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 |  A place to talk about myself, my writing, and any upcoming projects. |
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Hello! I'm not really sure who is ever going to read this because I don't actually know anyone on this site and I highly doubt this is the sort of thing anyone would be interested in reading anyway. I'm writing it for two reasons. The first is for myself, so I have a place to sort of keep track of my progress on various projects and everything. The second reason is because I just got my upgraded membership today, and I want to try and make the most of it, which means finally getting around to using all of the features. On the off-chance that someone is actually reading this though, I'm going to do a little introduction here where I talk about myself and my writing and the sorts of things you can expect to read if you check this out. My name is Cat Voleur, I'm currently 21 years old, and I'm a professional writer. I got my first writing job a few months before I graduated high school. After that I spent about a month taking writing commissions while I looked for steadier work, and I was eventually employed as a ghost writer, where I spent about 3 years. I've quit ghost-writing very recently (and am consequently broke) to pursue my own dreams and perhaps establish a small following. I really enjoyed ghost writing because it gave me the freedom to travel and sort of choose my own schedule, but now I'm looking for something that I can take credit for. It's pretty sad to have steady writing work for 3+ years and wake up one day and realize all of the pieces in your portfolio are things you wrote as an angst-filled teenager. I'm going to take some time, edit some of my old pieces, write some new things, and try to see if anyone is interested in reading the things that I write under my own name. My commission and portfolio sites are, as of this moment, down for some maintenance work, but hopefully I'll be getting it back up soon with links to some of my work on this site. I also have a couple theme blogs run through tumblr and am currently the head writer of Toxic Bubblegum which is a zine published monthly put out by myself and my very talented friend, Alan Johnson. As for what I'd like to do in the future - I guess it just depends on what sort of opportunities I run into. I'm a big believer in just seizing the moment and going with the flow. The one thing I am sure of is that I'd like a career in writing. I sort of lucked into my first job, but now that I have a taste of being a writer I can't imagine being anything else. Ideally I would like to eventually have something published under my own name and become an author, but I'm willing to see where life takes me. I prefer writing in the horror genre, because that's where my real passion is. I look up to a lot of horror writers and if I could do anything, that would be it. I have the most experience writing in romance because that, unfortunately, is where the money is and that's what a lot of my paying gigs have been up to this point. I've been told that my strength is in fantasy. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's what most people tell me. I first got my account here a few years ago, around the time I started writing professionally, and I haven't done a lot since then other than upload a piece here and there. That's something I'm going to try really hard to get better about. I'd like to upload more stuff, get more active in the community, maybe see about meeting some fellow writers. Today is a very exciting day for me because I just purchased my upgraded membership. It was on sale or I might not have done it because I am, as I previously stated, broke. I've really wanted a membership here for awhile and I'm so glad that I finally did it because so far it really has been motivating me to get some stuff done. The first thing I plan on doing is uploading the most recent draft of Silence of the Lamps, which was the first thing I ever put up on the site, and it's undergone a lot of editing since then. After that I'm going to work on getting some more rough drafts up on here, and then maybe attempt to socialize, which is hard for me because even online I get really nervous reaching out to people. Anyway, if anyone read this, I'm sorry I babbled so long and thank you for your interest! Feel free to message me at any time if you want to chat or would like to have me read something or collaborate or anything. I don't bite, I promise. -Cat |
