13 posts tagged “writing”

Well I submitted a story. I wrote it on Saturday after I found the listing at Duotrope. It's a WD story contest so there'll probably be a bazillion submissions. It was free, flash and had a good theme to use. I did a couple of rewrites, including one after I posted a second draft at TC. I know if I futz over it too much, I might miss the deadline (the 10th). Who knows what'll come up in the meantime? So I put it in. I don't know if I'll do something else with it if it's not picked. I might. I mean, it's here, I might as well send it off to some flash journals. Oh and the best part is I never had to title it ;)

I haven't put my changes to the "Cole" story in the computer yet. This flash story, I never edited it in hard copy. I edit flash electronically b/c I'm always kissing the word limit, cutting & adding and I want to know where I stand w/ that. I also make a lot of little edits w/ flash.

It's been a long time since I submitted anything. Especially something other than erotica. So this is fun to get back into. I like the idea of working with a theme. I know from our contests that a lot of writers try to shoehorn in the theme. I think from that standpoint, I have a good chance w/ this piece and with any other themed writing piece I might want to try.

Next I'm going to work on the "Cole" edits and I have some AB stuff to do.

Via Mari, this is the original:

The Jobs Meme for Writers

How many books have you written? Two complete
How many copies of your books are in print? Zero!
How many of your books did you write on a Mac? Zero
When did you buy your first Mac? Never

The Jobs Meme for Readers

How many books do you read a year? Hrm. If I can get to one a month, that's good. Sometimes more. So I'll say 15.
When was the last time you bought a new computer? We got a laptop in October, for NaNo
When do you expect you'll buy your next computer? No plans
When do you expect you'll buy your next cell phone? No plans
On a scale of 1-10 how important do you think it is that we support reading and literacy? Of course I think it's a 10. Increasing literacy would help with issues like poverty. Who doesn't think literacy is important, other than Steve Jobs?

The NaNo is going really well. In terms of production, I know I can churn out the word count. The challenge to to create a coherent narrative. It's interesting to write this way. I don't know yet how effective it is but I'm seeing a real novel come together.

I'm so glad I didn't waste time on outlining or character bios. I think if you're going to NaNo, just sit down and do it. If you need to flesh out a character's background, let him tell the stories within the story. Why not use those words toward your word count? Danny is telling me all kinds of things about himself. With Jake and Seth, I knew certain things and let them seep out as we went. Danny is like a guy you start dating and then on every date some disastrous new fact comes to light. The good thing about that is that he's giving me things to build on, which is giving me a motivation for something he's going to do that's not so nice.

I feel I have too many characters and I'm not sure what to do with this woman who's acting like a certified lunatic. I think Danny knows what to do with her but we'll have to see. Right now he has it in mind to do to someone else.

I wrote a good scene tonight. It'll need to be fleshed out more later, of course, but my motto for NaNo is "forward." Only look back over the last page or look something up quickly if necessary. And just go forward. No changes, no deletions. If something's bothering me that I wrote earlier, I can delete it in December.

This weekend, I'm hoping to get 5k done, which would be about in keeping with what I've gotten done. Hawk is working so I'll be here w/ the kids and I can write if they're in the playroom. Anyway, I'll be taking off Wed & Thurs so I need to have a little extra built up. I could be at 41k by Tuesday night if I write 1500 words a day. I'm averaging 2500 words a day and if I do that, I could be at 45k by then and would only need to do that amount Friday and Saturday to achieve the word count to "win" NaNo. Whether the story will be finished, I'm not sure.

One good thing about PiggyHawk.net being offline for going on five days is that I have more time to work on my NaNo. It's going... well, it's going. It's disjointed and focus-free but damn it is fun just to write and have NO earthly idea what you're writing.

I generally edit as I go. Fixing things and making what's old jive with what's new. Say I have an idea that a character should have a certain motive. I'll go back in previous scenes and tweak things so that matches. In the case of the NaNo, I'm not going back and I'm kind of discovering the characters as I go. I don't know who any of them are, what they want, how they figure into teh action or even what the action is. I have some idea of what will happen probably in a couple of days but I don't know why it will happen or what will come of it.

Plus I have an AB article due.

Good thing I don't have any more TV or radio interviews scheduled.

... luckily you can still blog at your writing blog. Vox is teh awesome.

So anyway...

I'm up to about 4700 on my NaNo. It's going... okay. I keep fighting my narrator, Dan. He wants to talk like Seth. I keep forcing him to say "stuff" instead of "shit," for example. And he doesn't say anything about what happened with the hooker. Not really relevant to the story anyway.

In doing the NaNo, I'm doing something I've not done before: creating a new world. It's a post-Apocalyptic story and so I kind of have to establish a little bit of the world. I have all these idea and I'm not writing anything about them b/c they're not relevant to the story at this point.

And my husband has just finished in the kitchen so I'm going to shower & then go write for a bit. Luckily Jack Sparrow is on USA so the kids are happy to have that in the background while they color w/ chalk on the easel. His child duty should be easy enough.

FYI: Supernova seems to have temporarily gone supernova. This means piggyhawk.net is down (including my regular blog) and Toasted Cheese is down as well. When we get any kind of info, we'll share via our newsletter. Aren't you glad you subscribe?

ETA: 7620 so far. I'm tired and it's kind of disjointed crap but whoo @ me!

Show us what inspires your writing.

Reading other authors inspires my writing --  a novel that makes me want to write fiction or a blog entry that makes me want to whip up something to share. The revamp of my first book came after I read The Green Mile; my second book came after reading Back Roads.

More than the piece itself, what inspires me is the writing style. Really good writing, even if it’s nothing close to my own  voice, can make me want to write, even if I don’t have a current project. It inspires me to turn an idea into a story just for the work.

