, you are wearing the Cinderella dress! 

Yes, that's right, I was just enough involved in the planning process that I said, "I want to wear the Cinderella dress. Imma find it." So I searched the internet until I found a Cosrea shop on etsy, where I was able to buy the dress for $50 cheap. Totally worth it, especially since I am now considering using it as my wedding dress. 

Only half kidding.

Anyway, she ended up hiring the Willey string quartet, FINEST quartet you could hire in all of Utah, inviting some gentlemen from the BYU Ballroom team to dance with, and POOF! A Ball! It was totally 100% magical.

I have included a barrage of pictures below--courtesy of Skipstone Photography--you can basically re-live the whole night with us!

Please enjoy, The Twelve Dancing Princesses Ball

Sarah, Kelly and Jessica, the last three unmarried girls in the Frazier house

We called it a coming out party, in honor of our deep love of old BBC movies, so these three were the honored girls of the evening.. Also I had to pin up my dress because I kept stepping on it while I was dancing.

The princesses and the visiting gentlemen from the Ballroom team

The Willey String Quartet plus Kevin Swan--they played two hours of Viennese waltzes and it was AMAZING. If there was any doubt that I was going to hire them for my wedding, it is now gone.

My babe sister Sarah! Stylish, blonde, elegant, sweet tempered, and an extremely talented singer! This girl is perfection, I live in fear of the day some modeling agency tries to snatch her up and I have to beat them away.

Cousin Greta--another total babe! She was one of two girls that fit that tiiiny dress--That Swedish ancestry is really doing great things for this family. She is also a talented musician, majoring in Violin performance at BYU-I!

Me and one of the fabulous dancers! They made the dance totally legit

My best friend and her husband really classing it up. Is that a pocket watch Christopher?! Heck to the yes.

Kara was the darling among the visiting Gentlemen. She is also on the Ballroom team with them, and was actually the one to find and invite them! And it was no wonder they loved her so, that pink dress with her rich dark hair was STUNNING.

A waltz in the warm summer night air

Sarah was also a hit with the gentlemen! Look at that lovely swish!

Haha, I guess she saw the camera

Aww, dancing cousins William and Greta:)

Milling about:)

David and Miriam showing their skillz!

Ryan and Bonnie? Toooooo cuuuuute

Kendall's only here for the food

Gentlemen are nice, but really, we were just as happy to run around in circles swishing our skirts

Sarah and Kelly stop for a spot of refreshment

Ah, Ingrid and Greta--such beauties!!

Princesses Kara, Greta and Jessica

All twelve dancing princesses (are there more than twelve? Ha, oops)

Aunt Helen jumps into the picture

Ingrid has perfected the fine art of skirt twirling

Kara and Greta stealing the show!

The cutest couple award goes to these newly weds! William told me his legitimate diet goal was not to weigh twice as much as his wife. Reportedly, it is very difficult for him.

My lovely aunties Nancy and Alice

Jessica and Kelly take a moment to rest

Ingrid and Rob--hard core road bikers by day, classy dancers by night!

Cheers to a wonderful evening!!

First Draft COMPLETE

You know what? Let's start with the good news first. It's finally here folks, a huge milestone in my writing endeavors. I HAVE FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT OF MY BOOK!! That's right--two and a half years after I first thought of the idea, I finally have it all down in writing. Plus, yesterday I painted what I wanted the cover to look like! Here's what I got.

Now, time to clean up the actual writing. I've read many articles that say this part can be horrible and tedious.

But I'm gonna be real--I'm totally stoked. There is something so satisfying about getting a paragraph to read really well isn't there? So hopefully it won't take another two years till it's polished, but I am ready to start taking out some of the garbage I know is in there and clean it up nice:)

I need to give a super special thanks to Nanowrimo and Camp Nano--without these month-long challenges pushing me along, I would still probably be only half way done! Seriously, I wrote half the book in just those two challenge months. Go figure. (Even if the writing was what my friend Whitney calls a "zero draft", AKA the very first, unfiltered words to fall out onto the page, that may or may not make any sense, but hey they're better than white space.)

Speaking of Whitney, I want to give another big thanks to my writing group members--they also pushed me along in a major way, and the edits they give me on my work are invaluable! Jon, Whitney and Travis, thanks so much to you kids! I'm super excited to keep working with you and get all of our manuscripts finished and up to snuff. (To check out what Whitney and Travis are writing, lookie here at their witandtravesty blogspot! It looks even better than mine. As far as Jon, I don't believe he has a blog. But he's brilliant, so when he does get one I'll definitely let you know.)

Here's what you can expect from me in the future: Next time,  another snippet from my novel--thoroughly edited and polished. I've ALSO been doing a lot of research, as my novel got close to being finished, on how to market your own book, and where and what to do--I will definitely share some of those tips. Thanks for reading, I appreciate all your support too!

~Jess