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Okay, y’all, this is an oldie but goodie from author Libba Bray about how similar your typical love story is to writing your WIP.

The whole post is clever, but here’s some excerpts:

THE EARLY STAGES
OMG, y’all. My book and I went out again yesterday, and you know what? My book is so, so clever! Seriously. It was only our third date and it brought me fresh metaphor.

THE FIRST DRAFT
I love this book. And it loves me. I never want to be without this book. Never, ever.

THE REVISION, MONTH TWO
My book? No, things are okay. I guess. I mean, I totally love my book and everything, but…it’s not quite as clever as I thought.

THE REVISION, MONTH THREE
OMG. Eight hours of writing for this crap? If it starts one more sentence with “I” things will get bloody. Boring. Derivative. Repetitive–I know! We totally covered that in chapter four AND in chapter twenty. You remember, right? So why doesn’t my book?

THE REVISION, ON DEADLINE
F*@*#&ing book. I hate you. I wish I’d never met you. YOU MAKE MY LIFE HELL! HELL! I wish there were another word for hell but my thesaurus says there’s not. My mother was right. I should never have gotten involved with you.

THE THIRD DRAFT
(singing) It’s a stupid novel, and I don’t care…it’s a stupid novel, and I don’t care…It’s a stupid novel, and I don’t care…it’s a stupid novel and I don’t care…

THE FINAL DRAFT
Thanks for meeting me here. Look, I’m just gonna come out with it. This–you, me–it’s not working. I’m sorry. It’s not you, it’s…actually it’s you. You’re stupid. And I sort of hate you. But, you know, thanks for the great line on p. 400. I’m gonna go ahead and keep it because, really, you did give it to me and it doesn’t fit you anymore. Oh, and while you’re here, you might as well try the pie. It’s good. Yeah. I’ve had 500 pieces of it over the past few months. So I know.

THE COPY EDITS
Wow. Fancy running into you. It’s been ages. No, you look good. You lost weight? Wow. About 10,000 words. That IS something. Ha! I’d forgotten how funny you are.

THE FINISHED BOOK
That one? Yeah, we totally had a thing. But, you know, it’s over now. So, tell me what you were saying about the succubus and the backpackers? OMG, that is the best thing ever! You know, you have such beautiful eyes…

It’s true, though, isn’t it? (I’m in the early revision stage of my love affair.) You fall in and out of love with it. You think at one point that it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen—but that morning you wake up and realize it looks more like Frankenstein’s monster (i.e., the picture above. Which is my current WIP. It should look much better by my September 1 deadline. With luck.)

But you keep slogging and put your doubts out of your head and finish the thing up.

Turn it in, praise God, and then realize you do actually have a thing for the WIP still.

Then you move on to the next project. And you start the whole process again.

Sometimes it’s hard to get started writing. Or blogging. Or even (as is the case with me this morning) getting dressed and ready to take on the day.

I’ve wandered around in circles this morning and can’t seem to finish anything I started. I’m distracted. Honestly, I feel like I have ADHD this morning.

I started reading the paper, but then I remembered I was supposed to send an email. My new laptop from Dell finally came yesterday after a month of problems. I started typing the email and thought the keyboard was behaving weird. So I took the laptop to my husband (my personal tech support). I mean, I do type really fast, but….I shouldn’t be having these kinds of problems. And why isn’t the letter ‘b’ working?

Then I realized I was hungry and had never really eaten supper last night (too distracted by the arrival of the new laptop.) So I made eggs for everybody in the house. Then I sat down on the sofa at the laptop and forgot I still hadn’t eaten.

I started to load the dishwasher, but realized the dishes in there were clean. So I stopped doing dishes.

It occurred to me that I needed to make my husband’s lunch for the office….oh. I forgot to buy mayonnaise at the store (third day in a row.) So he’s eating peanut butter today and an odd assortment of things I found in the pantry.

I have GOT to turn this day around. I’ve been up since 6:00, but it’s 10:00 now and nothing has gotten accomplished.

