Revision Pains Etc

I have been revising Dark Falcon for the past week or so. I'm overwhelmed now. I really, really want to finish this revision by the end of the month. That was going pretty well, but the past couple days have been gunk. Maybe it's allergies... but my head just won't work. Not the best time to edit, you know?

I'm optimistic about Dark Falcon, but I need a beta reader. Trouble is, I'm not actually sure how to get my manuscript off my internet-less Windows 98 and onto this one (a Vista).

I've also been writing a short story I've tentatively entitled "The Goblin Queen". It's my own take on goblins, Faye, and Otherworld, so that's always fun.

My interest in Twitter has been revived as I now have more opportunities to sneak on.

I'm not really big on writing scripts, but I may collab with my brother again for ScriptFrenzy. He gets to mess with the formatting that way.

My 18th birthday is coming up (yay!) This may sound weird, but I want to head out to the zoo and practice my photography for the occasion.

:D SD

P.S. I have discovered I am a geek: This summer's superhero movie lineup has me freaking out. ...And Cowboys & Aliens.

Finished Draft Woes and Longhand Binges

So I finished Dark Falcon with I think it was 73K. Have read through it a couple times since November. There are a few issues. It needs expansion in some places, and a lot of (rather difficult) research in others. Somewhat overwhelming amount of supporting characters. Can't think of any major revisions to the story though, and it's been bugging me whether or not that's a good thing. I spent so much time planning the story out in September and October, that I may have actually gotten it right in November.

Of course, I hope this isn't the wrong intuition.

While I work out this small conundrum, I have been writing another story (August 16th) longhand. It's made great progress, but I'm still sorting through any multitude of options for the story. (I always hated Choose Your Own Adventure stories. There would be pages I just could never find. Not that this story is one. Just feels that way.) Spent all of the last three days working on it.

Have to say, because I'm writing in time-coded sections, writing longhand has been easier for August 16th. I did once have this crazy idea about making it anchronological, a whim since abandoned.

Hope everyone is having a great 2011, and does anyone else find some stories just flow better in longhand?

:D

Nano!

So Nanowrimo's around the corner again. I've been doing quite a bit of planning. I now have my own (albeit Jurassic) computer to work on. Yay! There's a tiny snare this year. That's that we're moving. I'm keeping myself convinced that it's no big deal (Denial is a powerful thing). My sister's even signed up to do it with me this year. That's kind of cool. She's writing a mystery-suspense, think.

I'm writing urban fantasy-- but it's superheroes! I've decided to call it Dark Falcon.

I've a synopsis posted here http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/209666

And here's a better view of my book cover

(kind of an awesome winged ninja) :D

So for the next few weeks I'll be haunting my Twitter and Nano forums.

How's everyone else doing this pre-Nano season?

A Melodramatic, Exaggerated Breakdown

I love irony. I really do. I try to put it in my stories, I look for it in movies, news, life,etc.

Sometimes irony is just plain frustrating.

You see, whenever my mother tells someone that I write, she nearly always adds that I'm too shy to let anyone see my work.

I then reply it's not ready. I'd b willing to show off a polished manuscript, but I've yet to get there.

However, I have semi-polished several chapters of The Restored. I need my mother's input, as the library critique group is not meeting as the library caved in last year. So I asked her to read a few chapters. When she didn't have time for that, I tired discussing some issues I was having with her, but she wasn't listening to me.

Frankly, I'm frustrated and concerned. I mean, how much do they really believe in me? They think I'm too shy to have life, I guess. I know I can write stories. But just because I'm not sending out my rough-hewn, unfinished manuscripts to be deleted by every agent and editor in the hemisphere doesn't mean I don't want to be published!

Write a Book, then Write It Again... And Again.

You have a story idea. Maybe something inspires, maybe you had this amazing dream. Maybe you just love a particular concept and have built upon it.

What are you going to do with it?

There are plenty of options. A screenplay, a comic book or strip, poetry, your alter ego, a novel. Maybe even inspiration for a painting. Still, most people do nothing.

Assuming you're a writer too, you went the fiction route (and probably the alter ego).

I believe I first attempted to write a book when I was seven or eight years old. My story wasn't bad in the premise. It reflected my own life, books I'd read, and recent news events.

Unfortunately my effort was abandoned for one major reason: I had no clue how to write. I believed that all paragraphs had to be exactly 4-6 sentences long. And I'd never heard of margins or the fact you could leave off dialogue tags.

