Marie-Claude's Blog http://mcbourque.com/blog ~ a writer's journal ~ Sun, 05 May 2013 16:37:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Goodbye for now… http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/05/05/goodbye-for-now/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/05/05/goodbye-for-now/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 16:37:04 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/05/05/goodbye-for-now/

Well this is the time to say goodbye to this blog for an undetermined time, maybe for good. I haven’t been very active in the last few months mostly because I am concentrating on my writing. I am working on some great projects and want to give them my full attention both time and creativity wise.

Blogging regularly takes a lot of one’s mental energy and as writers I think we have to decide where to put all that creativity. For me, it’s at the page, in my manuscripts. This is where lies my “happy writing place.”


So I have decided to blog a lot less and only at Musetracks, a popular blog for writers that I am very proud of. We started it as unpublished authors with big dreams and now we are still great friends and writing partners and the blog has grown bigger than we ever imagined.

So you can find me there on Mondays, but I do hope you will stick around on other days because we offer a lot of inspiration and companionship to fellow writers, along with the chance to pitch to agents and editors once a month.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. if you like social media, you can also add me as a friend on Facebook or on Twitter, or Instagram as marieclaudewrites

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/05/05/goodbye-for-now/feed/ 0 And what if the manuscript doesn’t sell? http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/16/and-what-if-the-manuscript-doesnt-sell/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/16/and-what-if-the-manuscript-doesnt-sell/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:08:15 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/16/and-what-if-the-manuscript-doesnt-sell/

And by that I mean sell to a publisher or catch the eye of an agent.

I’ve spend my not so long writing career with a plan that had back-ups, if this doesn’t sell, I’ll have another series to submit and so on. And I’ve written a few first-of-series manuscripts now (which still need tons of editing) and had always thought that they were back-ups.

But as my whole writing approach change, to a more habit-driven, kinder, soul-stirring, organic approach, I am starting to also change my idea of what I should write next.

I started thinking about what my writing plan would be if I had total control. Not because I want to do that, in fact I’m not really interested in putting all the effort and money it takes to self-pub (if I did, I’d hire an editor, a copy editor and a cover designer and I just can’t afford that).

But I was asking myself what if I was guaranteed a sale, at my own conditions. What would I be writing now? It’s obvious to me now that I would continue with the series I am currently working on. I am totally in love with it. And once this series in well started, I would continue to write the occasional gothic paranormal trilogy.

I would writing my sword and sorcery theme, because I might as well be honest, this is what I am really into.

So why have been derailed? The more I am away from the buzzing of the “business” and listen to my inner writing voice, the more I know what I truly want to do.

And I know that an unsold manuscript is more than a failure. It’s time spent with loved characters, a lesson in patience and huge practice at the writing craft, which I love just for the sake of it.

Would I still write it without the money? Yeah probably.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/16/and-what-if-the-manuscript-doesnt-sell/feed/ 1 Writing in a saturated market http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/07/writing-in-a-saturated-market/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/07/writing-in-a-saturated-market/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:45:41 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/?p=3024

I haven’t read much in the genre I am currently writing in. Mostly because I don’t want to be influenced to write a certain way by osmosis and also because it makes me a little nervous when I do.

I have read in the periphery of my genre, classics, darker and more complex stories than what I write, but I stay away from what I specifically write. In fact, I don’t know much about what’s out there.

Not a very good business plan – but do I write for business or just because I must?

Last night I stumbled upon a series of novels recently published in the genre I write. I had no idea they even existed. Suddenly, everything I though was fresh in my own story felt stale. What am I really bringing to this?

There is nothing new in my writing, I thought. I’m still a little in shock from my findings and frankly I found it hard to motivate myself to work this morning. Will an agent ever thing that what I have will sell? Is my market saturated?

I bet I’m not the only one, in fact I can think of a few people who wrote vampire books who thought the same thing.

What saved me (just a little – I’m still panicking) is to stick with the habit. I won’t know until I finish this book and send it out. The worst to happen would be that it won’t sell, even to a small press. I will still have finished the whole story and have gain experience in the process.

