Well, since my last post, I was in some heavy resentment when I realized I needed to tear up my Work In Progress (WIP) and restructure it. I tried the other day to bang around some ideas, but all my attempts failed and I was ready to quit. That's the first time since I started this back in 2008 that I really thought I didn't need to write. "Stupid of me to think I ever could. I'll never be able to make this work." This was the audio tape I was hearing in my brain being played back to me every time another of my attempts at salvaging what I already had and just moving things around a little failed.
I've learned over the past two weeks, that the best thing for me is a 'cooling off'' period. When I get that frustrated over a writing project, my best bet is to stop thinking about it. Just take it out of my mind and do something totally different. So far, my results have been better than I could've ever expected. All because I'd gotten frustrated over what I was writing in my main WIP, I've made progress in something else. It used to be the only story I was working on. Then I needed a break from it and bounced around some other things. Now I have a few chapters in each of these other projects as well. They give my brain a rest and allow it to still be successful and creative. Just in these two weeks when I've been frustrated and needed a break, I've pumped out two short stories that I'm pretty proud of.
So today, I didn't write at all, until just now. Didn't write one thing other than talking to my Twitter friends and commenting on my friends' posts on Facebook. At first, it wasn't really on purpose, but then as the end of the day drew near and I hadn't written anything, I realized I needed to do that to allow my brain time to 'perk'. After I started supper on the grill, I began to write down a new and hopefully improved outline/synopsis of what was coming out of my mind at this point with the main WIP. I think this will work better, although, I haven't actually started writing it yet. I've got a better feeling about it than I did yesterday, so I hope my intuitions are correct. My good friends, Brenda and @DarkeConteur both said they thought the main part of the story needed to stay in the present and do memory/flashbacks rather than start in the present for the first 8 pgs., switch to the past-stay there the majority of the time and then end in the present again. I've seen it done that way in movies, so I thought it would work, but books are different from movies. My biggest clue was when I was trying to write my query letter. No matter how many times I wrote it, I couldn't make it say what was happening in the book and it still make sense in 250 words. I think this will help the pacing and keep the reader turning pages. I hope so anyway.
So, tomorrow, I'm setting my alarm, getting up before my husband who gets up at 5:30 and take advantage of the quiet house and see how much I can get done tomorrow. Writing makes me happy. :) I think I'm going to keep doing it after all. As for now, I'm typing and sipping on a margarita I made for myself. Cheers! :)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Out of frustration comes a new story
Yesterday, I was ready to throw my poor defenseless laptop out the door. Frustration over my main manuscript was at a peak. It's something I don't usually have to deal with when I write. So I gave up...sort of. Walking away from it ended up to be a good idea.
My 'Twitter friend' @A.M.Supinger is having a writing contest on her blog and asked me to enter it. She said it would be 'fun'. I wasn't sure about it when she asked me. It was a short story contest, but the week before, I'd entered a short story contest of another 'Twitter friend @MichelleSimkins. I'd never written a short story and one of the criteria was to use these pictures as a writing prompt. I started thinking about the pictures and a 2,000 word short story began creeping out of me. After several hours of writing and rewriting, I had, what I thought was a pretty cool story. I'm a newbie writer to begin with, but writing a short story had never appealed to me. Never thought I could do it. Turns out it was because I'd never tried.
So, a week later, I tried again. Another 2,000 word short story with the writing prompt being, "Haunted Love". The short story required those two elements in it and was due by June 28th. Since I'd written one short story using pictures of the Stone house, as the story was called, I decided to use pictures from a friend's vacation I'd seen on Facebook. It was an Inn they stayed at on Bailey Island in Maine. I've never been to Maine, so I looked at her pictures and then looked at the Inn's website as well. After looking at the pictures, another story started popping in my head and I started writing.
Once again, my brain shocks me at how it works. Characters and things that happen to them just appear in there and I just write down what I see. So, around 12:45 this morning, I'd finished my story, edited it and was ready to send it. Once I put it in the body of the email, I decided to wait and look over it one more time when I was a little more coherent. So this morning, I edited a little more and sent her a tweet announcing that I'd emailed it to her.
Two short stories in two weeks...working on them for not that long. I didn't think that was too bad. I may actually be some sort of a writer after all.