When I discovered how to format, maybe a year or two later, my stories finally escaped being mere doodles on notebook paper and became words. (Notebook paper remains my favorite media.)

I won't pretend to have been a prodigy. My first efforts were probably much like everyone's. You should know the problems.

As I wrote my ideas began to develop and became better. They would change so quickly that often I would just have to start the story over. (They were innately long. I still struggle to write short stories. Or just finish a work at all.)

After that, there's actually not a lot. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and wrote. In between, I read mounds of books and drew character art. I never went to a workshop and my only book on writing was my grammar book. Other novels formed my style, etc.

Now, I consider myself born a story-weaver and dreamer, but I only call myself a writer because I've devoted myself to an unknown quantity of fiction. (I've probably passed the Million Words mark).

These past two and a half years, I've learned a lot about maturing my stories from the internet and Nanowrimo. Literary agents, other publishing people, and experienced creative writers have blogs that all have given me advice I desperately needed.

What remains is to create a polished manuscript and eventually find someone willing to publish it.

So how about you? Where have you come from as a writer?

P.S. This is my first attempt at this kind of writing post. Please feel free to give advice on where I have failed.

Thanks to Write a Better Novel for inspiring this post.

Almost finished with Nanowrimo. I had originally intended to write 75K, and it looked like I would for awhile, but I started to get a little behind, but figured I would be able to make it up later. Then I got sick and couldn't write very much at all for a little while. When I finally did get started again, I knew I wouldn't be able to get the 75K and so started working with the 50K goal. My word padding I built up there went into holidays, and a few days ago, I started having issues with my wrists so that I don't write as fast as I was. Right now, I'm just under 47.5K. I was tempted to just quit, but by then I was over 40K, and that wasn't acceptable. So... given that I don't hit 49,999 words at midnight tomorrow, it's looking like I'm still going to win even though I didn't think I would make it for a couple days there.

It has been different, but I'm glad that I tried and that it's paid off. I'll see you at the finish line? S.D.

Still Learning

Recently, I reread some of my older writings.
In particular, two versions of a story since abandoned and two versions of a story in the making.
And I noticed something: I've gotten better.
My writing has come a very long way in just a few years, which makes me wonder what it will be be like five years from now.

But I did try and decide some things I could specifically improve. That was descriptions and pulling the plot together.
Still... it's nice to know I'm better than I was. I'd hate to be stuck in a rut.

*bleep*

Okay, so I know a lot of people don't have these issues, but I do. That is, when my characters start cussing, I am at a loss as to what to do with them. I'm torn between making them clean out their mouths or letting them say what they mean.

As it is, they're only allowed occasional exclamations of h**l, d**n, or sometimes s**t. Which are pretty commonplace words, but my parents consider, butt, shut up, and heck to be bad words. Especially my dad. My mom has been known to let out such (the former) interjections every once and awhile.

I'm not even allowed to say cr@p until I'm 20, so should my older, worldly characters do so? Because when I just go %#@$, it looks like I'm saying something else, like f***, which I'm ardently opposed to. Because using a word that has its meaning is just embarrassing!

So it's a dilemma for me. I might go ahead and just withstand the lectures, etc, and the embarrassment of my siblings peering over my shoulders and harassing me about why I would use such a word, OR let some of the poignancy be lost by removing the. OR leaving the little $%&# and ____ there and let people just have dirty minds.

Thoughts appreciated.

Rules, Essays, and Expectations

I have a paper to write. An Essay. I hate that word. Essays have no muse. I needs muses to write. And "muse" is that person who literally lives in my head telling me what in the world to write. But when it comes to essays they are disturbingly silent.

Well NaNoWriMo has a podcast up and it's about over. Oh well. I still am figuring out what to put into the side module here. It will come soon.

The great thing about this blog is that I have no pressure. I mean, there's like a standard when people know who you are. At least quasi-know. "Nope! Can't write that! Too weird!" The only rules on here are the ones I've set for myself and those are
1) Writerly-related topics only
2) No expletives

Really simple, huh? Oh and I don't plan to directly introduce my family to this blog. My mom likes to lurk my sites to see what I'm up to and I really don't want her to know that I believe I can have actual conversations with my characters or actually BE them. Strike that, I don't believe that, I pretty close to know that. And the fact that I have the back right side of my brain diagrammed into three different worlds in which my characters live probably would go over really well.

But with you, unfortunate reader, there is no "go over" so I can write as I please. YIPPEE!!!!!!
Brings such warmth to my heart, but now I've got to scoot!