My day isn't over yet or anything (I've been staying up later and later every day) but I do feel like I've already gotten a lot done and it's a good feeling. I'm also getting really excited about some of the projects I'm working on here, so I decided it was a good time to take a short break and do a little ranting  Things I've done today: Cleaned my office (mostly) Finished an art project Wrote the monthly comic for my zine Uploaded 2 new custom signatures Set up a default signature for forum posts Made my first folder (and put the appropriate items into it) Created a vague, yet versatile standard review template Submitted that template to the Rockin' Review Academy for Lesson 1 Updated both of my group specific templates to include my new disclaimer Finished a theme template (Alice in Wonderland) Finished up all the reviews I had started prior to completing my new templates. So now I get to get started on some other things. I still have a bunch of reviews to finish (and shiny new templates to try out on them) and I'd like to get some writing things done as well today. When I'm done reviewing I think I might set up my SCREAMS!!! book (which I think I've decided officially I'm going to start) and work on some creative writing. I also have a couple more folders I'd like to create and a couple more templates to finish up. If anyone wants to chat about anything, as always, feel free to email me. I'm going to be on pretty much all night figuring stuff out and working. -Cat |
| Hey guys, I'm back again tonight. The livestream I was watching was supposed to be going another couple hours, so I downed a whole bunch of caffeine and then it ended early - so I'm up for awhile longer and trying to get some stuff done. I've been mildly successful in the productivity department. I wrote a short story. It's terrible. I've submitted it to SCREAMS!!! for the 5/8/2016 contest. I expect it to come in last. I'm totally okay with that. I'm really proud of myself. Not for the story, because the story is sort of half-assed, honestly, and I know it. But I wrote it very quickly, kept the word count down on my first try and didn't even worry about editing it. It's not like I take the contest that seriously, it's just a writing exercise for me. Not polishing it and taking the negative feedback that comes along with not polishing a story before I post it is going to be a painful, but good learning experience for me, and I'm going to deal with that as best as I can when it comes up. I think SCREAMS!!! is going to be really good for me if I keep posting to it regularly. It gives me practice in so many things I want to become better in, and I really think it's going to make me a stronger writer. I can learn how to do concise fiction, get better at horror, try new things, practice responding to prompts, and it's going to force me to take constructive criticism on a more regular basis on things I know aren't perfect. The 24 hour deadline means that I don't have weeks to stress over a piece and do tons of my own editing as a painful process before showing it to people. Honestly, that scares the shit out of me, but it's something I know I need to get over, and this is as good a way as any. I've decided to pretty much keep spamming the contest as much as I feel I can without shredding my remaining sanity (or until they ask me to please stop.) Now we get to the point that I'm trying to make, where I ask you guys for your help. If I'm going to keep doing a lot of these, I want to put them all together somewhere so that the new people visiting my portfolio aren't flooded with a ton of stories I'm not super proud of (I'm not quite that comfortable with my rough drafts yet - I'll get there.) I was originally just going to toss them all into a folder together, but then one of the rules changed. I can now submit book entries - which means in theory I could make a book of all my contest entries. The pros of the folder method are that it would be easier to set up, I could move my already existing entries to the folder easier and it might be easier to explain. The pros of doing the book idea are that I could do a foreword, explain the purpose of the book, and have all my author's notes and requests about reviewing all on one page - where I'd only have to put it up once instead of in the form of a disclaimer that goes at the bottom of every entry. It would give me the practice I've been wanting formatting books. I could also include the later drafts of entries I decide to revisit and little collections about feedback I've gotten. It would be more of an experience than the folder. Of course, the cons of doing the book format is that I'd still have no idea what to do with the two existing entries and no concept of how much time it would take me to set up. That's still the option I think I'm leaning toward, but if anyone has any opinions or suggestions they would be very much appreciated. Thanks! I appreciate you guys reading and of course, I love hearing from you (especially when you're giving me such valuable advice.) -Cat |