Poetry inspires me to write fiction, something tight and specific. It can also inspire me to edit, which I consider “writing,” since it’s so vital to the process.

Sometimes I can get inspiration from a writing prompt, a news story or a “what if” that pops into my head. Contests are good inspirations. Challenges presented by time restrictions, max word counts or writing on a specific topic can inspire me to do some creative writing. I see a writing challenge and I’m compelled and inspired to try it, like this blog entry.

Via Deoris

1. Do you outline?
I outline after I've begun, just as a kind of a guide for my ideas. I write what major points I want and a few parts in between, more as ideas or questions to myself. I don't stick to the outline. It's more of a vague guide.

2. Do you write straight through, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order?
I generally write in order but I do sometimes write a major scene for the joy of it and then drop it in place when I come to it. On RFM, I found that if I skipped ahead to a later scene, I didn't really need anything in between anyway.

3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer?
I prefer a keyboard of some kind b/c I can go faster.

4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third?
First

5. Do you listen to music while you write?
When I can. Silence can be good but I find I'm more creative w/ the music on.

6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?
I'm a name junkie so I generally know what names I want for characters for whatever reason. Sometimes I use a dummy name and go back & change it. I like "The Baby Name Wizard" by Laura Wattenberg as a reference.

7. When you're writing, do you ever imagine your story as a television show or movie?
I actively imagine the scenes, to see the blocking, business, etc. but if I wanted my stories to be in another medium, I'd write that. Sometimes people ask me who I'd cast in certain roles & I have no idea. I know what the characters look like and they don't look like actors/actresses.

8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn't want him/her to do?
What? They're supposed to do what I tell them?

9. Do you know how a story is going to end when you start it?
I think that I do. I'm right about half of the time.

10. Where do you write?
Wherever I can.

11. What do you do when you get writer's block?
Listen to music, try another scene, walk away from the piece for a while, try some other creative work like knitting, write crap just to keep writing.

12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of wordcount, or as a percentage of the fic as a whole)?
I like to write in big chunks, 1-5k at a time.

13. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?
I'm currently on probably the 3rd draft of RFM and I'm at least 10 drafts in on WS.

14. Have you ever changed a character's name midway through a draft?
One. I believe Annabel or Charlotte had been "Daisy."

15. Do you let anyone read your story while you're working on it, or do you wait until you've completed a draft before letting someone else see it?
If I need help on a specific thing, I will let a writing friend see something so I can get an opinion. Otherwise, I wait until it's done. Unless someone wants to see it.

16. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?
I go out to dinner. I have a drink to toast my narrator. I print it and begin hard-copy editing.

17. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?
One at a time, active.

18. Do your stories grow or shrink in revision?
Shrink, shrink, shrink. If I have to add something, I need to cut something else. I have to have a lower word count than when I began.

19. Do you have any writing or critique partners?
Toasted Cheese, esp the snarkers

20. Do you prefer drafting or revising?
This is a really hard question. I love creating and watching the piece unfold. I enjoy the newness of it. Then I love the editing, when I sit down with a finished piece and read it as a whole. In terms of work, geez. I was going to say revising but I can't honestly say I prefer it to creating. That's interesting.

Well I've been trying to come up with story ideas and I got nuthin'. I thought one of my dreams might yield something but that lasted about as long as it took me to get out of bed. I did dream that a friend of mine had a radio show/podcast and that I had to hose Clay Aiken down outside a drugstore.

Which brings me to the fact that I've written about 2k worth of filth in the last few days. I found an old snippet on the laptop and continued writing it just for the practice. Today I found where I'd outlined my ideas for the lengthy story and I'd ended up taking it in a bit of a different direction. I could bring it back around to the original easily. Some of my ideas made me say, "What kind of mood was I in when I came up with that?" It's creative but it's also fetish-heavy. Not that there's not a market for that but I'm wondering how I'll be able to write it with kids crawling around.

I think that I'm going to have to do my writing while H naps. It's too much to run around after the both of them. Z is being uncooperative and I have a head cold that has rendered me practically voiceless. So to yell at her, well, I can't. Most of my yelling is "leave him alone" or "stop kicking him" or "get off him" or "give that back to him" or similar.

It's been quite a change having nothing to write and wanting to write. I'm almost ready to edit again just b/c I enjoyed doing it so much.

So if I could just get an idea for a nice vanilla story, I would write it. As it is, I haven't and now I have to go feed a child.

I've spent a couple of days thinking about my most recent entries. I'm nothing if not introspective. One of my mantras is "it's never about what it's about." So I've been thinking: "what is really my problem w/ Hawk's lack of fb?" and I think I've figured it out.

My problem is that I want to talk about the book w/ someone. I want to answer questions, explain my ideas, all that yummy stuff and w/ WS I could talk about it with him. He talked about it long after he read it. He asked me questions about characters and settings and such. He hasn't asked anything about RFM and I think that may be my problem: I don't have anyone to talk to.

I could bug Erin and Fredlet but I've already bugged them enough (whereas it's Hawk's husbandly duty to let me bug him). Maybe it's just that I crave adult face-to-face conversations and it's something we've both read and could talk about. I don't remember the last time that happened.

It could also be that I feel like he doesn't care about the book and I'm transferring that into "he doesn't care about what I care about" and therefore "he doesn't care period."

So I don't think it's so much about RFM as it is other personal issues on my end. I still don't get how he found the sex scenes a turn-on and I don't get why he's arguing with me about whether the PSU hockey game on March 14, 1992 was an away game and which side of College Avenue the instrument store was on. Next time, I'm doing a thoroughly self-invented setting, like in WS. So anyway, it's probably not about what it's about.