| The Death Gate Cycle |
[13 Dec 2008|12:11am] |
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"White Winter Hymnal" -- Fleet Foxes |
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Now that I have all seven of these books in my collection again, all in paperback, I've reread them. All seven of them. This series, I think, is still the best series that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ever collaborated on. Dragonlance doesn't hold a candle to Death Gate. I don't really know how to bring anyone's attention to it, convince anyone to read this series, other than comparing it to the better known Dragonlance. There is no comparison. The Death Gate Cycle is a gabillion times better, in my opinion. I think what makes it so much better is the fact that it ends. There are only seven books. The last book gives closure. They don't keep writing and writing and slaving themselves out to their fans just to make them happy by pumping out crap. The original trilogy of Dragonlance was good, but that's where it should have stopped. They never should have written more.
After rereading this series, I realized something. The first time I read them I was still in school. I think I was just starting my high school career, around the age of fourteen or so. As I think I've mentioned before, I picked one of them up when the lady I babysat for let me borrow it, recommending it to me. That was the fifth book, and only halfway through did I realize I had started in the middle of a series. Then I made friends with the library, discovered the first, read them all from start to finish, and was in love. I was in so much love with this series, that I only realize now how much it has influenced my own writing.
A lot of authors get asked that question: "What would you say is your biggest influence?" For the longest time I was adamant that I didn't have one, that this was a question I couldn't honestly answer. I never looked up to anyone. Shirked away from the idea that anyone out there could ever possibly be my hero. While I still wouldn't call Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman my heroes, I can now say that I realize, all along, their seven book series, The Death Gate Cycle, has always been a cunningly powerful influence on my own writing.
I see now how many of their concepts and characters have found their way into my own. It's not a huge act of plagiarism, mind you. They're little things. A personality quirk here, a tiny portion of the intricate magic system there, an aspect of a foreign world woven into my own alien places. This series made such an impact on me that I never even noticed those tiny little things infiltrating their way into my own creative writing endeavors, but there they are. I see the dash of this and pinch of that every now and then, now, and all I can do is smile.
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| Hello, November. |
[01 Nov 2008|08:35am] |
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Yeup. It's that time again. NaNoWriMo is underway, and guess what. This year I have absolutely no motivation nor inspiration whatsoever to take part. That and the site is being a bitch again. Sure, I try to login and set everything up in an attempt to be a part of the crazy writing-my-fingers-to-bloody-death action, but no can do! No can do because once again, in all the ten ridiculously crazy years that Chris Baty has hosted this event, his website is crap. CRAP! It doesn't want to cooperate in the least bit, because there are tens of thousands of members all trying to login at the exact same times which is more than enough for the server to go: LOLOLNOFAIL! Plz try aginz l8r.
I've had several thoughts concerning this year's NaNo challenge. First and foremost being that I have no thoughts at all. Nothing new. Nothing original. Every idea that may possibly be rolling around in my head is just the same old stuff from years past. I never completely finished the first two "books" I worked on. I got to, and a little beyond, that fifty thousand word marker and promptly gave up afterward. Success! But incomplete success and total exhaustion.
The longer October dragged along and the closer it got to November, the harder I groaned, realizing that I didn't know what the hell I was going to write this year, if I was going to bother trying at all. I thought perhaps to spend my time trying to finish the Gradia story, but I just can't seem to get Paen to come out of whatever hole he crawled into and stop hiding. I think he took a vacation. I also considered finishing Red Someone, but the more I think about it, the more I keep telling myself that it's not precisely the way I imagined the story to go in the first place. I almost want to toss it out the window and start all over again.
Paen's still there, sending me post cards from Bermuda, or wherever he went. But it's just not the same feeling as when it felt as if he were sitting right next to me whispering in my ear. Who knows? Maybe throughout the month he'll come back, somewhere in the middle, and decide he's ready to keep telling his story. Other than him, I've got Salvador on the brain. A few wonderful RP sessions, and this spectacular new series from Brent Weeks that I've been reading, have really motivated me to want to write about him again. It's been forever since I last wrote any shorts about him.
So here's where I stand. This month I think what I'm going to do is just compile every scrap of fiction that I write from now until the end of November into one big conglomerate of random sample mush. No title. No real plot. Just whatever strikes my fancy to write about on any given day. My own personal short story collection, as the case may be. Since I didn't wake up today until late in the afternoon, and it's nearing the end of the day anyway, and since the NaNoWriMo site is being a pain in the ass....
I'll start tomorrow.
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| What Happened Here? |
[28 Aug 2008|01:34am] |
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Has it really been three months since I've posted anything over here? Damn. All this moving into a new house and starting a slightly different lifestyle business has certainly scared off my muse. I honestly haven't written anything worth reporting about in that long. This is a distressing revelation, especially after reading ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) likeinasong's most recent entry about the upcoming NaNoWriMo. I can't believe that November is just around the corner!
