Not quite done yet with character thoughts, but been a little distracted the past few days. I got super sick over the weekend and began to watch Gargoyles for the first time.
Oh. Em. Gee.
What was wrong with me? Why didn't I watch this show when I was younger?
Been tearing through the first season and I have to say, I'm hooked.
---
In other news, I've been planning a project for the past month or so and it has finally kicked off today! In the spirit of joining the YouTube community a bit more and just because I want to, I'm going to be trying to make a video every weekday for the entire month of March.
First vid of the month already online!
Here's to a successful 22 more!
Showing posts with label beginning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beginning. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Crazy little thing called 're-writing'...
So, what with Valentine's Day having driven off the advances of the shameless Shiny New Idea and rekindled my love for my hedgehog project, I found myself taking a swing at beginning again.
I've written before about rewriting a beginning over and over again and that leading to stagnation of the story. It's one of the scariest parts about this rewrite: knowing my history with this whole thing. But I think this story needs it.
See, even when I say things like "just keep writing", there remains the Golden Rule of Writing: there are no rules. While, yes, there are rules about grammar and such, even they can be broken if you have a legitimate reason for breaking them. And when it comes to a process, there really is no "right" way to write. I myself never seem to follow the same pattern twice, which is one of the reasons I'm giving myself the go-ahead with this re-write.
I am a pantser through and through and it took me that original six thousand word beginning I had to see that it wasn't working. I had to take it that far to see that it wasn't working, or else I would have regretted a flighty change. This latest beginning is actually something like Version 2.5, being a sort of rework of an actual second beginning idea.
Now, if I were to have followed my own advice and "just kept writing", I would have been banging my head against a brick wall, frustrated by lack of enthusiasm and progress. And, despite the fact that ninety percent of writing is just the muscle action of putting pen to paper and keeping it there, some sort of inspiration is necessary to keep the story going.
And if anything, this is part of my planning process. Testing out what works, experimenting with styles (yay for out-of-order flashbacks and unreliable narrators!), and just generally hashing it out. I can't let the fear of a past failure stop me from progressing, nor let my own sensibilities stifle my story.
Does part of me panic at even the possibility of letting another story head towards the shelf? Yes. Is part of me frustrated at not having gotten it right the first time and now being almost entirely back at square one without having gotten all that far to begin with? Yes.
Is it going to be worth it? I think so. Worst case scenario, as always; I'll have learned something from it.
Anyone else ever rebooted a project more than once in the early stages? Did you ever finish? Still working on it? Relegated it to the shelf?
I've written before about rewriting a beginning over and over again and that leading to stagnation of the story. It's one of the scariest parts about this rewrite: knowing my history with this whole thing. But I think this story needs it.
See, even when I say things like "just keep writing", there remains the Golden Rule of Writing: there are no rules. While, yes, there are rules about grammar and such, even they can be broken if you have a legitimate reason for breaking them. And when it comes to a process, there really is no "right" way to write. I myself never seem to follow the same pattern twice, which is one of the reasons I'm giving myself the go-ahead with this re-write.
I am a pantser through and through and it took me that original six thousand word beginning I had to see that it wasn't working. I had to take it that far to see that it wasn't working, or else I would have regretted a flighty change. This latest beginning is actually something like Version 2.5, being a sort of rework of an actual second beginning idea.
Now, if I were to have followed my own advice and "just kept writing", I would have been banging my head against a brick wall, frustrated by lack of enthusiasm and progress. And, despite the fact that ninety percent of writing is just the muscle action of putting pen to paper and keeping it there, some sort of inspiration is necessary to keep the story going.
And if anything, this is part of my planning process. Testing out what works, experimenting with styles (yay for out-of-order flashbacks and unreliable narrators!), and just generally hashing it out. I can't let the fear of a past failure stop me from progressing, nor let my own sensibilities stifle my story.
Does part of me panic at even the possibility of letting another story head towards the shelf? Yes. Is part of me frustrated at not having gotten it right the first time and now being almost entirely back at square one without having gotten all that far to begin with? Yes.
Is it going to be worth it? I think so. Worst case scenario, as always; I'll have learned something from it.