Forward is the only way.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/02/07/writing-in-a-saturated-market/feed/ 0 I’m probably doing this wrong! http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/15/im-probably-doing-this-wrong/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/15/im-probably-doing-this-wrong/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:31:22 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/15/im-probably-doing-this-wrong/

(1) My mind is crammed with so many story ideas. Do you ever feel that way? It’s rich with plots for series, spin-off of series, new series and stand alone novels. Ideas make me happy, make me feel like I have even more lives into my one life. The sad thing is, I don’t think I will live long enough to write them all.

(2) I almost feel like a real writer again. I’m waiting for feedback from my writing partner (the very talented Candi Wall) and I love the feeling of not knowing. It’s crazy, kind of like loving the pain of a really hard workout.

(3) I reread parts of an editing book I like last night. And I realized that I tend to have 3 stages to writing a manuscript: first the rough first draft which I love, then the excruciating second draft when I have to fix everything and add tons of things like settings and dialog tags. Then finally, the last draft when I get to fix the actual style sentence by sentence.The first and last part makes me feel more creative, more like an artist. The middle part, it’s more like writing yet another graduate thesis. I’m probably doing this wrong! There’s got to be artistic way to edit a manuscript.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/15/im-probably-doing-this-wrong/feed/ 0 New year – new no goals http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/14/new-year-new-no-goals/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/14/new-year-new-no-goals/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:26:20 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/?p=3005

And it’s that time of year again. We are all going nuts with the goal things. How many goals do you have this year? Have you ever been successful at keeping them?

Myself not so much.

So I have no goals this year. None. I’m going with the flow, writing daily just like last year, making small adjustments to my diet as I go along and still going to the gym when I can.

I don’t want goals. Because goals mean I can (and will likely) fail at them. Are you like me and overpack your schedule? Put tons of demands on yourself?

Because this is what our society demands, isn’t it? Selling us the promise that we can do it all. But what of quiet daily living instead?

La vie est un long fleuve tranquille. (life is a long and steadily slow river)

So no goals for me this year. I feel better already. Wouldn’t you?

I am in such a happy writing place these days. I finished the main edits on my steampunk novel manuscript and I’m working on the final polish right now. I sent it out to my writing partner today and it feels so good to be interacting with her again. I feel like I’m back in the game. Which means that to me the game is a whole lot more about writing now than it is about selling.

Which is a pretty good thing.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. readers who may wish to comment can do so on my Facebook page or on Twitter. My life needs a little simplifying right now :)

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2013/01/14/new-year-new-no-goals/feed/ 0 Process not deadline http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/04/process-not-deadline/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/04/process-not-deadline/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:10:53 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/04/process-not-deadline/

We all have different ways of getting motivated. When I think of deadlines, I usually panic. My normal mode of getting things done tends to be to wait until the last minute in sheer panic the whole time, then do it all at once when I have absolutely no choice (like the night before).

I really want to do this differently with writing. I have so many hang-ups (read ‘deep dark moments of the soul’) related to writing that I must focus on the time spent on it and not on productivity.

It’s probably different from most (much more successful) writer but I am still in the process of defining what success in writing means to me.

I really want to finish my edits before Christmas holidays. I’m close. I spent my 55 minutes a day before and after work. But… I’m finding myself skimping on quality just to get done. I was rushing through a description today when I know I can do better. Just so I can call this scene done.

Not good. I need to focus on the process right now and remind myself that it will be done when it’s done. And that’s that.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. readers who may wish to comment can do so on my Facebook page or on Twitter. My life needs a little simplifying right now :)

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/04/process-not-deadline/feed/ 0 Writing challenge: 50 min a day! http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/02/writing-challenge-50-min-a-day/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/02/writing-challenge-50-min-a-day/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2012 18:39:39 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/02/writing-challenge-50-min-a-day/

I just completed week 5 of my writing challenge #2 (which means I have now been working on my manuscript solid straight for 12 weeks) and have been working for 50 minutes every day last week except Saturday. I’m amazed at how much can be done in 50 minutes a day. I am now on scene 71 of my work in progress and plan to have the whole thing done before Dec 21 when I fly out to Scotland for my christmas holidays.