That is not to say that I am currently without inspiration. In fact, what I'm currently without are the tools that I'm used to. My good old computer Puck took a crap on me a couple of weeks back. If you're up-to-date on the things I ramble about in my mirror journal (ehzoterik), then you'd know about the fried power supply problem. Still not something we've been able to fix due to the need for our earnings to go elsewhere.
My roommate Annie has been reading the Stephenie Meyer Twilight Series this past month, and all her talk about vampires and cracked out supernatural romances has made me start thinking about my second NaNo project. What a coincidence, eh? My imagination has been so stuck on Red Someone lately that I recently went through all the past LJ entires I have here, all the chapters I ever posted, copied them over to a word file on my husband's gaming computer Dewey, and printed them off one by one. I managed to destroy an entire ink cartridge in under an hour, and it was brand new!
The original copy of Red Someone (I refuse to underline it until it's actually finished and in print) is on Puck. Can't quite access him long enough to get it copied to disk so that I can work on it better. I may just have to start from scratch. Fortunately I have at least 17 chapter saved here on my writing journal. Go me for thinking ahead!
This, I think, is the story I want to finish first. And why not? It's already halfway finished. A little editing here and some hard work going into The End, and I might actually be able to say I've finished a book by the end of the year. Getting it published is another matter entirely, though.
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| Time for a Rewrite |
[30 Dec 2007|08:53am] |
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On my birthday, we went shopping! For Christmas we got a lot of gift cards. Most of them were for Borders. I did the math wrong, but we still had a lot of gift card money to spend. $110 shopping spree at the book store! Wooohooo!
First we went to Fazolli's, because for some reason I had a craving for it on my birthday. Mmm unlimited bread sticks for lunch. (I had more than just the bread sticks, don't worry.) Then we went to Burlington Coat Factory, where my husband bought me a new coat. I'm so very happy about that. It's down filled and it actually fits me perfectly! Nice warm winter coat that I can zip and button up that doesn't balloon out an extra body that doesn't exist underneath.
Then we went to Best Buy, where I had one gift card to spend. Picked up a copy of My Word Coach for my DS, which also has me very excited. Finally something that might actually work to help me build a bigger vocabulary! Yay! And then... we went to Borders.
For my birthday, with our Christmas gift cards, and the generosity of my friend James (whom all I had to do was give him the puppy dog eyes and the cutesy five-year-old "it's my birfday" voice to get him to buy me something), I picked up two really awesome books that I hope are going to help me better write about the cultural heritage of Salvador Delahada. These two books are from the Eyewitness Travel Guide collection. I have one for Spain in general, and one for Madrid. This makes me very happy!
Of particular note, I started reading the Introducing Spain section of the first book (Spain). Learned something that makes me realize I have to go back and edit my last short "Now I Have You." Here's the excerpt, which I'm posting mostly for Kelsey because I figure she might find it useful too. Yay for furthering my education.
Christmas and New Year: Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) is the main Christmas celebration, when families gather for an evening meal before attending Midnight Mass, known as misa del gallo (Mass of the rooster). During the Christmas period, belenes (crib scenes) of painted figurines abound. You may also see a "living crib", peopled by costumed actors.
Spain's "April Fools' Day" is 28 December, the Day of the Holy Innocents, when people play practical jokes on each other. Clown-like characters may act out the role of mayor and make fun of passers-by.
To celebrate New Year's Eve (Nocha Vieja), crowds gather beneath the clock in Madrid's central square, the Puerta del Sol. Traditionally people eat 12 grapes, on on each chime of midnight, to bring good luck for the year.
Spanish children do not receive their Christmas presents until Epiphany, on 6 January.
So you see. It's a good thing I haven't cross-posted that story yet. Have some editing to do to perfect it to better reflect the actual culture of Spain, and particularly Madrid. I am so so so so so so excited about these books. Learning for the win!
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| Preparing for N-Day |
[22 Oct 2007|07:47pm] |
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Law & Order CI |
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So I don't think I mentioned this, but Jamie and I went to Borders the other day. He apparently got a big bonus on his paycheck from commissions and decided we could splurge a little. It was also Sweetest Day, I guess (woo for Hallmark holidays). Not the sort of commercialized BS we usually celebrate, but we had the extra money so why not.
At Borders, I decided: "Hm. No Plot? No problem! Oh. Why the hell not?" This seems to be a month of why the hell not all around. Since this is my third year participating in NaNoWriMo, I thought I might as well buy the acclaimed book written by its founder Chris Baty. I started reading it. I'm not disappointed.