My 'Twitter friend' @A.M.Supinger is having a writing contest on her blog and asked me to enter it. She said it would be 'fun'. I wasn't sure about it when she asked me. It was a short story contest, but the week before, I'd entered a short story contest of another 'Twitter friend @MichelleSimkins. I'd never written a short story and one of the criteria was to use these pictures as a writing prompt. I started thinking about the pictures and a 2,000 word short story began creeping out of me. After several hours of writing and rewriting, I had, what I thought was a pretty cool story. I'm a newbie writer to begin with, but writing a short story had never appealed to me. Never thought I could do it. Turns out it was because I'd never tried.
So, a week later, I tried again. Another 2,000 word short story with the writing prompt being, "Haunted Love". The short story required those two elements in it and was due by June 28th. Since I'd written one short story using pictures of the Stone house, as the story was called, I decided to use pictures from a friend's vacation I'd seen on Facebook. It was an Inn they stayed at on Bailey Island in Maine. I've never been to Maine, so I looked at her pictures and then looked at the Inn's website as well. After looking at the pictures, another story started popping in my head and I started writing.
Once again, my brain shocks me at how it works. Characters and things that happen to them just appear in there and I just write down what I see. So, around 12:45 this morning, I'd finished my story, edited it and was ready to send it. Once I put it in the body of the email, I decided to wait and look over it one more time when I was a little more coherent. So this morning, I edited a little more and sent her a tweet announcing that I'd emailed it to her.
Two short stories in two weeks...working on them for not that long. I didn't think that was too bad. I may actually be some sort of a writer after all.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Frustration!
AAAAHHHHHHH! Ok, I feel a little better. For the past 24 hours I've been grappling with the idea that I may need to tear apart my manuscript and start over. Not completely over, but restructure it. I've worked on it all morning, having to take 'mom' breaks here and there. For the most part, it's been frustrating and I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not really getting anywhere. It doesn't feel right to move things around from where I've got them, but I've had several people that I've asked about it say I might need to. *sigh*
So far the changes I've made, I don't like. I feel like the changes are slowing down the momentum of the story, which is not what I want. The story I have written moves pretty well, so I thought before I started fooling with it.
Right now, I'm SO frustrated with it, I'd rather do housework than write. That falls under the catagory of "You know it's bad when: " So I decided to write down my frustrations on here and maybe later on, I can look back at this and say..."Oh yeah..I remember that. I was ready to pull my hair out that day." Hopefully, this is only a minor set back. I may just put it up and start working on my Vet MS and maybe I'll get an idea of how I need to fix the other one. That's the way my brain works. Even though I may not be working on the problem right then, my brain is still trying to come up with a solution, even if I'm not thinking about it at the moment and then BAM! Something comes at me out of nowhere and it's usually a pretty good idea. That's what I'm hoping anyway..
Right now, my instinct is to leave it like it was. I like the way the story flows now, but it's still bothering me that most of it is a memory. So, I wonder where I should go from here. Only time will tell, I guess.
I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I hope some sort of resolution happens soon.
So far the changes I've made, I don't like. I feel like the changes are slowing down the momentum of the story, which is not what I want. The story I have written moves pretty well, so I thought before I started fooling with it.
Right now, I'm SO frustrated with it, I'd rather do housework than write. That falls under the catagory of "You know it's bad when: " So I decided to write down my frustrations on here and maybe later on, I can look back at this and say..."Oh yeah..I remember that. I was ready to pull my hair out that day." Hopefully, this is only a minor set back. I may just put it up and start working on my Vet MS and maybe I'll get an idea of how I need to fix the other one. That's the way my brain works. Even though I may not be working on the problem right then, my brain is still trying to come up with a solution, even if I'm not thinking about it at the moment and then BAM! Something comes at me out of nowhere and it's usually a pretty good idea. That's what I'm hoping anyway..
Right now, my instinct is to leave it like it was. I like the way the story flows now, but it's still bothering me that most of it is a memory. So, I wonder where I should go from here. Only time will tell, I guess.
I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I hope some sort of resolution happens soon.
