crazy
Showing posts with label crazy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crazy. Show all posts

Greetings From Deadline Hell

10:15 PM Add Comment













by Maggie Marr

In this cycle we Girlfriends are blogging about the Crazy. While many have blogged about crazy characters and crazy stories, I am blogging about my own personal brand of Crazy: Deadline Hell.

Every writer who has ever put pen to paper has felt the press of this Crazy. It starts to form as we push up against those ever present (and for me necessary) deadlines whether self-imposed or because a manuscript is due to a House. This year, my deadlines are self-imposed so I have no one to blame but me--ah smell the scent of self-punishment as we embark on this journey.

First there is the: I can get this done if I do x number of pages per day. This, usually starts for me, in revisions at about the T-30 day mark. I do the math. I mark the calendar. I inevitably fall behind. As the page count of actually revised pages falls further and further behind and the day-count grows greater and greater, I sink into a firm state of denial. I redo the math and think calmly to myself: Of course I can revise 179 pages in 3 days--really who can't?

(Cue maniacal laughter.) Bwa ha, ha, ha, ha!

At the T-48 hour mark there are certain things every author embraces and certain things every author gives up. A little list of my faves.

1. Sleep. Who needs it? Why would anyone want it? Especially in the depths of despair of chapter 14 which has no reason for existing. My brain works BETTER without the zzzz's.

2. Coffee. (See 1.) In order to inhabit any deadline one must guzzle coffee as if the nectar of the Gods. Fortunately I can thank college and grad-school for this little nugget of knowledge.

3. Showers. Forget about it. My computer doesn't have a nose. We're all good.

4. Children. I had two before the deadline, and fingers crossed they are smart enough not to throw knives and play with fire, because at this point it will take a 3-alarmer or a laceration to get my attention from this damn book.

5. Friends. I'm an introvert, they get it. Plus they know I'm a writer which makes me inherently odd.


6. Communication. None. My characters are getting everything I have.

7. Sunlight. Maybe if I can stand up after 14 hours and it's still daylight, I might haul the computer outside and work. Then again, I'm fair-skinned and easily burned. Hello darkness my old friend...

8. Pajamas. Come to Mama! Truly the biggest perk of any deadline. Their is no expectation that I clothe myself in the traditional sense. I could (haven't yet, but hey, it's early in my career) go to the grocery store, the dry cleaners, and even the mall in my pajamas, wouldn't even flinch. I'M ON DEADLINE!

9. Email/FB/Twitter. Distraction? Did you say distraction? Yes, I want a distraction. Okay, just for 5 minutes...oh my God it's been TWO HOURS! WTF! I am on DEADLINE.

10. Food. Only the essentials. Chocolate, potato chips, and chocolate. Did I mention chocolate?

And finally--PANIC. Okay, not really something we want or should embrace as writers, but hey fear can be a motivating force.

So this is my current cup-o-crazy, the Deadline Hell. Please add your little nuggets of Crazy in the comments and once I turn this manuscript in (PLEASE GOD LET ME TURN THIS MANUSCRIPT IN) I'll let random.org choose a winner and send you a copy of Can't Buy Me Love. That's of course after I check on my children, sleep for a week, shower, put on some clothes, eat a salad, call my mother, and go outside.

xoMaggie


Maggie Marr is an author, attorney, and producer. She used to be a motion picture literary agent in Hollywood. She is the author of Hollywood Girls Club, Secrets of The Hollywood Girls Club, and Hollywood Hit. She also writes the new adult Glamour Series. Hard Glamour and Broken Glamour are out, and Fast Glamour is KILLING HER. Can't Buy Me Love is the first book in her Eligible Billionaires Series and One Night For Love, book 2 will publish this summer if she lives through her revisions of Fast Glamour. Courting Trouble is book 1 in the Montecito Montgomery Series, which Maggie dearly loves, but for some reason doesn't sell as well as the rest of her books. Courting Trouble is only .99 cents. For only .99 cents why not give it a read? Maggie lives and works in Los Angeles. She has family and friends who are gracious enough to welcome her with open arms each time she turns in a book and exits Deadline Hell. 





Call Me Crazy

4:00 PM Add Comment
 
One of the main reasons I write is to get the crazy out. I’m not just talking about wild ideas, rants about the universe, or a need to share experiences. No. I am talking about getting to say and do all the things I would never say or do in real life. 
 Most writers limit the crazy to supporting characters. My crazy comes out in my heroes. You know, the one that is secretly me.

My first novel, 66 Laps, was inspired by my desire to throttle a model/mom who pointed out my first gray hair during a play-date for our toddlers. I wanted to slap the bitch. Guess what the first line of that novel is? “I slapped the bitch.” That reaction led to grave consequences for Audrey. While I smiled and let the comment slide, but poor Audrey’s identity issues made her the kind of character who reacted, so she was also the kind of person who would react to larger things. In fact, when she thought her husband was having an affair, she allowed herself to be seduced by a younger man. Unfortunately, tragedy ensued. Poor Audrey. But me? My only consequences were a literary prize and a contract with Random House.
 
Clearly, crazy was working. In my next novel, Wife Goes On, there are four protagonists, so I spread the crazy around. There’s an overworked mom who gets to rule the world, a ball busting lawyer who wears designer clothes, an actress who humiliates off her cheating ex on national TV, and a sweet young ex-football wife who sells sex toys. They become they kind of friends we all need. And they do crazy things that I’ve only imagined.

In What A Mother Knows, I explore the impulse to kill someone who threatens my daughter. You’ll have to read the book to find out if I did. I mean, if Michelle did. But that’s not all. The character faces all my worst nightmares and comes out okay. She also gets to have a makeover, a fabulous love affair, and a new career. See the pattern?

The greatest challenge to this method is that editors sometimes complain that my main character needs to start out more “likeable ." When they say that, it’s hard not to be insulted – they are talking about me. Then I realize they just need to see more of the real, boring me before they meet the hell raiser reacting to a gray hair, a divorce, or a threatened child.

So far I’ve gotten to swear, have an affair, come very close to committing murder, and have a happy ending.
Call me crazy, but it works. 
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Check out the film trailer for What A Mother Knows, email me about a book club visit, or read my NYT Modern Love column at www.leslielehr.com

Please "Like" the normal, not crazy me on Facebook to keep up with events and writing tips. www.facebook.com.authorleslielehr

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