%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  Adventures of writing when I don't have a clue, which seems to be most of the time... |
|
My writing journey's journal I have been an avid MMO game player for many years and a pen and paper gamer for years before that. And I've never been able to write more than a page or so at a time, and that would take me hours to do. Creatively, I have had stories and even novels in my head that I could explain to someone, or even tell them the story audibly, but could never put down on paper. And I never found out why. Until my wife introduced me to Stephanie Meyer late this spring. I read Twilight, and the rest of the books in rapid sequence... I think I spent less than two weeks on all of them, and then I watched the movies. My wife mentioned that she had never written before, even a short story, and that she completed the entire first novel in three months or so. I read an interview she gave with another author (for the life of me I cannot remember who it was), where she explained her entire writing process. I said to myself, Self, you can do that. If a housewife, with three kids running around, can do it, then I can too. Except that I had tried, and couldn't write worth a darn. So I tried something new and radical. I ignored everything else, and by everything, I meant everything. And I sat down to write. I cut out everything, except caffeine... No more TV, no movies, no games -- really, I quit playing all of them. I found that now, devoid of all the other distractions, I could write. One of my sons helped me find some background noise (shameless plug incoming: http://rain.simplynoise.com/), and I found I could write even better. What did I write? I just took a word and turned it into a sentence. And then the sentence into a paragraph. I added a tragedy, and turned it into a murder. And then added a love story. And then a thriller, because the love story caused problems for the murderer. And from there, I had a theme. From the theme came a focus. I just made it up as I went along, telling stories that actually ended up on paper, not just as whimsical thoughts that I would lose by the next day. I wrote over 100k words in July, and another 75k in August. We're barely into September, and I've already written 46k words (not counting this blog), and I have no plans to stop writing. The sky is the limit... well, actually, I've gone past that in a few places -- to the stars and beyond. There is no limit to what you can do if you just put your mind to it and start, one word at a time. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Hey folks, it's been a while. I don't seem to write blog entries as easily as I write prose. I've been reading a few of my wife's favorite vampire sagas. She's a Kindle addict... get the free book, like it, buy the followup, the series, or just other stuff by the same author. It's a pretty good deal, if you don't mind reading through a bunch of crap that really should have been PENCIL reviewed before being E-Published. Oh well. Anyway, I came up with an idea on Sunday and decided to write it down. 17k words later, I have something started, and it shows a bit of promise -- perhaps more promise than the main novel I've been working on for months. We'll have to see where I go with it. But for you vampire fans, you might want to check it out. "Vamparisi (Original First Draft)"  is about a boy (woohoo, 50% of getting that one right) who finds himself in an unfriendly place, but not for the standard reasons. He actually ends up in a little country town that is the center (or one of several centers) of a vampire cult. They're using this cult to put a happy face on their activities and to control their food supply. But there's a catch. There's always a catch, so get used to it.Read it, review it, tell me what you think about it. Most of all, have fun with it. Considering it only took me about 16 hours to write, I don't expect rave reviews. But it would be nice to hear that I'm on the right track with something, even if I have to do a bzillion revisions. Oh, and send me some tickets for random junk. I've probably sent you at least one in the last month or so.  >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Not much to say. I'm officially BAD at writing a journal of my daily thoughts and deeds. The hours melt into days that melt into weeks and months... and time flies so fast, I don't know where I am in the middle of it, or where I'm going. I don't feel it, so how can I write about it? I have no time to take the time to write about stuff about time and stuff. *sigh* Ah, stuff it! I have finally found someone, here on WDC, who could turn into a buddy of sorts. Too soon to tell, or too late to do anything about it. Depends upon your perspective of time... Time will tell, or it won't. Time isn't restricted by what we think of it. It exists regardless. And it's passing changes us, whether we agree, disagree, or even pay attention to it. We can ignore it, as I have done, but it doesn't ignore us. We are caught in its whirls and eddys like a leaf in the wind. We are powerless before it, and left in the dust when it passes. STOP! This is almost profound. Must stop. Can't do this... Must must mus... |
| Just updated my "Invalid Item" with a few revised chapters. The (Revision 4) stuff is the latest. I left all the old scribbles behind, in case you want to compare notes with what I did to get here. I still don't have a clean ending in mind for the novel. I started with one, and it's since been blown to pieces... I almost can't get there from here, or if I did, it would feel forced, and that's not what I had in mind. So, I'm in the middle of my novel now, the introductory pieces all laid out, and I'm about to start with the guts -- the whole reason for writing it -- and then clean up all the loose ends and write the ending. However, I'm already 100k words into it -- that's 429 pages in Word -- and I should be at the end of the book, not anywhere near the middle, at least according to what the current publishers seem to want these days. *sigh* >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| After NaNoWriMo, which for me was a royal flop -- because I attempted to write the next book in my series before coming anywhere near finishing the first one. Bad idea. Oh well, at least I learned something. The topic for my second book hasn't changed, and the themes will remain the same -- but I'm just not ready to write it yet. I've gone back to reviewing, revising, rewriting my original novel, "Invalid Item" -- in Scrivener, so please don't look for new material in my item list until I've posted it. I probably could post something soon... but I don't want to get sidetracked. I'm on a writing spree at the moment, writing about 18 hours a day or 8-20k words/day, and it's NOT just garbage. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Anyway, the point of this post (besides it being my first blog post in over a month) is that I discovered something recently about my own writing, and I wanted to put a question out there. If I can figure out how to create a question and vote, I'll do that... but for now, here it is: I find that while writing, or when reading my own material that is sexy -- not intercourse or anything at all lewd, just the observations of a teenager toward a really cute girl, for example, or a passionate kissing scene, I find myself getting... well, aroused -- sometimes, heart speeding up, cold sweat, clammy hands kind of aroused. Is that normal for when I'm reading/writing my own material? Is it healthy? Or should I seek professional help? (aka, take the passion out on my wife). Should I expect that kind of reaction from my own writing? Or do I need to let the readers tell me if it's lip-smackin' good or not? The same thing occurs when I write a very emotional scene, where one of the characters does more than shed a tear -- they're overcome with emotion, and have a hard time expressing how they feel. I found myself bawling today -- huge sobs and crocodile tears when I was in the midst of re-telling the events of a chapter from the perspective of another character. Is that normal? Healthy? Or do I need serious professional help? (and no, I don't mean editing -- I know I need that). >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Attended my second NaNoWriMo Write-In last night (a few hours ago, actually), and while not a lot of people showed up, a few did, and I got to meet some nice people with some really neat ideas for writing. It made me realize how different we all are, even when we approach the same concept or event as someone else. Some people are paranoid that someone will steal their work. Others are open and share everything. Some are confident that they can easily write 50k words in 30 days, and others don't think they can get past 10k or 15k words in the same amount of time. This is fantastic opportunity for a lot of people -- people like you and me -- who never thought they could write anything more than a term paper in high school (and we had trouble with that). NaNoWriMo opens up the novel writing to everyone, takes the fear away or at least shows us how to manage it, and provides us a platform to give writing a test run. For thirty days, we are all out there writing as much as we can, without stopping to design, edit, revise, or even proofread our text (and believe me, some of it needs a good proofreading). That can all come later. What we do now, in these thirty days, is prove that we have what it takes to write at least a novella (approximately what 50k words will give us), and in some cases, a full novel. We don't have to be James Michener or J.K. Rowling. We can just be ourselves. But selves that can write enough words to qualify as a novel. And somewhere, somehow, some of us will publish what we dream up and write this November. It all starts with a word. Then a sentence. Then a paragraph, page, scene, chapter, and so on, until we have enough to 'win' the NaNoWriMo contest. What happens after the prose is written is another chapter in the publication process. But it all starts with a word. |
| A couple hours from now, I'm going to join a group of like-minded writers in a nearby town (Tiffin, Ohio) for a write-in that will officially kick off NaNoWriMo . I don't expect to get a whole lot done tonight, as I've never met these people, but maybe I don't have to. All I want to do is have some fun, and show some enthusiasm to others, so perhaps they will get motivated to write 50k words in the next 30 days. It's intriguing how yesterday, I hit a spot where I didn't think I'd have a single thing to write to get the process started -- and now, I have a hard time holding back, because I have tons of ideas floating through my head. It's amazing what sleep can do. Now, where did I put those directions to the restaurant where we're supposed to meet? They might help. I know (from plenty of experience) that driving around in circles in an unfamiliar town is NOT the way to locate what I want. When I'm with my wife, pulling one of those 'driving in circles' mode searches drives her up a wall, which is a neat trick considering that she's sitting next to me at the time. I tell ya what. If I get lost and stop posting to WDC... feel free to let my wife know that I might actually be missing for real this time. You can find her on Facebook .Ta ta for now! >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| NaNoWriMo is about to start. The MLs (Municipal Liaison) have gotten as many people as possible in their area to sign up and get ready for the insanity that is to start on the first of November. They reach out and encourage people, some of whom are very fragile, and others who will probably never write 50,000 words in a novel, even if you gave them a year, not just a month. They do this without pay, and sometimes without any real recognition. My hat goes off to them. I have signed up for two groups, as my little town isn't large enough to have its own, and the others are 25-30 minutes away from here, so it won't be much hassle to do write-in events with both, as long as they don't schedule them simultaneously. Tomorrow, I meet with some folks from Marion, Ohio -- part of the NanKnights Facebook group . We're meeting at a local restaurant, I think. I'll find out before I leave home.Then, at midnight on 31 October, I will meet with the other group in Tiffin, where we will meet and greet each other and then sit down for an hour or so and write what we can, starting at the stroke of midnight on 1 November, the official start point for NaNoWriMo. I should be all set. I think. I hope. LOL >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