Anyone else ever rebooted a project more than once in the early stages? Did you ever finish? Still working on it? Relegated it to the shelf?
Monday, February 14, 2011
On slaying the Shiny New Idea (a love story)...
Because I thought about slaying:
Quite possibly one of my most favorite performances of my most definitely favorite poem.---
So, a few days ago, I contracted a case of the Shiny New Idea. I blogged about it. And, in blogging about it, I found that I was able to counter it.
See, the thing is with Shiny New Ideas, at least for me, is that they tend to fall apart if I think about them too hard. Actually, this is true for most ideas I have, but the difference is that I'm still excited about my current hedgehog project and so the Shiny New Idea doesn't hold the appeal it did because it is being overshadowed.
And so, on this, Valentine's Day, I'd like to share a short love story about my hedgehog project.
Young Writer's Society has a group called "Your Novel" in which members post short open letters to their novels. Often just a few lines if that, they are a cathartic way of venting frustration or love about a project. Recently, my own posts have followed an arc of sorts.
GryphonFledgling: Dear Novel,
Be patient with me. It takes some time to move from one relationship to the other. NaNoWriMo took a lot out of me and I want to be able to give you my everything. These scribbles in-between are actually working for us, I promise.
Wed Dec 22, 2010
GryphonFledgling: Dear Novel,
It's not cheating, just flirting. I'll come back, I promise. Just give me a little time to realize just how amazing you are and then you'll have the satisfaction of seeing how I come crawling back to your pages.
Mon Feb 07, 2011
GryphonFledgling: Dear Novel,
See? I told you I'd come back. Here's chocolates and a rose to prove my love for you on Valentine's Day.The first was right after NaNo, when I was sort of scribbling little scenes and things in lieu of actual writing on anything besides this blog. The idea was there, the want was there, but my heart just wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet.
Tue Feb 15, 2011
The second was right when the Shiny New Idea struck. It was all awhirl, with its glitz and glamor and snarky humor. I saw it for what it was, but I still begged for the time for a little excitement, a little adventure.
The third is self-explanatory. I wasn't dumped, I walked away before I got too involved with something that wasn't worth my time. I went back to something that I loved and that loved me and together we're going to make something amazing.
This is a project meant to last, methinks. Or at least I hope so. Right now we are going through a little rocky spot with regards to a beginning (seeing as how the beginning is going to drive the rest of the story). I'm thinking I may actually have to (*le gasp*) do a little brainstorming / outlining (*more le gasp*).
But despite being at a point where I'm feeling lost enough to want to do that, I feel good about this project. I might regret saying that in three months, when I'm mashing my forehead into my keyboard with frustration, but I've been with this project long enough for the puppy love of a Shiny New Idea to wear off and I'm still giddy with excitement at times.
Because, this project did start out as a Shiny New Idea, if you recall, in the middle of November. But, unlike this last Shiny New Idea, the hedgehog project stuck around long enough to be called a project at all, even to the point of getting me writing again after a post-NaNo funk.
I did write down my Shiny New Idea and maybe one day it will inspire me again, or at least let itself be hacked to pieces and stitched into other stories somewhere, but for now, true love triumphs and the hedgehog story and I march forward together into the great unknown.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Shiny...
...Let's be bad guys.
Well said, cat of questionable literacy but many lulz, well said.
If there is one thing more dangerous than the dreaded Writer's Block, it is the Shiny New Idea.
So you've got a project that you love, and you're working hard on it. Life gets in the way sometimes and the last few days haven't been so hot, but you still feel like this could go somewhere. It's just taking a little time.
Then, suddenly, from the blue, comes a Shiny New Idea. It's an idea! It's new! It's shiny! It seems to flow from your brain like a chocolate fountain, chock-full of marshmallows, strawberries and pound cake!
Suddenly the current project is exposed for what it is; a lukewarm Hot Pocket, full of congealing cheese and mystery meat dressed up as ham for Halloween.
So you want to drop that Hot Pocket and go for the Shiny New Idea, this lovely critter that demands nothing from you, just allows you to channel awesome from brain to pen.