I'm only on page 35, but I've already decided this is a book that ALL of my writing friends should invest in. It's really not that expensive either. $14.94 U.S. For a writer's reference book at 175 pages, that's a pretty good deal actually. Especially when the most popular resources (Writer's Market anyone?) average out around $50 a piece.
I don't know how many of you out there are actually going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year yourselves. I haven't talked to many of you in a good long while. It seems the people who joined me two years ago have, for the most part, given up on trying again ever again. Writing isn't for everybody, I guess, but that doesn't matter. The point is, even as Chris Baty says, is just to drive yourself crazy endeavoring to accomplish something creative. With the help of a deadline.
He says pretty much everything I've been telling myself for the past few years. I miss the deadlines I used to have in high school, for instance. The best writing I ever remember doing came out of me because of an assignment being due the next morning. I remember staying up late on the last possible day to get my essay written and hacking out the most convincing piles of drivel I ever remember writing. My teachers always gave me A's, so they must not have been all bad.
In any case, I may have changed my mind. I might not write about the elf this year. Though I'm scouring my brain for any random given character name and concept that's fresh and new right now. As much as I'd like to write about the things that have been rolling around in my head for months an years, it just isn't the sort of thing I should be taking into National Novel Writing Month.
I only hope by November I come up with something.
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| Works and Lack Thereof |
[14 Jul 2007|06:21pm] |
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"Sillyworld" -- Stone Sour |
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More often than not I dread family get-togethers. It never fails. My sister-in-law, and most of the in-law family, knows I have a love for writing. My sister-in-law's the one who's been paying for my subscriptions to The Writer for the past few years. On the one hand, they're very supportive and curious about my writing. But every time we get together for a visit, they always ask me how my writing's coming along. That's probably one of the worst things you can ever ask an artist. I wish they understood that...
In any case, I'm so tired of them asking me. I also got tired of not having a functioning word processor program. So Jamie and I went to Best Buy yesterday on our way home from the family visit. While I love hanging out with them and getting to see my youngest niece, I just can't stand the embarrassment of having to tell them, over and over again, once again, that I don't have anything solid written. And I don't know how to explain what that means. They just don't get it.
So we stopped at Best Buy. Because while I was ready to leave Kent, I wasn't quite ready to go home. Never mind the fact that I was exhausted from swimming. Haven't done that in a while. First I thought of going to Borders, but the more I thought on it the more I realized I wanted to spend money on something much more productive than resource books. I was going to look through their cultural section for some information, possibly a book, on Spain and the Renaissance. That can wait, though.
My goal at Best Buy was to try to get my hands on a copy of Microsoft Word. There's one small problem with this. That, primarily, being the fact that Microsoft brought out all that Vista garbage recently. So it's next to impossible to find a good copy of Microsoft Word Suite or whatever. The only thing I did find was a copy of Microsoft Works 8. Now, I generally overall dislike Works, but it was the cheapest thing available that was compatible with my practically fossilized system. I'm so out-dated that it's stupid.
Finding out that Works isn't quite as bad as I remember it to be. I just don't like how every time I click on "new document" a whole brand new window pops up on my task bar. That's kind of annoying. With Word, I had the benefit of tabs in the program. Not littering up my task bar. Not sure if I can change that, but I'm not going to complain too much. Because NOW I have a working word processor program with spell check and everything. Which means I can devote more time to writing again.
With this in mind, I've been browsing through my memories over here for a good chunk of the day. Decided to C&P all my Salvador documents over to the hard drive. Just in case something stupid happens to LiveJournal, which has happened in the past. Not to my accounts, thankfully, but you never know. The digital world isn't all as secure as it claims itself to be all the time.
Now that I've got this functioning word processor program, though, I'm not too sure what to do with myself. Jamie said yesterday: "I wish you'd finish your Gradia story." I don't know if I can do that. It's a complete overhaul that just drains the crap out of me. There's so much to write and I don't know where to start anymore. It was easy about a decade ago. What happened?
Then there are all these OTHER ideas I've got. Such as the possibility of writing a series of books based solely on Salvador (I love him so much). Or even Sarai's story, which most of you don't even know about. I just wish I could focus on one absolute task.
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| Short Story Contest! |
[11 Jun 2007|06:06pm] |
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"Miss Murder" -- AFI |
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My desire to write is being counter-balanced by a complete and total lack of enthusiasm. It doesn't help that The Writer is running a short story contest. It also doesn't help that the deadline is a postmark at the end of the month. I don't know if any of you will be able to see this, but I'm posting the link anyway: The Writer Short Story Contest. If you can't see the page where the link leads to, or are too lazy to click links and want me to pique your interest, here's some basics.
Prizes: $1,000, first place; $300, second place; $200, third place.
Entry fee $10 per entry, payable to The Writer. Payments must be in U.S. funds drawn from a U.S. bank.