I just received some awesome reviews by Joshiahis   . He slogged his way through several of my revised chapters in "Invalid Item" , giving me all kinds of pointers -- and quite a few constructive criticisms. You might even say he was harsh, but I don't see it that way. He was more than fair.Almost from the first word in his review, I recognized that I had -- for all of my talent at prose -- thrown together the revision, as if I had stuffed all my scenes into one giant chapter, stirred them around, added a pinch of drama, and then squirted them out on paper like icing onto a cake. There were great sentences buried in boring paragraphs, drama buried in romance, and stoic resolve where a bit of emotional breakdown would have been appropriate. I am in the process of switching from yWriter to Scrivener , and while doing so, I saw everything from a new perspective. And I wanted to puke. I need to go back to grammar school, not to mention Novel Writing 101.So, in the spirit of all great works that start with slop, I am back to the drawing board for Opus Breanna. Using what I have learned, what I have read, and what others have said in review, I am going to break things down into story arcs that have a concrete beginning, climax, and ending -- and then weave them together with whatever I can salvage from my previous writing in order to come up with a New New Revision of Book One. Oh, and Book Two of my series, Breanna Ascensionis, is going to be my NaNoWriMo project . I hope it yields something worth keeping. My premise is solid, at least, though I'm not sure it has enough meat to it by itself. I might have to throw in a few more twists and turns than I planned for in "Invalid Item" .AdTHANKSvance! for following my random blather. >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I finally completed
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Now, I can take a break for a few days... yeah, right. I don't think I could stop writing if I wanted to. Some of the entries were quite fun to do, and some just tedious. But, it's the first novel outline/prep I've ever done, so I learned a lot from it. And I'd do it again. I think the best part if it were the people who read what I was doing and offered encouragement, even if they couldn't actually help me fix a problem, just being positive was more than enough. 'Nuff said. Now I'm gonna go grab a beer! >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| My wife, Cassie, works long hours at a Verizon reseller managing the store, the inventory, employees, conference calls on her days off, mandatory training two hours away, overzealous bosses, and a breadth of customers that would make me scream if I tried to handle them. She does all this with a smile on her face and a laugh at anything that manages to inject a bit of humor into her otherwise insane world. Today, she had to get up early for an 8:30 conference call (when you work 10am to 8pm, 8:30 is early). At 8:05 she got a text from her brother, one of her employees, saying that "the conference call access code is broken". She laughed and explained to me that if they give you a code for an 8:30 call, it won't work until 8:30 -- but of course, her brother has to try it early and then complain. If he's not complaining, he's probably not breathing either. Then, after listening to a bunch of drivel for a half an hour, twenty minutes of which is roll-call, so that they can "ding" you if you're not on the call along with 100 other people, she gets off the phone and gets to enjoy a cup of coffee before she has to run out the door to get to work. Wait... she just walked out the door (at 9:40am) and the conference call was still going. Good grief! One of her other employees, Karen, is out sick -- well, her sixteen year old daughter is sick with Crohn's disease and is in the hospital today -- so she might as well be sick. Cassie isn't sure if she'll be in to work at all today, but she doesn't begrudge her the time. She knows full well what a pain Crohn's disease is. She's had it herself since she was 18 -- about a year before she met me. At least she'll be able to help Karen and her daughter through the "what the heck do I do now?" stage of any disease diagnosis. Not knowing what to do is much worse than merely having a condition. It adds emotional stress to the whole thing, which, by the way, can trigger a Crohn's episode. On top of this, she has to travel an hour an a half away for a Time Warner Roadrunner training class, which she doesn't need (we have personally had the service for more than 10 years, and she's been selling it ever since they started partnering with Verizon wireless). She would love to send her brother, who is reasonably technical and would welcome the time off, but he has had nothing but horror stories with Roadrunner at his own house. He plays online games (like I used to), and the lag spikes, outages, loss of connection every five minutes, and other problems make it likely that he would complain while in a class like that, and end up getting himself fired. So Cassie has to go instead, on top of everything else she needs to get done today. I've been up all night with pain, which doesn't normally bother anyone because I can sleep through the day if I need to, so I was aware that Cassie didn't get much sleep last night. Headaches, backaches, cramps, a minor Crohn's episode, and worry about today -- isn't going to make today any easier for her. But she's a darling and will suck it up and get it done anyway. It never ceases to amaze me what she can and will put up with in the course of a day. She is the love of my life and my opposite in many ways. We put up with each others' infirmities and laugh at what life throws our way. I cannot adequately describe our love for each other with mere words. You would have to see us together to understand. Her Facebook page is here if you want to see a few photos, or stop by to say "hi". One of these days, I'll get her hooked on WDC, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. She barely has time to breathe as it is.Today isn't her birthday, or anniversary, or anything at all special. But I wanted to write this anyway so she can see how appreciated she is. If she has time to read it... >jace neophyte novelist ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
You guys are rubbing off on me.
. I have two books from WdC members that I'm reading now and when I finish with them I'll get on it and do product review here and on amazon of course. I'm glad to hear you decided to work on yours and can't wait to see what you're up to. I just have some strong feeling that it's going to be best seller because Vamparisi is just awesome 