And you do... for a while. But there will come a time when the Shiny New Idea is not so New anymore and eventually it will not be so Shiny anymore. And along will come another Shiny Newer Idea and then a Shiny Shiny Newer Idea and so on and so forth, in a horrible rampage of frustrated inspiration but no production.
The moral of the story? Stick with a project. If a Shiny New Idea pops up, demanding your attention
... indulge it for a minute or two. Take the time to write down that scene that is bugging you. If it turns into a little more than a scene, fine. But know where to put the brakes on.
At the same time, sometimes projects need to be taken a break from. I've blogged before about letting projects go. Sometimes they do need to go. But they shouldn't be dropped like a Hot Pocket. Lain carefully down like the inedible bits of lobster, maybe.
Yes indeed.
-----
Well said, cat of questionable literacy but many lulz, well said.
If there is one thing more dangerous than the dreaded Writer's Block, it is the Shiny New Idea.
So you've got a project that you love, and you're working hard on it. Life gets in the way sometimes and the last few days haven't been so hot, but you still feel like this could go somewhere. It's just taking a little time.
Then, suddenly, from the blue, comes a Shiny New Idea. It's an idea! It's new! It's shiny! It seems to flow from your brain like a chocolate fountain, chock-full of marshmallows, strawberries and pound cake!
Suddenly the current project is exposed for what it is; a lukewarm Hot Pocket, full of congealing cheese and mystery meat dressed up as ham for Halloween.
So you want to drop that Hot Pocket and go for the Shiny New Idea, this lovely critter that demands nothing from you, just allows you to channel awesome from brain to pen.
And you do... for a while. But there will come a time when the Shiny New Idea is not so New anymore and eventually it will not be so Shiny anymore. And along will come another Shiny Newer Idea and then a Shiny Shiny Newer Idea and so on and so forth, in a horrible rampage of frustrated inspiration but no production.
The moral of the story? Stick with a project. If a Shiny New Idea pops up, demanding your attention
At the same time, sometimes projects need to be taken a break from. I've blogged before about letting projects go. Sometimes they do need to go. But they shouldn't be dropped like a Hot Pocket. Lain carefully down like the inedible bits of lobster, maybe.
...because otherwise they might eat you?
...
I actually secretly like Hot Pockets.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Laughing at myself...
Funny that right after I should write an entire blog entry about how I seem to be unable to write anything but angst, I sit down with a fresh notebook and wrote two entire pages of a non-angsty beginning to a second draft.
Yes, I'm starting afresh. Probably something like over six thousand words on my last draft and I'm sort of ditching them and beginning again.
Do I consider those words a waste? Do I consider that time and the act of throwing it all away to be completely pointless?
Nope.
This is how I write.
It's a messy mess of a mess. Full of false starts and redundant redundancy. Those thousands of words I wrote showed me what didn't work and gave me ideas for things that would work. And now I have a quirky beginning, the sort of light-hearted prose I was whining about not being able to write.
The moral: I shouldn't whine about how I can't do something until I try.
Yes, I'm starting afresh. Probably something like over six thousand words on my last draft and I'm sort of ditching them and beginning again.
Do I consider those words a waste? Do I consider that time and the act of throwing it all away to be completely pointless?
Nope.
This is how I write.
It's a messy mess of a mess. Full of false starts and redundant redundancy. Those thousands of words I wrote showed me what didn't work and gave me ideas for things that would work. And now I have a quirky beginning, the sort of light-hearted prose I was whining about not being able to write.
The moral: I shouldn't whine about how I can't do something until I try.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
How To Write: Gryph-style...
Well, I was so super late on the uptake on this, only having found out about it on this, the day of, but here is the What's Your Process Blogfest!
Writing process... Hmmm...
It really does vary from project to project. Sometimes I get an idea for a character and want to write their story, other times I get an idea for a story that I need to add characters to. For actual writing, I usually just put some characters on a page and have them do stuff, and sometimes I do little test runs, almost auditions, to work out how the story is going to be told. When it comes to editing, I almost always just completely rewrite the sucker, rather than line-by-line edit or anything. My first draft is like a big long rambling outline, really the only outline I do.