Deadline Postmarked by June 30, 2007.
There's further information on Rules and Submission Guidelines on the page that above link leads you to. If you're interested, you'll need to go there and download the printable PDF that needs filling out to send along with your entry. Note the deadline!
I've been wracking my brain on this contest ever since I read about it in the magazine, and I've been getting nowhere with ideas. Today I was considering reviewing all my 33 Sal shorts and finding one I can shave down to the required no more than 2,000 words. That's my biggest problem. I don't think I have much of anything that works well as a stand alone short story under 2,000 words. It's frustrating to say the least.
It's also frustrating that while thinking about it, one of my friends decided to be snide about my favorite character. I don't expect him to ever read this. He just doesn't care enough to check LJ or the message boards or anything to find out what anybody's up to. So whatever. Though I value his opinion, I'm probably not going to get it.
So I'll turn to the other opinions I value as well. I'm kind of stuck. I'd really like to enter this contest, but I don't know what to submit. I've been considering one of those 33 Sal shorts linked to above, but there are a handful of other shorts in my memories that could prove themselves as potential candidates. I just don't know what to use. If anything. And I've only got 19 days to decide. Any advice, suggestions, ideas, or anything at all is much appreciated.
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| Me and My Meandering Thoughts |
[08 Jun 2007|02:54pm] |
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
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Got my July issue of The Writer today. There's a nice assortment of big fat articles in this issue that are proving to be useful. Of course, there isn't much in this magazine that isn't useful. I still stand by it being the best writer magazine on the market. Probably because of the nostalgia factor.
HOW TO LAUNCH YOUR NOVEL: Step-by-Step Guide to getting it under way and wowing readers with a strong finish.
That's on the cover. As well as a bunch of other catching article ads. Such as "Create a Web site that grabs an editor's attention." Hm, hm, hm. So far I've only read up to page 39, and that article is on 47. Getting there. But on page 24 I read this one article by Anne Perry on creating sympathetic characters.
Reading this magazine always seems to jumpstart my creative juices, and that's good because I've really needed a jumpstart these past couple of months. I realize I should've read the past two issues, but I was lazy, so I didn't. Starting to get some ideas, and maybe, just maybe, a firmer focus on a potential book. Especially considering the fact that this is the first time I've come up with a short blurb! Check this:
Silantia was a perfectly organized utopian world. Everyone had their place. Everyone excelled at something. Everyone had a job to do. Everyone, that is, except for Sarai Duchans. Short and sweet. Catching? Maybe. I don't really know. I've just found myself thinking quite a lot about Sarai's story recently. I've come up with a lot of ideas that I don't want to forget about, but I just can't seem to set myself down into writing fiction mode, despite the advice I read about in The Writer. A long time ago I wrote two shorts for Sarai. Those shorts have collected about a decade's worth of dust by now. One of them I posted almost a year ago! Kind of sad that my thought processes stall out that easily.
This step-by-step guide, however, has given me a shinier outlook on the writing process. If I can just keep myself focussed on Sarai, I might be able to complete a book sooner rather than later. Of course, I've been telling myself this shit for years and still haven't gotten anywhere solid.
Might help if I turn off the television...
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| Organization is nice. |
[29 Jan 2007|03:54am] |
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"Swallowed (Goldie/Toasted Both Sides Please Mix)" -- Bush |
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+1 filing cabinet
+1 box of hanging file folders
-1/2 stack of loose leaf papers littering my bedroom floor
Almost every issue of The Writer in my possession has some sort of article or brief snippet on the corner of a page concerning organization. One life-long goal/project is currently under way. Some time ago, Jamie and I spent the Target gift card we got for Christmas on mail ordering a filing cabinet. It was a real pain to put together, but well worth the investment. It took me about a month to finally get around to buying a box of hanging folders for said filing cabinet, and we did that last night.
This is a slow-going process. In our bedroom I have a stack of thousands of loose leaf papers that date back to middle school. I'm not kidding. That is not an exaggeration. It's a guess, sure, but I'm fairly certain that if I were to sit down and count them all it would be damn near close to a thousand.
I thought I had everything figured out too, but when I sat down and started sorting through all of my collection of pieces of stories and unfinished ideas and notes and segments and what the fuck have you, I realized I needed to add some files. Doubled my categories in an hour.
Characters
Clippings
Conventions
Draemrah
Essays
Fragments
Gradia
Notes
Poetry
Shorts
Thing is: two of those categories are going to have to be reconsidered. If not more than that. I have notes for my two different book ideas. Fragments from those "books" that as of yet to be anything complete. Either I'm going to have reorganize my categories, or rip through all the files once I have them separated and rewrite all the notes and shit I have in them. It's a real mess looking at everything now.
