Tag: horse

Horse Trading, and Is Your Writing Really Ready?

Back in July, I blogged about how I was shopping for a new horse. I compared the process to figuring out which of the multitude of writing projects you might want to work on next. Then a few weeks later, I whined about my broken ankle and how difficult it is to wait–for an ankle to heal or for a writing career to get up and running.

Well, my ankle is now ready for prime time (or horseback riding), but my search for a new riding partner has thus far not borne fruit. It’s not for lack of trying. It turns out to be harder than I thought to find a horse in my price range with the kind of training I’m looking for. To find one that’s not too young and not too old. To find one that’s been actually ridden and worked recently rather than hanging around getting fat out in a pasture.

So far, I’ve seriously considered more than a dozen horses. Sometimes I never even went to ride them because my trainer and I looked at video and saw they wouldn’t work for me. Others we rejected because the owners refused to send us recent video. If horse is a couple hours drive away, I want to see video first. I’d hate to drive all that way to see a horse and have it turn out be a waste of time, time I could have saved if I’d seen the way the horse moves.

While there were a few I’ve gone to look at which were nice, but I just didn’t click with, there have also been several with peculiar stories:

•   There was the 8-year-old that I’d thought was trained, but had barely had a few months under saddle
•   There was the 11-year-old that hadn’t been ridden in four years. I wouldn’t have even visited this horse, except every time I asked the owner about how much work the horse had done, the story changed until I finally found out the truth when I went to see it.
•   There were two with unusual medical problems—no fault of the horses, or the owners (they were honest), but it sure explained how cheap they were.
•    My favorite was the “imaginary” horse. I responded to an ad and the seller sent video of a wonderful mare. But when my trainer and I tried to make plans to go see the mare in person and ride her, we were told someone else was buying the horse. The seller said if I sent half-payment, she would cancel the other deal and put the mare on a horse trailer for me. Sight unseen. Um, no.
•   There was the lovely gelding that the seller insisted on full price for, which I reluctantly agreed to, then she refused to take a cashier’s check as payment. Cash only, she said, because she didn’t have a bank account (!). I said no thanks.
•   There was the seller who had sent pictures of her gelding including closeups of the horse’s feet (the condition of the hooves is a very important consideration). The pictures she herself had sent showed chips, cracks, and nail holes from previous shoeings, yet the seller said the horse had great feet that never chipped, cracked, or needed shoes. My farrier gave that one a thumbs down.

I always like to turn my personal stories into object lessons for writers. In this case, I can see a bit of an analogy between the various horse traders and writers I’ve known who have finished a manuscript. They think they’ve got a wonderful, polished piece of work. They’re absolutely certain their manuscript is in fantastic shape, ready to hit the marketplace. They’re anticipating a huge advance for a book as great as theirs is. They’re also sure they won’t have the least problem selling it.

Then reality hits when they submit their books to agents or editors. It gets rejected again and again: Not right for us or Not suitable.

It could be that your book just didn’t click with an agent, like those two horses I rode that were nice, but not for me. But it’s more likely you didn’t put in your time with that book to make it irresistible.

Sometimes buyers are glad to put in the time on an untrained horse if they see its potential. By the same token you might find an agent or editor who will see a gem in the rough with your book and be willing to help you get it polished. But just as there are far fewer buyers out there with the skill and inclination to re-make a green horse into a show-ready champion, you will be hard-pressed to find an editor/agent who’s willing to make your rough draft manuscript into a polished bestseller.

So put that training on your horse…er, polish up that manuscript. And improve your chance of finding the agent or editor of your dreams.

Buy the first two books of the Tankborn science fiction trilogy: Tankborn and Awakening. Buy Clean Burn, a crime novel featuring private investigator Janelle Watkins.

October 1, 2013
Horse Shopping, Or, Choosing Among Writing Projects
I recently sold my beautiful Andalusian/Morgan mare, Belle. She and I had been together for eight years, and we learned a lot from each other. Now she’s off to a new home, helping another rider learn the fine points of dressage.