Here’s my plan:

Stop blogging. Now. Okay, after I finish this blog.

Stop whining about how much I dislike Dells. And, if I still don’t like this laptop by the end of the day, go buy a ThinkPad.

Shower, dress, put my contacts in. I look rather witchlike right now.

Pick up my WIP and go somewhere with my children where there will be nothing for me to do but work on the WIP.

Go to the store on the way back from wherever I went when I worked on the WIP. Remember the mayonnaise this time.

Does anyone else have mornings like this?

There are good things and bad things about the immediacy of social networking.

On the good side, Twitter and Facebook are useful networking tools. Now writers can easily interact with their readers, booksellers, agents, editors, and reviewers.

On the bad side—people who don’t think before they tweet.

If you haven’t read about author Alice Hoffman’s poorly thought-out response to a mediocre review, check out Galley Cat and Gawker for the play-by-play.

Basically, Ms. Hoffman got on Twitter and flipped out. The review wasn’t that bad. No, the reviewer wasn’t wild about her newest release, but praised her past books and stated this one wasn’t up to par with her others.

Ms. Hoffman posted the reviewer’s phone number on Twitter and asked her fans to call the reviewer and complain. For me, the unprofessionalism involved is the worst. The reviewers do their jobs, we do ours. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I try really hard to remain unaffected and professional with both good and bad reviews. So far I haven’t gotten any real stinkers, but I’m sure they’re coming. If you have any longevity in this business, you should get both over your career. Right now my policy is to post the good ones on my publicity stuff and put the lukewarm ones out of mind as I write.

There’s even a blog called The Worst Review Ever: Feel the Pain. Heal the Pain. Now this is a more healthy approach to getting a bad review…with humor. I’ve enjoyed reading the posts (and readers then rate the review on a scale of bad to horrible.) The idea behind the blog is that they’re looking for the most scathing review ever. Not exactly something I want to aspire to, but fun to read.

And to all the reviewers out there—thanks for reading. Good or bad, these reviews translate into publicity. And writers can’t afford to drum up our own.

I love subplots.

I love reading them and writing them and watching them on television.

I think they should be approached with a degree of caution; you don’t want to distract from the primary plot for too long, you don’t want to inflate your book with fluff, you don’t want to add too many extra pages to your book.

That being said—they’re just fun.

Things I like about subplots:

When it seems there’s no resolution in sight to the primary plot, there’s usually a steady and easily-seen process toward resolution for the subplot (every time it’s introduced, something has changed.)

It’s a good way to introduce a different element to a particular genre (introducing romance to a thriller/mystery, introducing a puzzling mystery to a non-mystery, etc.)

Sometimes I like to connect my subplot with my main story at the conclusion of the book (I’ve done this with my current WIP.) Maybe something the reader thought was completely an auxiliary strand ties in with the plot in a surprising way–my subplot in the current WIP, that seems totally unrelated, plays a part in saving the protagonist’s life. In some cases, the subplot can affect the book’s outcome.

It adds another layer of intrigue to a book—something else the reader wants to see resolved.

I’m careful not to add too many subplots—I don’t want to create confusion over the real thrust of my story. But frequently, I enjoy writing my subplots most of all.

It’s that new-release time for me again and I need to get my rear-end in gear. Publicity in even the most casual way (giving someone your card when they ask about your book) requires a certain amount of prep work.

Let’s just say I’m a little behind. :)

I’m going to try to catch up this week, especially since I’ve missed a few opportunities recently to hand out something nice about my book.

Vista Print is a good resource for post cards, business cards, flyers, and brochures. I’ve used them a few times and have been very pleased with their low costs and lack of hassle I’ve encountered.

As far as groups that have great ideas for promotions, my pick is Murder Must Advertise. The threads cover all aspects of promotion (and the group isn’t limited to mystery writers.)

Interested in blog touring? I recommend Blog Book Tours for information on making your own blog successful and what to look for in a potential tour host.

Publicity prep isn’t the easiest thing in the world (and it can be very time-consuming.) But I try to remember that it’s just as important as the other parts of the writing process.