It's a good feeling, though. Being able to get that shit up off the floor and filed away in easy to access location right next to my desk is nice. I just don't feel like my organization is very much at all organized. Yet. Maybe some day.
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| Funkadelic Super Highway |
[15 Dec 2006|10:13am] |
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"Insect Kin" -- Bush |
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"Write!" says my brain. "Write!" say my fingers. But every time I sit down to do that, all I see is this big fat blank page. Sometimes, the page isn't always blank. Sometimes I see these words: "Hahahaha, sucker! NO!" And that's about it.
The Mutual Endeavors message board continues to disappoint. Other times it simply baffles me. 134 listed members. A little over a year old. 313 topics. And a grand total of 2,763 posts. I told myself that when the board banks in five thousand I'm going to do a song and dance. Something.
Lately, role-playing has become one of two things it should never be. It is either work or a competitive sport. Popularity contests abound. It's not just for high school anymore. Then again, was it ever? The message board feels like work to me sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love getting stories rolling over there. Sometimes I just can't be online at the same times as everyone else to participate in life play. The board is a satisfactory alternative, for the most part.
So here I am staring at about a dozen different interractive stories on that board. Half of them are stories I need to add to for it to continue. The other half have been stalled out for months because of failure of others to participate. Sure, we all have lives and other things to do. Sure, writer's block can be a real pain in the ass (I seem to be suffering that now). But more often than not I get the feeling nothing would ever get done over there if I weren't in charge.
So many writing projects, so little time. Unemployed as I am, I certainly have more time to waste on these writing projects than most everyone else does. These funks are killing me.
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| Unofficial Poll Type Thing |
[02 Dec 2006|01:18pm] |
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pensive |
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"Signs" -- Crystal Method |
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So National Novel Writing Month is over and done with. But I keep hearing about this little group project. Something about people turning December into Finish Your Novel Month. Gets me thinking. Do I really want to work on finishing Red Someone throughout the month of December? Not even sure I can say I'll finish it if I try, but I am considering trying to complete at least another fifty thousand words.
Admittedly, I have still been thinking about this story quite a bit. Really wish I could post a poll on this account, but no matter. Point is, I've fallen into something of an impasse. I had this idea come to me while I was in the shower the other day and I'm a little uncertain whether or not to go with it. Since I can't post a poll, I'm just going to have to ask some questions instead.
For those of you have read Red Someone from beginning to end thusfar, I'd like some opinions.
1. What do you think of Victoria Bennett? Be honest, please. Randy told me before that he found her to be a likeable character. This pleases me. But I know for a fact that I'm in love with Salvador myself, and I feel I might have overshadowed her with his presence in this story. With that in mind...
2. How does changing viewpoints from Victoria to Salvador sound? My thought was to implement parts into this story. Part one would deal with Victoria's point of view, as it does. Everything I've written so far is part one. I like where it ends with the cliffhanger, and I was sort of inspired to set her aside for the time being and move into someone elses' mind.
The only reluctance I have toward changing POV to Salvador instead of Victoria is that I'm not sure how much of him I want to reveal to the world at large. Some people don't know the character at all. If I were to publish this book, would writing from his point of view ruin the mystery and allure of the strange Spaniard? I don't know. Hence, I'd like some opinions. What do you guys think?
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| Countdown to Chaos: Take Two |
[31 Oct 2006|04:00am] |
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"Other Light" -- Finger Eleven |
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<td> </td>
<td>Twenty hours until it's time to get this show on the road. Happy Halloween (or Samhain if you prefer) to one and all. I'm afraid I'll be spending so very little time celebrating the holiday, and a shitton of time thinking on what the hell I'm going to write this year. After yesterday's rambling, I think I've finally settled on option number three. Yeah, I know I told someone I was thinking about writing the Dris story, but I just can't seem to focus on it. Besides, in the spirit of Nano, I'd fail because I like the character too much.
Yesterday I was also talking to (and playing with) Randy. I told him I couldn't think of a title for this idea I had. So I did some browsing, and once again Google has not let me down. I found this Random Title Generator. Randy and I both noticed that most of the random titles that pop up resemble cheap porn. But hey. I found one that kept standing out, and I went with it. Not too terribly pornish. This year's project we're calling Red Someone. So everything I write for it, when I post it here, will be stuffed into a new memories category of that name.
</td>
Now, I'm sort of stressing. Because all I have for this main character is a name. Victoria Bennett. Oddly enough, I realized I'm sort of stealing the last name of another character someone role-plays (Cayt). But they're in no way related, I assure you. I just like the way that name rolls off the tongue. Fluid sound. Victoria Bennett.