| I have so many things I should be doing, and absolutely no will power to get any of them done. I have about a dozen reviews half finished, email to go through (here and on tumblr, oops) two contest entries to work on, half of a zine to write, and I've only gotten about 2 pages done on my manuscript this week. So of course, instead of trying to get any of those things done I'm half-heartedly blogging in a small window while I watch my boyfriend's livestream in the background. I usually am slightly more on top of things...when I far this behind it's usually because I'm working on something else really cool. I guess the nightmare that is my personal life is finally starting to affect my work. That and you know, I'm not getting paid anymore (other than the little bit I make from the zine.) Financial incentives have always been strong motivators, and I don't have that anymore. Of course I'd like to be getting paid again, but I don't see that happening anytime soon unless I'm willing to take another ghost-writing job. I probably should because I'm totally broke and need money for things like medical bills and fixing my deathtrap of a car and you know, eating food that isn't some kind of instant noodle. Of course then I'd need to find another ghost writing job and that's....bleh. Anyway, the point of this particular rant is that regardless of what my next career move should be, I feel absolutely no motivation to work on it. I really want to feel productive but my mind is just on other things today - which is rare. Normally writing is the one thing that I can always focus on to distract myself no matter how bad things get but my brain just refuses to let me escape that easily tonight. Probably because of the boyfriend. That whole situation is not ideal at the moment. To be fair to myself, this is the best romantic situation I've ever really been in, and if it weren't for the long-distance thing or the time I've been forced to spend with my ex, it might be a really healthy and normal relationship. Of course healthy and normal by my standards might be pretty low for the average person. Still.... it's been good, for me, and lately it's been giving me way too much to think about. I really should, you know, sort that out instead of blogging about it vaguely and creeping on his livestream. In theory I'll be getting some time to myself tomorrow and hopefully I'll be a little more productive then. I doubt it somehow. I really need to get my shit together and figure out what I want and, more importantly, what I can actually handle. I should also maybe get a job at some point. And a car that runs. And a mechanic I don't have a romantic history with. I really wish I could just start over with life. I feel like I messed up somewhere. In any case, I'm going to try and get some stuff done anyway because, as tempting as it sounds to me at the moment, I know that procrastination really isn't going to help me sort things out or get me any closer to you know, being happy or whatever. I don't really know if I should be giving reviews when I'm all caught up in personal nonsense, but maybe I can force out a couple pages of this stupid book. It sounds unnatural and forced anyway because I suck at romance, but if I can at least get something resembling the first chapter done and people read it, maybe people will finally get that I can't write in this genre and I can go back to working on something I feel more passionately about. Sorry if this one was personal and weird. That's just sort of where my mind has been lately, and sometimes blogging helps. -Cat |
| I'm not great at taking criticism. It's something I'm working on really hard because I know it's a big character flaw and as a writer, it's something that's going to hold me back in my professional life if I can't move past it. I'm getting a lot better about it. I still get defensive very easily. and I spend more time than I should justifying my mistakes, but in the last few months I've learned not to let it get to me as much. Mistakes are natural, and not everything I write needs to be perfect before people read it. A lot of the things I write aren't going to be perfect anyway and that's something I'm learning to live with. Today it's just too much though. I was gone for a couple days for personal reasons (which is probably a big part of what's contributing to my no-nonsense mood today, honestly) and when I started to catch up on my emails a lot of people have given me feedback on my writing. It's not even that the feedback is that negative, because a lot of it is great, but it's just a whole bunch of little annoyances from different sources that are adding up. For one thing, I've gotten a lot of feedback on Graduation Test. I've gotten two reviews and then some emails about it and it's driving me a little crazy. I've been told I should leave it up for the weekly horror thing, so I haven't removed it or even edited yet - and don't plan to until it's over. I feel like it's been made abundantly clear that it was a contest piece, I had a 24 hour deadline and a word count limit, and I know that it has some issues. I know I shouldn't be complaining because the reviews were both nice (as were most of the emails) and it has a decent rating, but people keep trying to correct my grammar, edit the piece, and telling me to add stuff. I know that it needs editing. I was very open about my own issues with the piece, and I let everyone know many, many times I didn't have the time to edit it the way I wanted. Then today I got a whole bunch of messages about missing commas and word choice and it made me want to scream. People are getting a chance to edit my piece before I get the chance to take a proper look at it. It's not the reviewers