Friday, June 17, 2011
When creativity explodes right in front of you
I've been a busy beaver since school's been out working on two different manuscripts. One I've worked on for so long, I have to leave it alone for awhile. It's kinda like being with relatives too long. You love them so much, but if you're around each other for too long, you start getting on each other's nerves. That's what happens to me with Ellie, Jack and Jaston. I've read, re-read and re-written their dialogue so many times, I get to a point where it all just sounds stupid. Then I hear Diana Gabaldon's voice in my head saying she never gets writer's block because if she gets stuck on something, she starts writing on something else. I decided that's what I needed to do.
She said if she got an idea for a scene, she'd go ahead and write it out and worry about how it would fit in with everything else later. I've been doing that with my new MS. It doesn't have a name right now. I'm sure one will come to me at some point. Right now, I just save my documents as 'Vet/warlock'. The story is still new so there are a lot of questions I still have, but the characters are showing themselves to me a little at a time.
My deal is I have to be patient, so the characters can tell me the story instead of my forcing a story on them. That seems to work much better for me. It also makes the writing process fun for me. I'm not sure what I would do if I had a real deadline to write with. It would probably stress me out.
I haven't abandoned the other MS. It's still near and dear to my heart. My critique partner, Tina, who is a joy to work with and a great writer in her own right, went through my "Never Alone" MS. Now, I'm going back over it and fixing what she thought it needed. I think after that, I'll start the query process. I might ask one or two more people to look at it to see if it has any other errors she or I didn't catch now that I've changed some things.
On a whim, I wrote a short story for @Green_Woman 's blog contest this week too. That was interesting. I'd never written one before. I had to use some pictures as a writing prompt. It turned out to be really fun, but 2,000 words nearly killed me. Having that restriction kept me on my toes for sure. I have another friend on Twitter @AMSupinger that has a writing contest on her blog too. She wanted me to write another 2,000 word short story on 'Haunted Love'. This should be easy since my first MS has a ghost as a main character, but so far, I'm not getting any kind of creative burst for that one. Maybe next week...:)
She said if she got an idea for a scene, she'd go ahead and write it out and worry about how it would fit in with everything else later. I've been doing that with my new MS. It doesn't have a name right now. I'm sure one will come to me at some point. Right now, I just save my documents as 'Vet/warlock'. The story is still new so there are a lot of questions I still have, but the characters are showing themselves to me a little at a time.
My deal is I have to be patient, so the characters can tell me the story instead of my forcing a story on them. That seems to work much better for me. It also makes the writing process fun for me. I'm not sure what I would do if I had a real deadline to write with. It would probably stress me out.
I haven't abandoned the other MS. It's still near and dear to my heart. My critique partner, Tina, who is a joy to work with and a great writer in her own right, went through my "Never Alone" MS. Now, I'm going back over it and fixing what she thought it needed. I think after that, I'll start the query process. I might ask one or two more people to look at it to see if it has any other errors she or I didn't catch now that I've changed some things.
On a whim, I wrote a short story for @Green_Woman 's blog contest this week too. That was interesting. I'd never written one before. I had to use some pictures as a writing prompt. It turned out to be really fun, but 2,000 words nearly killed me. Having that restriction kept me on my toes for sure. I have another friend on Twitter @AMSupinger that has a writing contest on her blog too. She wanted me to write another 2,000 word short story on 'Haunted Love'. This should be easy since my first MS has a ghost as a main character, but so far, I'm not getting any kind of creative burst for that one. Maybe next week...:)
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Apocolypse Now??? Nope
Well, by now everybody is breathing a secret sigh of relief that the guy making all the noise about the Rapture happening today, May 21, 2011 was wrong. It was fun having an unusual bond with everyone all over the world. Twitter was all 'a-buzz' with jokes and sarcastic comments about it. I confess, I jumped in with the majority and played along with all the funny comments. I realized all everybody in the world wants is to exist and live in peace. We want to be left alone to make our own decisions, good or bad and live the best life we can while we're here.
Thinking we might not have any time left as a world was both ridiculous and worrysome at the same time. It made me stop and think, however fleeting, what it must be like to be a cancer patient who's only been given a number of days to live. What would you do with the time you have left? Likely, you wouldn't get to do everything you wanted.