To show some of the differences (however minor they might seem) I'll illustrate two of the most different: my NaNo for '09 Scorpion and Sandman and my current hedgehog project Once Upon a Spine. Buckle up and get ready for a rather long and rambly post! Yay?
Scorpion and Sandman
The idea for this actually has a really crazy long story. When I was like thirteen, I had an idea for a story about a blind kid named Bain. It started because I had just had an idea of a blind boy running through a field as if he could see. I think that idea came from "The Lost Year of Merlin" series by T.A. Barron. It was mostly about him, later evolving to include his estranged father who was a disillusioned warlord, and an elf girl who would eventually become Quina.
It took a long time though. Initially, she was some sort of savior character, downtrodden and being trained for her place in the world by a drunken half-elf. He was initially supposed to be some sort of pseudo-romantic interest. Then Quina was supposed to be captured and imprisoned and I came up with the idea for this human prisoner who would fall in love with her and help her escape at the cost of his own life. To my thirteen year-old self, it was all very grand and epic and I loved it.
That itself eventually changed to a slightly more happy ending, with this new character, Red, and Quina ending up together, though they did have a rather long bout of slavery.
The project eventually sort of died, seeing as how a) it grew huge, with no less than eight different protagonists and b) I was so enamored with outlining and planning it all that I didn't really get to writing it. I got through one entire draft of the first book in a proposed trilogy, but then it just sort of died.
Then I had an idea to take each of the protagonists' stories (combining some of them, seeing as how some were intertwined) and write several books that way. I started with Bain, but he eventually evolved into such an emo-tastic tortured soul that he was no fun to write for anymore. But there were two characters who were always a blast to write: Red and Quina.
They were sort of secondary characters, a married couple living in the slums because he was a former slave, still branded, and she was an elf. I loved them to death and when the new project died too, I was actually heartbroken to have to let them go.
Fast forward a few years to NaNoWriMo 2009. (I'd actually signed up for NaNo in '08 and never done anything as I discovered later, having completely forgotten about signing up at all.) I needed a story, I had two characters whose story I wanted to tell. Lovely!
Now, I say usually that I am a pantser, just sort of writing things, but Scorpion and Sandman had a huge backlog of history (seriously, those few paragraphs up there summarize several years of my life). I had some fairly developed characters already and an idea for how I wanted the story to go. And, this being the first time I had done NaNo, I did some simple outlining.
I could still make an argument for my panster status, since those outlines were never really more than a page long and a few of them were made on the fly in the middle of the month, just so I wouldn't forget the resolution I had projected, but that was actually the beginning of my panster self.
As mentioned before, part of the reason the parent project died was because I was so enamored with outlining that I never actually got to the writing. I'd learned a little since then, but it was really the "omigosh, have no time, no ideas, need to write 2k words nao!!!" attitude of NaNo that really cemented that idea of just sort of going "blah" on paper.
So I did. There was a little bit of outlining and a whole lot of previously acquired knowledge, but I pretty much wrote that novel on the fly. I started with two characters with stories I wanted to write and just wrote them.
This project has been on the back burner, in the queue for editing, since NaNo09's completion, but I've never really dug into it hardcore. Mainly because I'm terrified of messing it up. I love that novel so much. It represents so much; the completion of a childhood obsession, the first accomplishment of NaNoWriMo, etc. etc., that I'm afraid of sullying that memory. I'll get over it eventually, I'm sure, and dig into it (seriously, writing about the parent project is making me want to pick that up again), but there's really been no editing as of yet.
Once Upon a Spine
This was inspired by (mm-hmm, here it comes) Princess Tutu, right in the middle of NaNoWriMo this past year.
Actually, I'd wanted to write a fairy-tale princess story for a while. This was an example of just having an idea for a type of story I wanted to tell and sort of sticking things into it. The original idea was for it to be a delightfully quirky story, completely not-full of my apparently trademark angst that I keep finding in all my works. (Hahahahaha, hold on while I finish laughing at my own naivety... To think I thought I could keep angst out of this story.)