I also thought, what the hell. I'll give this character profile thing a try: CHARPROF.pdf Gonna tuck it behind the cut here, though. Kind of long and I'm not even sure I'll be able to complete most of it right here and now. But this is sort of a teaser, considering all the actual story parts will be friends locked only. Sorry, folks. I'm paranoid like that.
( Character Profile )
ps: If you came here from NaNo and have a livejournal, this would be a good place to leave a note if you really want to read this crap. And, if you read this and have a NaNo account, yet I don't know your username over there, this would also be a good place to leave a note so I can add you to my list.
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[30 Oct 2006|04:40am] |
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"40 Miles From the Sun" -- Bush |
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So I've got one day, twenty-two hours, and twenty minutes to decide on what the hell I want to write for NaNoWriMo. My inspiration keeps sliding back and forth between a few different ideas. At first, I was thinking of writing The Gancheod Grimoirum, which is an idea I had years ago and only ever wrote two crapass chapters for. A month ago Sarai was tickling at my muses and asking me timidly to write about her. Don't know, though. Not really feeling her now.
Another idea I had was to finally sit down and write Dris's story. This mostly has to do with a shitton of inspirational role-play. I've been wanting to write his story for so long, but I've got all these dilemmas. For one, I don't know what the hell POV to write his story in. I've written a handful of shorts, some in first person and some in third person. I've sort of become accustomed to writing in third person, but the idea I had calls for writing in first person and -- Jesus Christ I won't have my mind made up by the first, I know it.
Then there's this other idea that's been rolling around in my head for months. I sort of miss the mystery behind Salvador. When I started playing him, I played him a lot like I play Faye. She's such a mysterious character. I try so hard when I play her NOT to put anything in her actions to denote what she may or may not be thinking. It's pretty damned difficult, let me tell you.
I was thinking on this idea this morning. Rolling a name around in my head. Playing around with a random name generator or two. Found a name I like to write as the lead character: Victoria Bennett. The other day I even imagined up an opening line. Damned if I can remember precisely how it goes now. Knew I should've got up, turned on the light, and wrote it down. 90% of my insomnia problems is mostly to do with the fact that I've got story ideas rolling around in my brain. Can't turn myself off. I've been considering Lunesta. But anyway!
Every fiber of my writing mind is telling me I should pick another new character and write for her. If I want to pump out 50,000 words this November, I'll have an easier time doing it on the fly with someone entirely new than I will for an established character who's been sitting on the back burner for years. We'll see.
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[11 Oct 2006|05:51pm] |
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mood |
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 drained |
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music |
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"Bitter Sweet Symphony" -- The Verve |
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Where has all my writing gone? Did I stuff it away in a drawer until the first of November or what? I've got this little voice in the back of my head going, "Write, bitch, write!" And all I can do is stare blankly at the screen or a scrap of paper and go, "Um..."
The desire to write is there. I can feel it. Clawing at my brain. But the words just aren't there. They flit into the forefront and then dash away right as I reach out to grab them. There then gone then there again. I feel like Salvador when he's disconnected from the world. Matter of fact, it's Salvador I want to write about, but I can't. I just can't concentrate on the words.
I keep staring at the message board, waiting for inspiration to kick me in the head. I keep getting this feeling like there's something I should be writing, somewhere. But then I look over all the posts and I realize I've posted all I can. It's pretty much up to everyone else now. One person's on vacation and won't be back until next week some time. Other people are having their own problems in life to deal with. I just don't have anything to write. I do, but I can't.
Then there's role-playing. I've fallen back into a semi-sorta-regular sleeping schedule again. Which means I'm not around when most everyone else is around. The people I want to role-play with. I'm not online during peak active hours, and that just sucks. But I don't want to switch back to those active peak hours. I'm rather enjoying the semi-sorta-regular sleeping schedule. It always makes me feel good to sleep normal hours, in the evening, despite the fact that I hate the daylight. I hate the sun. So what do I do when nobody else is around? I throw myself into Achaea and get lost in MUD fun.
Doesn't do me any good when it comes to writing. I want to write, but my brain's too tired for it. Damn you, writer's block. Go away.
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| Countdown to Chaos |
[02 Oct 2006|08:38am] |
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mood |
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contemplative |
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music |
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"Breathe No More" -- Evanescence |
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Welcome Back!
Welcome back to NaNoWriMo! It's going to be another year of writerly breakthroughs and creative mayhem, and we're so glad you'll be a part of it. As you look around the site, you'll notice a host of improvements over last year, as well as some devilishly handsome new icons, drop-down menus, and those FAQs that still manage to go on for about three years.
Three fun-filled years, mind you.
But still. We need to work on those FAQs.
Anyway, the biggest change for NaNoWriMo is something you may not notice right away. This spring, the NaNo staff and I sat down and created the Office of Letters and Light, a charity with a mission of running NaNoWriMo and launching other NaNo-inspired events. We got the official 501(c)3 nod from the IRS last month, so you can now donate directly to NaNoWriMo and get a sweet tax-deduction to boot!