I know I probably wouldn't. I'd like to think I'd tell all the people I love how much they mean to me. The sentence I just wrote gave me an idea. What if we went through our Facebook friends list and had a 'friend of the day'. Telling on our status how much that friend means to us or how we met. I have hundreds of friends on facebook from high school, college and life. Many are former students that have sought me out after they've grown out of our school and moved on to the rest of their life. It's really great to see how they change and grow and to know I played a small part of that growth while they were in elementary school.
So, I think I have it now. Since we seem to have a few more days left than we thought we had before, I'm going to start with the first person on my friend's list and try to tell one every day how glad I am to have them in my life. Hopefully, I've been a positive force in their lives. If I haven't been, I hope to change that and become one.
How does that sound? I think it sounds like a huge undertaking, but if I don't get done with my list before the Rapture actually does happen, that'll be ok. Hopefully, I'll get to tell the rest of them when we get where we're going. :) (I love Brad Paisley by the way)
Thinking we might not have any time left as a world was both ridiculous and worrysome at the same time. It made me stop and think, however fleeting, what it must be like to be a cancer patient who's only been given a number of days to live. What would you do with the time you have left? Likely, you wouldn't get to do everything you wanted.
I know I probably wouldn't. I'd like to think I'd tell all the people I love how much they mean to me. The sentence I just wrote gave me an idea. What if we went through our Facebook friends list and had a 'friend of the day'. Telling on our status how much that friend means to us or how we met. I have hundreds of friends on facebook from high school, college and life. Many are former students that have sought me out after they've grown out of our school and moved on to the rest of their life. It's really great to see how they change and grow and to know I played a small part of that growth while they were in elementary school.
So, I think I have it now. Since we seem to have a few more days left than we thought we had before, I'm going to start with the first person on my friend's list and try to tell one every day how glad I am to have them in my life. Hopefully, I've been a positive force in their lives. If I haven't been, I hope to change that and become one.
How does that sound? I think it sounds like a huge undertaking, but if I don't get done with my list before the Rapture actually does happen, that'll be ok. Hopefully, I'll get to tell the rest of them when we get where we're going. :) (I love Brad Paisley by the way)
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Writer Friends
I've learned from being on Agent Query and Twitter and now Facebook, that writer's aren't just people that sit in their houses and are recluses to the rest of the world. Where that stereo type came from, I have no idea, but I know in this age of global communication, it's just not true. All the 'writer types' I've ever asked a question or talked with on Twitter and Agent Query are always the nicest people. I'm not sure if I've just been lucky so far, since I am a 'newbie' to this community or I'm just smart enough to pick out the good ones...;) Just kidding on that one.
It's funny when I refer to my writer friends, they're 'writers' in my brain, while myself, I still don't see as a writer, at all. I accept a lot of labels and titles, Mom, wife, daughter, music teacher, friend, co-worker, college buddy....but writer.....still trying to wrap my head around that one.
Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging around with all my writer friends on Twitter as an 'outsider', hoping the 'cool kids' will allow me in their club. But in reality, it's not like that at all. They have all been so welcoming. Answering questions and just talking has been both a learning experience and a pleasure to get to know new and interesting people. Alot of the people I 'hang' out with on Twitter and AQ have started a blog called, "From the Write Angle". They've always got great and informative posts about writing and the business of. If you didn't know about it, you should definitely check it out. If I was really smart, I'd be able to link my blog to theirs, but so far, I haven't figured that one out yet...give me some time....I'll work on it. :)
It's funny when I refer to my writer friends, they're 'writers' in my brain, while myself, I still don't see as a writer, at all. I accept a lot of labels and titles, Mom, wife, daughter, music teacher, friend, co-worker, college buddy....but writer.....still trying to wrap my head around that one.
Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging around with all my writer friends on Twitter as an 'outsider', hoping the 'cool kids' will allow me in their club. But in reality, it's not like that at all. They have all been so welcoming. Answering questions and just talking has been both a learning experience and a pleasure to get to know new and interesting people. Alot of the people I 'hang' out with on Twitter and AQ have started a blog called, "From the Write Angle". They've always got great and informative posts about writing and the business of. If you didn't know about it, you should definitely check it out. If I was really smart, I'd be able to link my blog to theirs, but so far, I haven't figured that one out yet...give me some time....I'll work on it. :)
Monday, April 4, 2011
Writer's block
Ok..I've only been writing for a little while. Not like some who have written all their lives, I'm VERY new to all of this. So far, I really hadn't experienced a case of writer's block and I'm not sure I am now. I think it's more Writer's Doubt. Is that a clinical condition? Is there a pill I can take to make it go away? I wish...