It was just the idea of a hedgehog wanting to become a princess that was practically blatantly stolen from Princess Tutu. I wanted to explore what would happen if a character went through drastic changes for a single motivation, only to discover that those changes gave them other motivations as well.
This, I didn't quite jump into immediately. Instead, there was a sort of "waiting" period between NaNo and a new project. It wasn't as bad as it was last year (when I literally didn't write for months after NaNo in some sort of horrible burnout) since this year I did actually do a crapload of blogging and some scribbles of fiction and nonfiction alike in my own portfolio. And, mixed in there, were some little scenes and snippets of ideas for my hedgehog story.
They were sort of previews, sort of teaser scenes that I wanted to include, or that sort of captured the mood I wanted. I don't know if any of them will actually make it into the story itself, but they were fun to test the waters. Got a few ideas for character motivations, and came up with an idea for a potential ending for somewhere down the line.
But then, on January 4th, I actually started writing. Didn't think too hard about it, just sort of picked a narration style, and just started writing. Panster style all the way. There was no history to this project, no built-up knowledge of my characters. Just them, not even named (not even joking) standing there, wanting to know what they were supposed to do. So I made them do stuff. Two of the three main characters have names (Rat and Gareth), but that's it.
It's been like that since then. I write down notes to myself whenever I think of a revelation that I want to remember (like, further character motivations), but mostly it's just been hashing it out and seeing where it goes. It's pretty much a long, extended outline. I can tell you for almost absolute certain that the section I'm writing right now will not be in there, or at least not in the place or form it's in.
Unlike Scorpion and Sandman though, I'm actually looking forward to editing this one. Of course, it might be way too early to tell on this sucker, seeing as how I've only been legitimately working on it for a grand total of two weeks now, but I have a good feeling about it. I sort of know where I want this story to go and even though I know that what I'm writing right now isn't fitting into that most tentative of tentative mental plans, I know that I need to write it. It's the raw "blahsome" for my future "awesome".
Whew... Long and rambly that.
Writing process... Hmmm...
It really does vary from project to project. Sometimes I get an idea for a character and want to write their story, other times I get an idea for a story that I need to add characters to. For actual writing, I usually just put some characters on a page and have them do stuff, and sometimes I do little test runs, almost auditions, to work out how the story is going to be told. When it comes to editing, I almost always just completely rewrite the sucker, rather than line-by-line edit or anything. My first draft is like a big long rambling outline, really the only outline I do.
To show some of the differences (however minor they might seem) I'll illustrate two of the most different: my NaNo for '09 Scorpion and Sandman and my current hedgehog project Once Upon a Spine. Buckle up and get ready for a rather long and rambly post! Yay?
Scorpion and Sandman
The idea for this actually has a really crazy long story. When I was like thirteen, I had an idea for a story about a blind kid named Bain. It started because I had just had an idea of a blind boy running through a field as if he could see. I think that idea came from "The Lost Year of Merlin" series by T.A. Barron. It was mostly about him, later evolving to include his estranged father who was a disillusioned warlord, and an elf girl who would eventually become Quina.
It took a long time though. Initially, she was some sort of savior character, downtrodden and being trained for her place in the world by a drunken half-elf. He was initially supposed to be some sort of pseudo-romantic interest. Then Quina was supposed to be captured and imprisoned and I came up with the idea for this human prisoner who would fall in love with her and help her escape at the cost of his own life. To my thirteen year-old self, it was all very grand and epic and I loved it.
That itself eventually changed to a slightly more happy ending, with this new character, Red, and Quina ending up together, though they did have a rather long bout of slavery.
The project eventually sort of died, seeing as how a) it grew huge, with no less than eight different protagonists and b) I was so enamored with outlining and planning it all that I didn't really get to writing it. I got through one entire draft of the first book in a proposed trilogy, but then it just sort of died.
Then I had an idea to take each of the protagonists' stories (combining some of them, seeing as how some were intertwined) and write several books that way. I started with Bain, but he eventually evolved into such an emo-tastic tortured soul that he was no fun to write for anymore. But there were two characters who were always a blast to write: Red and Quina.
They were sort of secondary characters, a married couple living in the slums because he was a former slave, still branded, and she was an elf. I loved them to death and when the new project died too, I was actually heartbroken to have to let them go.