And your donations are needed now more than ever. This year, 75,000 adult participants are expected to take part in November's challenge, and we're anticipating 8,000 kids will write books with our Young Writers Program. We're once again donating 50% of the year's net proceeds from contributions and merchandise sales to build libraries for children in Southeast Asia. With your help, by this time next year, kids throughout Vietnam will have shelves and shelves of mouth-watering new books at their schools to read and enjoy.
If you've donated in the past, we thank you mightily, and hope you'll do so again. If you've been part of the NaNoWriMo community for awhile now and not yet donated, we ask you to make this the year you visit our Donation Station and become a NaNoWriMo supporter. Even $10 does a world of good, and we can't pull off this exciting adventure without you.
Here's to an inspiring month of literary abandon!
Warm regards,
Chris Baty
NaNoWriMo
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| Index cards and graph paper. |
[06 Sep 2006|07:34pm] |
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mood |
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 busy |
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music |
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"Circle of Fear" -- H.I.M. |
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September already? It must seem like I haven't written anything at all in the past month. That's sort of true. I haven't exactly written any chapters or segments of anything of the sort for any of my stories, but I have been working on them. I have plans.
The last time Jamie and I went grocery shopping, I bought two new things. One of them is completely irrelevant to writing, but completely relevant to my health. I bought some Ensure. Figured I'd try it out to see if it helps any. I like it, but I'm not sure if it's helping me put on weight or anything. Probably need more time with it. The other thing I bought was a pack of index cards, because I haven't been able to find my index cards anywhere. Using those, I've been working on assembling my thoughts for the Gradia story.
I have index cards and an index card box. In that box I have some 60 or more cards with stuff written on them. I started with a section of cards for all the individual characters in the story that are mentioned. Bit parts and primary characters. Every last one of them. There are a total of 49 right now. I'm sure I may be missing some, but that's all I can think of. All I can come up with even after reviewing my notes.
I have a huge stack of papers. A collection of loose leaf materials. Story parts and ideas. A family tree I mapped out a few years ago that still needs finished. And now I've started on a new project. With some graph paper I have on hand, I've been mapping out the entire structure of Castle Demosan. I want to have a visual to hang on the wall while I work on my masterpiece. It's taking some doing. It's a lot of work. I'm not the greatest artist in the world, and I'm only hoping I can get everything perfected and drawn to scale. When I'm finished, I predict it'll take up an entire wall somewhere. It's getting larger and larger with the plan I have in mind.
There are other things floating around in my head too. I'm not sure I'll ever get to working on the Gradia story any time soon. It'll definitely wait until after Nanowrimo this year. I just don't think I can dive into that story as easily as I dove into Nightmare Messiah. I wish I could. I don't know why I can't. It's holding me back...
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| Fuck you, computer. |
[24 Jul 2006|05:15am] |
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mood |
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 pissed off |
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music |
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"Northern Lights" -- Praga Khan |
] |
Just my fucking luck. I'm so fucking pissed off right now. It figures. As soon as I type in a subject for the e-mail I'm typing on, type in to send it to myself, and click SEND LATER, my computer decides to have a fucking seizure and shut down ALL my internet programs INCLUDING AOL, and I FUCKING LOSE EVERYTHING I WAS WORKING ON. Everything EXCEPT the sample I sent to a couple of people thirty minutes earlier. There was ... so much. I think I'm going to fucking cry. No. I am crying. This is just ... FUCK.
I can't replace what I lost. I was on a fucking roll. Everything was flowing along beautifully. It was perfect. It was dramatic. It was superb. It was everything I wanted to be. And then Puck decides that the website I wanted to look at wasn't pleasing, Mozilla goes apeshit, and everything shuts down. For a split second long enough for me to FUCKING LOSE EVERYTHING. There's no way to retrieve it. Not that I know of anyway. Why the fuck didn't it get cached into my "mail waiting to be sent" folder? Where did it go? All that beautiful prose. Gone. Dead. Done for.
And I told M I'd have this story hacked out and posted as of last night. That was before I realized I'd spend all of Sunday recovering from a drunken crazy binge. I didn't get the motivation to get on the computer until midnight, and then didn't even get online until about 1:00 AM. I played for maybe two hours. Then I let the urge to write consume me. And now? Not it's gone. This is so fucking depressing. I don't think I can rewrite what I had. It won't be the same. It won't be as perfect. So I'm setting it aside until later. Maybe I can reclaim my destroyed inspiration tomorrow. This just ... fucking ... fuck it all.