I read blog posts by more experienced writers who are WAY smarter than me. I'm being serious by the way....right now, this is a 'no snark zone'. I've gone through checklists about what my MS needs, what it doesn't need, what my query needs, what it doesn't need, check the word count, are you characters interesting? I've looked over and over and over my MS....editing, rewriting, editing again, rewriting again over and over. I've heard other writers say, "This is my third rewrite" or "This is my fifth rewrite"...I've rewritten and edited so many times, I couldn't begin to tell you a number. I think my characters are interesting, but I really like my characters....that doesn't mean anyone else will. Will your plot keep the reader turning pages? I have no idea. I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure about that either. I'm just feeling a little....hmm....beat up...but that really isn't an accurate representation.....
Stupid maybe? In over my head? Overwhelmed? What in the world made me think I could do this? All those thoughts have been pummeling me for the past week... I don't know why. Remember when I said 'beat up' was an accurate representation? Maybe I was wrong about that...
I'm older....I'll be 45 on my birthday in a few weeks. I've got a Music Education degree and I've been an elementary music teacher for 20 years. I'm good at it. Really good. So I know I'm not a complete idiot.
I just feel like one. I'm REALLY behind on my reading since I didn't read unless I had to my WHOLE life. Only in the past two years have I really started reading for enjoyment. So when I hear, "Have you read ..... ? and I haven't, I feel a major stab inadequacy. Your mind is a powerful thing. It can talk you in and out of situations at the drop of a hat. I guess I need to stop listening to my brain and write in spite of myself and all those Writer Doubts....pesky little critters...maybe there's a spray I can buy...
Hope I don't seem whiny....I can't stand whining...It drives me crazy. I don't allow my kids at school to whine, so I don't. This is more of a 'banging your head or kicking the wall in frustration" thing.
So this is me....feeling like I need to give up, but knowing I'll never forgive myself if I do.....so I'll take a break...unscrew my head off, clean out the "Negative Nancy" thoughts and screw it back on the right way.
I read blog posts by more experienced writers who are WAY smarter than me. I'm being serious by the way....right now, this is a 'no snark zone'. I've gone through checklists about what my MS needs, what it doesn't need, what my query needs, what it doesn't need, check the word count, are you characters interesting? I've looked over and over and over my MS....editing, rewriting, editing again, rewriting again over and over. I've heard other writers say, "This is my third rewrite" or "This is my fifth rewrite"...I've rewritten and edited so many times, I couldn't begin to tell you a number. I think my characters are interesting, but I really like my characters....that doesn't mean anyone else will. Will your plot keep the reader turning pages? I have no idea. I'd like to think so, but I'm not sure about that either. I'm just feeling a little....hmm....beat up...but that really isn't an accurate representation.....
Stupid maybe? In over my head? Overwhelmed? What in the world made me think I could do this? All those thoughts have been pummeling me for the past week... I don't know why. Remember when I said 'beat up' was an accurate representation? Maybe I was wrong about that...
I'm older....I'll be 45 on my birthday in a few weeks. I've got a Music Education degree and I've been an elementary music teacher for 20 years. I'm good at it. Really good. So I know I'm not a complete idiot.
I just feel like one. I'm REALLY behind on my reading since I didn't read unless I had to my WHOLE life. Only in the past two years have I really started reading for enjoyment. So when I hear, "Have you read ..... ? and I haven't, I feel a major stab inadequacy. Your mind is a powerful thing. It can talk you in and out of situations at the drop of a hat. I guess I need to stop listening to my brain and write in spite of myself and all those Writer Doubts....pesky little critters...maybe there's a spray I can buy...
Hope I don't seem whiny....I can't stand whining...It drives me crazy. I don't allow my kids at school to whine, so I don't. This is more of a 'banging your head or kicking the wall in frustration" thing.
So this is me....feeling like I need to give up, but knowing I'll never forgive myself if I do.....so I'll take a break...unscrew my head off, clean out the "Negative Nancy" thoughts and screw it back on the right way.
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