Fast forward a few years to NaNoWriMo 2009. (I'd actually signed up for NaNo in '08 and never done anything as I discovered later, having completely forgotten about signing up at all.) I needed a story, I had two characters whose story I wanted to tell. Lovely!
Now, I say usually that I am a pantser, just sort of writing things, but Scorpion and Sandman had a huge backlog of history (seriously, those few paragraphs up there summarize several years of my life). I had some fairly developed characters already and an idea for how I wanted the story to go. And, this being the first time I had done NaNo, I did some simple outlining.
I could still make an argument for my panster status, since those outlines were never really more than a page long and a few of them were made on the fly in the middle of the month, just so I wouldn't forget the resolution I had projected, but that was actually the beginning of my panster self.
As mentioned before, part of the reason the parent project died was because I was so enamored with outlining that I never actually got to the writing. I'd learned a little since then, but it was really the "omigosh, have no time, no ideas, need to write 2k words nao!!!" attitude of NaNo that really cemented that idea of just sort of going "blah" on paper.
So I did. There was a little bit of outlining and a whole lot of previously acquired knowledge, but I pretty much wrote that novel on the fly. I started with two characters with stories I wanted to write and just wrote them.
This project has been on the back burner, in the queue for editing, since NaNo09's completion, but I've never really dug into it hardcore. Mainly because I'm terrified of messing it up. I love that novel so much. It represents so much; the completion of a childhood obsession, the first accomplishment of NaNoWriMo, etc. etc., that I'm afraid of sullying that memory. I'll get over it eventually, I'm sure, and dig into it (seriously, writing about the parent project is making me want to pick that up again), but there's really been no editing as of yet.
Once Upon a Spine
This was inspired by (mm-hmm, here it comes) Princess Tutu, right in the middle of NaNoWriMo this past year.
Actually, I'd wanted to write a fairy-tale princess story for a while. This was an example of just having an idea for a type of story I wanted to tell and sort of sticking things into it. The original idea was for it to be a delightfully quirky story, completely not-full of my apparently trademark angst that I keep finding in all my works. (Hahahahaha, hold on while I finish laughing at my own naivety... To think I thought I could keep angst out of this story.)
It was just the idea of a hedgehog wanting to become a princess that was practically blatantly stolen from Princess Tutu. I wanted to explore what would happen if a character went through drastic changes for a single motivation, only to discover that those changes gave them other motivations as well.
This, I didn't quite jump into immediately. Instead, there was a sort of "waiting" period between NaNo and a new project. It wasn't as bad as it was last year (when I literally didn't write for months after NaNo in some sort of horrible burnout) since this year I did actually do a crapload of blogging and some scribbles of fiction and nonfiction alike in my own portfolio. And, mixed in there, were some little scenes and snippets of ideas for my hedgehog story.
They were sort of previews, sort of teaser scenes that I wanted to include, or that sort of captured the mood I wanted. I don't know if any of them will actually make it into the story itself, but they were fun to test the waters. Got a few ideas for character motivations, and came up with an idea for a potential ending for somewhere down the line.
But then, on January 4th, I actually started writing. Didn't think too hard about it, just sort of picked a narration style, and just started writing. Panster style all the way. There was no history to this project, no built-up knowledge of my characters. Just them, not even named (not even joking) standing there, wanting to know what they were supposed to do. So I made them do stuff. Two of the three main characters have names (Rat and Gareth), but that's it.
It's been like that since then. I write down notes to myself whenever I think of a revelation that I want to remember (like, further character motivations), but mostly it's just been hashing it out and seeing where it goes. It's pretty much a long, extended outline. I can tell you for almost absolute certain that the section I'm writing right now will not be in there, or at least not in the place or form it's in.
Unlike Scorpion and Sandman though, I'm actually looking forward to editing this one. Of course, it might be way too early to tell on this sucker, seeing as how I've only been legitimately working on it for a grand total of two weeks now, but I have a good feeling about it. I sort of know where I want this story to go and even though I know that what I'm writing right now isn't fitting into that most tentative of tentative mental plans, I know that I need to write it. It's the raw "blahsome" for my future "awesome".