I’m pretty excited to be so close to a 350 pages (90K words) readable manuscript. Then will come the final polish and submission.

Next week, I’m increasing my writing time to 55 minutes (30 in the morning and 25 at night) and hope this will see me through the finish.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. readers who may wish to comment can do so on my Facebook page or on Twitter. My life needs a little simplifying right now :)

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/12/02/writing-challenge-50-min-a-day/feed/ 0 Shiny new writing things http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/21/shiny-new-writing-things/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/21/shiny-new-writing-things/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2012 23:55:51 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/?p=2997

I had a little time to spare the other morning before leaving for work and I started googling for publishing opportunities.

I saw a call for short stories series and my mind started to play with that information.

What if I submit that short story I have? It’s almost ready! I might have another book out there soon if it get accepted then! Those stories are only 13K words!!!

Oh so attractive! And what a wonderful distraction from the monster beast that is my work in progress.

But I got to finish that first!!!

I get so distracted. I tend to jump on new things so easily in a “Oh, I can write THAT” fervor. Hence the paranormal short, the steampunk novel, the small town romance, the YA fantasy, all waiting to be edited.

Live and learn.

I MUST edit, polish and submit my current project BEFORE I do anything else!

Much love,
M-C xoxox

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/21/shiny-new-writing-things/feed/ 0 Ten weeks of solid writing http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/19/ten-weeks-of-solid-writing/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/19/ten-weeks-of-solid-writing/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:46:06 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/19/ten-weeks-of-solid-writing/

Despite my lack of blog posts, my writing is still going strong, I have been writing 6 days a week now for 10 weeks straight.
I’m currently writing (well editing) 45 minutes a day, 30 minutes at 5 am before the gym and work, them 15 minutes at night after kids homework, dinner and dishes. My challenge is to increase this total time to an hr a day.

Not much compared to full time writers. And it’s hard to see the Facebook statuses claiming thousands of word counts and hours of editing per day.

But I’m making a living now with a job I love. My stress level related to finance is much lower now and I’m really enjoying the writing. And at this pace, I can still produce enough writing to make me happy.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. readers who may wish to comment can do so on my Facebook page or on Twitter. My life needs a little simplifying right now :)

Location:Seattle

]]> http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/19/ten-weeks-of-solid-writing/feed/ 0 The lure of publishing http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/11/the-lure-of-publishing/ http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/11/the-lure-of-publishing/#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:55:54 +0000 Marie-Claude http://mcbourque.com/blog/2012/11/11/the-lure-of-publishing/

As I start week 3 of my second 7 week challenge (night writing), I can’t help but feeling a little low.

You see I did what I told myself I wouldn’t do. I started to think about selling instead of focusing only on the process.

If I focus solely on the process, I’m a winner. I succeeded. I am writing now every morning for 30 minutes and steadily increasing my time in the evening, At this rate, I’ll have my solid edited draft done by Christmas.

But… I started to look at agents this week and boy, do I feel like a loser. I have published in a long while. And really who’d want my steampunk novel? Isn’t steampunk overrated now? And don’t agents and editors want romance not just fantasy story? It’s slippy slope thinking… Really not good for me.

I’m starting to doubt my writing, thinking maybe I should make my hero more likable, thinking of tweaking my story to make it more marketable. All the things I said I would not do.

So today I pulled away from the web. Stopped perusing agents and authors pages. Did my writing, then enjoyed my day off. I can’t change my writing past, worry about where it will go. All I can do is focus on the habit. Today I did 55 minutes of editing and doing so made me happy.

Much love,
Marie-Claude xoxox

p.s. readers who may wish to comment can do so on my Facebook page or on Twitter. My life needs a little simplifying right now :)

Location:Seattle

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