So I’m horse shopping. I have a clear idea of what I want in a new horse: not too young, not too old. Not located too far away (not going to check out that great horse in Vermont). I definitely want an easy-going gelding. Size matters–neither a 13H pony nor an 18H draft horse will do. And there’s only so much I can spend (sadly, I’m not independently wealthy yet). Which means it might take a while to find the perfect partner. But here are some of my current options:

This is Sequoia Mambo Man, an 8-year-old, 15.2H palomino Morgan. Very cute, and sounds like the easy-going temperament I’m looking for. But not a whole lot of miles under saddle yet.

This is Bentley, a 6-year-old, 15.3H Quarter Horse Paint. I don’t jump like you see Bentley doing in the picture, but I’ve seen videos of him ridden dressage too. He seems to have a decent amount of training under his belt.

This is SQR Kato, a 9-year-old, 15.1H bay Arabian. The owner says he’s very quiet, and he looks quite talented as a dressage horse. This one seems to have the most training of the three.

There are a few others I have my eye on, but you get the idea.

So what does this have to do with choosing writing projects? Well, imagine that you’ve just finished a book (let’s call it THE BEST BOOK EVER). Finished as in, TBBE is completely polished to a quality where your agent is now shopping it around, or you’ve submitted to your editor. Or if you’re an indie-pubbed author, TBBE is completely vetted and ready to be uploaded to the various online booksellers.

Now what do you do? All those story ideas that have been shoved to the back burner while you were getting TBBE to a publishable stage are now competing for your attention. Do you work on that hysterically funny romantic comedy you’ve been dying to start? The young adult paranormal that wakes you up in the middle of the night, the scenes so clear they’re begging to be written? Or that thriller that’s so powerful you can visualize it as not only a novel, but a film?

How do you decide? One way is to do it the way I will probably choose amongst those horses I told you about. I will probably use something like the following checklist:
- Which one do you feel the strongest about, with which one do you have the strongest connection? Just as it will be easier for me to work with a horse I really like, it will be much easier for you to spend the months it takes to write a novel if the concept is one you feel connected to and excited about.
- Which one is the most developed? With a horse, I’ll consider how many months or years of training or under-saddle work he’s done. With a story idea, you have to think about how well fleshed out the plot is, how developed the characters are, and how comprehensively you’ve imagined the settings or world of the characters.
- Which one is most likely to get you where you want to go? With a horse, the one that’s best trained and has the conformation and movement for dressage would be my best choice. When it comes to story ideas, you really have to look at the reality of your career and the marketplace. Have you got two books of a thriller series out that’s just begging for a third, but you’re considering detouring into a romantic fantasy novel? Maybe not the best choice, career-wise. Better to write that third thriller, and get back to the romantic fantasy later.
It’s possible to fall in love with the wrong horse, and quite possible to become enamored with a story idea that’s not to your advantage to pursue. Go into both transactions with a level head, a clear eye, and you’re sure to make the right choice. And remember, with story ideas (unlike horses), the one you set aside will always be waiting for you to explore later.

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July 1, 2013
Horse of a Different Color and How Writing Matures

I’m lucky enough to own a beautiful mare named Belle. She’s half-Andalusian and half-Morgan, and a gorgeous gray. She just turned 16 a couple weeks ago.

If you don’t know horses, you might not realize that 1) most of the “white” horses you see are actually grays, and 2) gray horses always start out as a different “normal” horse color. They might be black, or bay (brown with black mane, tail, and lower legs), chestnut/sorrel (a coppery color all over), even paint (spotted). Eventually though, they all end up like my mare Belle is now.

Check out the “before” (when she was about 4 years old) and “after” (taken yesterday at age 16). Yes, same horse.