Whew... Long and rambly that.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Viruses and Hedgehogs and Lampreys, oh my...
“Language is a virus from outer space.” – William S. Burroughs
It is my firm belief that writers are highly susceptible to the virus.,We are obsessed with manipulating and exploring language. We are also the primary vectors by which it propagates, evidenced by our mad drive to shove our virus-laden pages at other people.
My brain is riddled with cosmic microbes and I must share them with you!
~ Paul E. Holmes, on a blog comment at Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds
Yeah, it stuck with me for some reason.
In writing news, I actually did some today! Yay me and actually starting a project when I said I was going to! The writing isn't great, but it's a first draft. I'm just telling myself that over and over again as I hash out a rough roadmap for the story.
I can't plan beforehand. Really. I end up overthinking and tinkering and not actually writing until I've convinced myself it's a lost cause. Much better for me to just jump in without looking to see how far I actually have to swim or how there's a pit of lampreys between me and the end.
Monday, December 13, 2010
The deep end of the swimming pool...
December 13 – Action When it comes to aspirations, it’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. What’s your next step?
In progress. I'm currently doing the pre-writing doodling and scribbling and brainstorming, sort of wetting my toes in preparation to cannonball right off the diving board.
My next step is to actually start writing. I've sort of been putting it off, keeping myself limited to the scribbles and rants about other things while school is still going on, for fear that I'll get distracted by my new shiny. But school is over now and so I plan to do the jumping.
The thing to be avoided, of course, is the dreaded "I have tons of time to write, but no motivation". Therein lies the actual challenge of this whole thing.
Monday, November 1, 2010
I'm a terrible NaNoer...
Reasons why:
1) First of all, I call us "NaNoers", whereas the official term by OLL seems to be "Wrimos". Terrible.
2) I didn't stay up until midnight as planned. I got until 10 pm and just crashed. Probably had to do with having woken up at 5 that morning.
3) I should be writing my 1667 words and instead I am blogging the below meme.
4) Meme time! Gotten from here:
Yes, I've participated in NaNo before. 2008 was my first year and first win (writing Scorpion and Sandman, still one of my most favorite things I've ever written, even if it is a big steaming pile of unedited fail right now), 2009 was last year and my second win (writing Dirt Queen, which was cool, but not as cool as I would have liked). So now I'm going three-for-three!
Writing just is. I don't know how to describe why I do it.
Participation in NaNo is something I don't even question anymore, even though it's only been two years. It's less "Why would I do NaNo?" and more "Why wouldn't I do NaNo?".
Doing a lot of handwriting right now, so I don't have a legit wordcount yet, but my first four words are "Once upon a time". I'm not expecting any record-breaking wordcounts from myself for the first few days, due to Real Life having quite a few obligations it demands I look into, but as long as I crank out the 1667 words every day for the next few days, I'll be happy.
1) First of all, I call us "NaNoers", whereas the official term by OLL seems to be "Wrimos". Terrible.
2) I didn't stay up until midnight as planned. I got until 10 pm and just crashed. Probably had to do with having woken up at 5 that morning.
3) I should be writing my 1667 words and instead I am blogging the below meme.
4) Meme time! Gotten from here:
Day 1 - Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? If so, which years and what end result? If not (or even if so, for that matter), what’s your connection to writing? Why do you want to participate this year?
Yes, I've participated in NaNo before. 2008 was my first year and first win (writing Scorpion and Sandman, still one of my most favorite things I've ever written, even if it is a big steaming pile of unedited fail right now), 2009 was last year and my second win (writing Dirt Queen, which was cool, but not as cool as I would have liked). So now I'm going three-for-three!
Writing just is. I don't know how to describe why I do it.
Participation in NaNo is something I don't even question anymore, even though it's only been two years. It's less "Why would I do NaNo?" and more "Why wouldn't I do NaNo?".
Doing a lot of handwriting right now, so I don't have a legit wordcount yet, but my first four words are "Once upon a time". I'm not expecting any record-breaking wordcounts from myself for the first few days, due to Real Life having quite a few obligations it demands I look into, but as long as I crank out the 1667 words every day for the next few days, I'll be happy.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Writing classes: a ramble...