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| Um... Okay? |
[18 Jul 2006|05:02pm] |
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mood |
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moody |
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music |
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"The Only" -- Static-X |
] |
The Dress has been deleted after abuse moderation. Reason: This submission is a violation of Rule #1a of the site's Terms of Service. Please read the Terms of Service prior to making further submissions. You may resubmit this work if it is expanded on and is written to focus on the male protagonist instead of the women around him.
http://yaoi.y-gallery.net/ Terms of Service 1a: Works containing women in a featured or central position are not allowed in the main gallery.
I fail to see the problem, but whatever.
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| On criticism and thoughts. |
[21 Jun 2006|02:43am] |
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mood |
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thoughtful |
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music |
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"Unrest" -- Nobou Uematsu |
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It's been forever and a day since I've written anything and posted it here for your reading pleasure. It may be longer still before I write anything else to post up here. But I was inspired by a conversation I'm having with Louisa right now about criticism. Mostly we were talking about Angie's art which can be found over on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) pegasusartists along with other works from other people. I noticed she took a crack at drawing a still from a potential comic, or the comic that one of her role-playing characters is the mastermind behind. Anyway, I told Angie it wasn't bad, but I'm not the greatest critic of art for one reason and one reason only. I can't draw for shit, and that's a fact. I mentioned to Louisa that anything better than a stick figure is good art to me. Yet people like her and Ellen who also draw and draw well can be pretty harsh in their criticisms of Angie's art. That may be me letting the cat out of the bag, but anyway...
I just told Louisa that there's only one thing I really want from people when I ask for criticism on my writing. When I say "tell me what you think," that's exactly what I mean. I don't want the robotic technical rundown of mistakes. Every writer makes spelling and grammatical mistakes. Please, for the love of god, if you see mistakes just tell me that you see them. Tell me, "I saw a few spelling and grammatical errors." Simple as that. Don't tell me where they are or how to fix them. Let me read through and find them. That's something I need to do anyway. Most of what I post here is only a rough draft to begin with. It's highly unlikely that anything you see posted here is going to be the finished product that I send off to a publisher some day. I may be a perfectionist, but I'm not a fool. I know my writing needs reread and edited before I ever dare to send it anywhere.
What I want are your thoughts. Your honest to goodness thoughts on a story. What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? What could I do to make it a little better? Is the opening okay? Should I cut anything out? Does it capture your interest? Do you want to read more? Does it put you to sleep? Tell me exactly what you think. Don't read it to proofread it. Read it to enjoy or not and tell me your thoughts on the matter. That's all I ask.
Now... maybe some time soon I'll have something to share that you can enjoy or not. Just so long as you let me know. I always like to hear/read peoples' thoughts on my writing, no matter how flattering or insulting it may be. Simply tell me.
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| Vacation Inspiration |
[04 Apr 2006|07:26am] |
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mood |
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contemplative |
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music |
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"Give Me Novacaine" -- Green Day |
] |
Jamie and I went to Pittsburgh this past weekend and shacked up with dragonoflife for Tekkoshocon 2006. Dragon drove out to pick me up last year. I went. I saw. I enjoyed myself immensely. After talking to Jamie about it for an entire year, he decided to make sure he could go this year. So he took a vacation and we went together. It kicked tremendous ass.
It's a two and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh to Canton, there and back and there again. During the ride home, Jamie got me talking about my Gradia story. I must have talked about it for nearly the entire trip, because I don't remember talking about much of anything else. Other than how amusing it was to hang out with my Foxlove (xavier_fox) and my Jonneh neko (junichi_hayashi). Fun and amusing all at once. Especially when Jamie said, "He talked to me as if he were dating my daughter." Or something of the sort. Hahaha! Ah, I love my husband.
Anyway... For two hours I was talking to him about the entire premise of the Gradia story, which could possibly be more than one book. Depending. I walked him through the entire history. I told him about the characters. I said so much that I wish I'd had a tape recorder on me at all times so I could remember this shit. I never can seem to summarize it well in writing.
After telling him everything I could possibly think of and fit into a two hour drive, he said, "Huh. It sounds like a really interesting story. It'd probably make a kick ass comic book." To which I said, "I knooow. I wish I could draw!" And he said, "Or at least knew somebody who could draw." That would be nice. But as I just told readnofurther this morning before she skittered off to bed, the sad thing is that I can see the still frames in my mind. I just can't draw them. I can see the pictures, but I can't create them visually. I wish I could. Almost makes me want to start practicing and perfecting an artform to turn it into a comic. That would rock so hard. But I've never been very good at taking the pictures out of my head and sketching them as I see them. Never. Alas.
It's all rather distressing, really. Here I am thinking about Gradia again when before Tekko I was stuck on Draemrah It's a back and forth endeavor, writing. I never can seem to focus on any one thing for any prolonged period of time. -sigh-
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