Another interesting fact about gray horses is that in some breeds (Andalusian & Lipizzaner, for instance), nearly all the horses in that breed are gray. In others (Morgans, for instance) few are gray. So a non-gray Andalusian is very desireable, and a gray Morgan would be quite unique. Another fun fact: since a gray horse starts out looking non-gray, breeders will send DNA (hair) to testing labs such as at UC Davis to test for color. If they have a black Andalusian, they want to know for certain it’s going to stay black, especially if they’ll be breeding the stallion or mare.

I didn’t bother testing Belle’s DNA since she was already a dark dapple gray when I bought her. She’s half-Morgan (her dam was chestnut) and half-Andalusian (her sire was gray), and I guess the gray won.

That’s her at age 8 to the left. You’ll notice that although her body is quite dark, her face is nearly white. Horses tend to start graying on their face. That white star on her forehead you can see it in the first picture above has blended in with her white face.

So what does this have to do with writing? Well, on the surface, nothing. But it got me thinking about two ways writing and a writer changes and matures just like a gray horse does. First, writing matures through revision, which I talked about in my last blog post. You could say a book matures from its infant self (the rough draft), to its grade-school self (first read-through), to its teen self (post-developmental edit re-write, to its adult self (polished final draft) throughout the stages of revision.

The second way a writer and her writing matures is through time and experience. That’s mainly experience as a writer, but also experience with the outside world. Years and the kind of life led (different for everyone) change perspective. The things you see happening to others, or participate in yourself, can all become fodder for your writing. What happens in your particular life will change your writing and improve your ability to write your characters and describe their experiences.

That’s not to say that someone in their teens couldn’t write an elderly character, for instance. I don’t have to be a man to write a male character. I don’t have to be an evil villain to write one. I just have to observe, ask questions, and use my imagination.

But my years (do I have to mention how many?), maturity, and the experience that comes from writing 20+ books have led me to write that male character or that evil villain much differently than how I would have written him a couple decades ago. In fact, I am right now revising a 20-year-old book from my backlist so I can indie-publish it. While I’m pleasantly surprised that most of the writing holds up, some of the characterization doesn’t. I’ve learned tons more about character since I wrote this book. I also noticed signs of “first time author syndrome” throughout that early book. Overuse of adverbs, trying too hard with descriptive passages, clunky dialogue. What seemed to work twenty years ago I realize has to be revised. Seeing it through the lens of a couple decades of intense experience writing novels makes all the difference.

So, two lessons to be learned from this. 1) you’re going to write some great stuff early in your writing career. Some of it will be beautiful, just like Belle was a real looker as a 4-year-old (yes, I found a way to turn this back around to horses). 2) You’re going to continually learn and grow and improve. When you look back at your earlier prose, you might cringe. But you’ll also have the satisfaction of knowing you got better as you matured as a writer. Your writing developed and became even more gorgeous (just like Belle :-)).

Have you seen that progression already? If so, what’s one thing about writing you’ve learned with experience? Or if you’re not a writer, is there another area of expertise in which you’ve learned and grown? I’d love to have you share in the comments. Tell it to the hoof!

April 29, 2013
Give Your Story Its Head? Or Keep it on a Tight Rein?

I am a horse person. Maybe better to say I am horse-obsessed. If I’m fast-forwarding past the commercials in a DVRed TV show, I’ll hit pause if I see a horse (gotta love those Budweiser Clydesdales). When I’m out driving in our semi-rural area, my gaze will rove over the surrounding pastures, admiring the bays and appys and chestnuts and grays (those are horse colors for the uninformed) ambling about. I’ll walk up to total strangers in the supermarket and strike up a conversation if they’re wearing chaps and boots.

I ride my Andalusian/Morgan mare 3-4 days a week, mainly in the arena. Although she’s a nice horse on the trail, mostly I do dressage with her. That’s one of those equestrian disciplines that’s fascinating for its participants and dead boring for everyone else. A horsie friend’s hubby has a T-shirt that says, “Whoever said life is too short has never watched dressage.”

When riding dressage, the movements are pretty controlled on the part of rider and horse. The horse has to be very attentive to the rider, to pay attention to each request made of her and be ready to segue into the next.