"Can writing be taught?"
I'm not even going to try and come up with an answer to that.
I'm taking a writing class for fiction right now.
Is it fun?
Usually. There's some really cool people in my class, even if the professor can sometimes be a bit of a literary snob.
Is it useful?
Occasionally. We've had some interesting discussions.
Is it worth the money I'm spending?
It depends.
This class satisfies some credits I need and I met some really awesome friends in it, so yeah, it was worth it for me. I mean, all that and I get to write for class? Boo yeah!
However, quite often I find myself frustrated. A lot of the stuff we're talking about is stuff I already know from experience and the awesome folks at YWS and other writing communities. Many times it's rehash of basics.
So does that mean it'd be good for a beginning writer?
Meh.
I dunno. I'm sort of a subscriber to Ms. Frizzle's "take chances, make mistakes, get messy" school of learning. The best way to learn is to do, even if the first few attempts suck. The class might give you some helpful pointers, but ultimately, you'd be able to get those same points from a good writing community *cough Young Writers Society cough*.
Sure, the class can be fun sometimes, but I wouldn't necessarily tell all aspiring writers to jump up and pay for one. It depends on what you're looking for. It could be a great experiences, but it's not going to make you a good writer on its own.
Of course, all my points are based on my own class. There might very well be better classes out there. If so, where and how much?
I'm not even going to try and come up with an answer to that.
I'm taking a writing class for fiction right now.
Is it fun?
Usually. There's some really cool people in my class, even if the professor can sometimes be a bit of a literary snob.
Is it useful?
Occasionally. We've had some interesting discussions.
Is it worth the money I'm spending?
It depends.
This class satisfies some credits I need and I met some really awesome friends in it, so yeah, it was worth it for me. I mean, all that and I get to write for class? Boo yeah!
However, quite often I find myself frustrated. A lot of the stuff we're talking about is stuff I already know from experience and the awesome folks at YWS and other writing communities. Many times it's rehash of basics.
So does that mean it'd be good for a beginning writer?
Meh.
I dunno. I'm sort of a subscriber to Ms. Frizzle's "take chances, make mistakes, get messy" school of learning. The best way to learn is to do, even if the first few attempts suck. The class might give you some helpful pointers, but ultimately, you'd be able to get those same points from a good writing community *cough Young Writers Society cough*.
Sure, the class can be fun sometimes, but I wouldn't necessarily tell all aspiring writers to jump up and pay for one. It depends on what you're looking for. It could be a great experiences, but it's not going to make you a good writer on its own.
Of course, all my points are based on my own class. There might very well be better classes out there. If so, where and how much?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Beginning at the beginning...
Looking for a place to begin a story? A member of the online community "Young Writers Society" summed up your options perfectly.
"1) The source of the conflict (ex: if the conflict is about a war, you might want to start by going back to the moment war was declared, revealing the reasons why it's happening)
2) The day the MCs life changes. It will start off a bit slow, so you want to be careful not to bore people.
3) A point later in the plot where the MC is drawn to reflect on how they got into this situation (setting things up for you to go back to a less interesting but still relevant point earlier in the plot)
4) Character history. Pick a moment in either the protagonist's (MC) or the villains life that was significant to their development and share that. Then skip forward to the 'present' so people can see how they're changed. (Works kind of the same as a flash back). "
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic49709.html
Yup. It's pretty awesome.
"1) The source of the conflict (ex: if the conflict is about a war, you might want to start by going back to the moment war was declared, revealing the reasons why it's happening)
2) The day the MCs life changes. It will start off a bit slow, so you want to be careful not to bore people.
3) A point later in the plot where the MC is drawn to reflect on how they got into this situation (setting things up for you to go back to a less interesting but still relevant point earlier in the plot)
4) Character history. Pick a moment in either the protagonist's (MC) or the villains life that was significant to their development and share that. Then skip forward to the 'present' so people can see how they're changed. (Works kind of the same as a flash back). "
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/topic49709.html
Yup. It's pretty awesome.
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