On the trail, on the other hand, I ride my horse on a loose rein, let her take a gander at the countryside, admire the view, maybe snatch a little mouthful of grass. She should still pay attention to me (I’m not letting her march me through the poison oak, no way no how), but it’s supposed to be more relaxing for horse and rider. Plus, if she smells a mountain lion and takes off running, I’m gonna let her take the lead.

So, what about your writing? How do you approach it? Do you keep it on a tight rein? Do you pin down every little detail about your characters, the plot, every turning point, dark moment, what and where the climax will be?

Or do you just sit and start writing, pages and pages of stuff in some sort of free form way? Characters popping up as you go, the story revealed to you just as it will be revealed to the reader (mega-bestselling author Lee Child said he does it that way).

Which way should it be? To some extent, I think it depends on the writer. I personally like some of that dressage-like preparation. It also depends on what you’re writing–a first draft? Go ahead and gallop down that trail if that works for you. A final draft? Mmm, maybe you need to get a better grip on the reins. Do you know who all your important characters are? Do you know what their goals and motivations are? Do all those great scenes that spilled out have a place in your story? Do you have a lot of repeated word usage, or overused imagery that you need to change or cut out?

If so, it’s time to tighten those reins a bit. All that freedom to do what you want has to be traded in for the discipline of the rewrite. You’re doing arena work now, keeping focused on what the manuscript needs you to do, improving each paragraph the way a dressage horse improves the beauty of each move it makes.

Some people don’t want the restraint on their freedom. They want to just keep running headlong through their manuscript. They chafe at feedback that suggests change. Well, if you never want to publish a book that someone will want to buy, write it anyway you like. But just like me letting my mare trot sloppily into the show ring, you’ll never get the blue ribbon, or a book sale, that way.

So use the beauty of your creativity along with the discipline of your craft. And go and create something wonderful.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna go ride my horse.

March 11, 2013
RTW – Writing Superpowers & Kryptonite

YA Highway is such a great blog that I decided to make their Road Trip Wednesday prompts a regular part of my own blog. Today they ask, What are your writing & publishing superpowers and what is your kryptonite?

I think I do a pretty decent job with many aspects of the writing process–characterization, plotting, making sure there is a period or question mark at the end of every sentence. But I have to say, I am pretty super-dooper about spotting a scene that’s in trouble and creating a solution.

I think it’s because I spent 14 years as a software engineer. I had to do a lot of problem-solving when sitting down to write or modify a piece of computer code. It’s a very structured activity as you might guess, and the end result isn’t nearly as entertaining to read as a young adult novel. But programming a computer was better training for writing a book than you might think.

As a consequence, when I’m making my way through a scene, or I’m doing a read-through of a draft, my superpower comes to the fore. First, I zero in on a scene that isn’t working. It might be dull, it could be awkwardly written. The dialogue might be clunky or expository, it might just be extraneous text. It might just be in the wrong point-of-view (in a multiple POV book). It might be that a section written in summary should be re-written in scene.

Next, my inner computer takes in that wrongly written section, evaluates it and ka-ching! an idea for a solution pops out (I’m starting to sound like one of the GENs in Tankborn). I usually get pretty excited at this point and the words pour out. I get a big grin on my face when I realize how well the new code…um, prose…is working. I feel super-powerful.

And what’s my kryptonite? Distractions. With the Internet, there are so many things to distract me from working that sometimes my discipline is in the toilet. Believe it or not, it’s worst on a day I have nothing else but writing planned (no appointments, no trip to the barn to ride my horse). Knowing I have the whole day to work, I futz around, figuring, Oh, I don’t have to start yet. I have plenty of time. I sometimes get even less done on days like that when I don’t have a deadline.

So there it is–a mighty superpower and a mighty weakness. Time to put that nasty kryptonite away and get started with my day. I can already feel myself getting stronger. 🙂

November 9, 2011