fault, and I know that, but it's a very frustrating situation for me. Another thing (and again, this is on me) is that there are certain kinds of feedback I don't respond well to at all. I'm doing better about not needing to be coddled and it's not that I ask for people to sugar coat reviews for me. It's my responsibility to handle the feedback and I appreciate people taking the time to give me constructive criticism. I really, really hate it though when people tell me definitively that something is better a certain way when that's their opinion. It doesn't even matter if I agree with them or not - I just don't like people making their opinion sound like fact when it's nothing more than their personal preference. I also hate it when people tell me not to use certain words. It's incredibly immature of me, I know, but when someone tells me not to use a word I instinctively want to go back and use that word as often as I can just because I love words. They were made to be used. I know that correct writing, literary writing, and well-received writing gets to be that way by cutting out certain words and phrases - but if everyone wrote that way all the time it would get boring and overdone and there wouldn't be a point anymore. I want to use all the words because that's what kind of writer I am. The last thing (and the reason I'm writing this) is because I got a message from my friend about my piece Sole Survivor. Now, to give context on the situation and explain why I'm so pissed off about this, we've talked about it before. He doesn't like zombie fiction, so when he first started reading my stuff I steered him toward other things. I was always open about it and explained to him that I know he hates reading zombie fiction, and he knows I hate hearing him gripe about zombies, so we both decided it's better that he just avoid the piece. So today, I'm not really in the correct mindset to be reading reviews open-mindedly like I should be anyway, I'm struggling to sort of stay reasonable about criticisms that I feel in context were a bit harsh, and then I have an email from him just called Sole Survivor. I open it up, and there's nothing specific to the piece in there at all. It's just this long, long rant about how zombies are impossible (and it's important to note he's not even talking about the same kind of zombie - he's talking about voodoo zombies even though it clearly states in the piece that the zombies in my stories are the direct result of a virus) and how stupid people have to be to be afraid of something so impossible. It just made me mad. It would have made me mad if I were in a better mood to put up with shit, too. But it leads me to my biggest complaint of the day which is that if you don't like something, you shouldn't read it. It's one thing if a person is asking for reviews on their piece or has contacted you personally, but just generally I feel like it should be common sense. If you don't like zombie stories, don't go looking for zombie stories on someone's profile and then message them about how you don't like zombies. That's not helpful at all. Just generally speaking, I want to get my feedback from people who would potentially be reading the piece if it were published. If I got a zombie book published, the people reading it are, most likely, going to be people who like zombie fiction. So while I'm work-shopping that book, the most valuable feedback for me in that stage is from people who like zombie fiction. That's my audience. It's the same thing with gore. If a horror story is rated 18+ there's a good chance it's going to be really gory. If you don't like gore, maybe stay away from horror genre stories that are 18+. It's like reading an 18+ romance story when you're not comfortable with sex - you probably shouldn't do it. Anyway, I guess my point with this is that I'm going to go get some coffee, find something mindless to watch for a bit while I cool off, get some love from my kitty friends, and try to calm down before responding to the rest of my emails. In the mood I'm in right now I feel like I'd snap at people who are honestly just trying to help for feedback that I 100% plan on incorporating at some point, and I would really hate to do that. I appreciate people reading my stuff and reviewing, and I don't want to repay all of those great things with acting like a bitch just because my nerves are frayed today and one person thinks I'm stupid for writing about zombies. The ranting about it also helped some, which I guess is what the blog is here for. -Cat |
| Hey guys! I'm finally getting around to doing this. Yay! I've been saying for awhile that I was going to get around to writing an entry here that did nothing but outline some of the upcoming projects that I'm working on, wanting to work on, or wanting to get back to. Now I have them all sort of together. I sort of did an entry like this but it was specific to things I wanted to try on this site. Since I've posted it, I've gotten a lot of really great feedback and am on my way to getting things done. I've joined some groups, I've learned about WritingML, I'm affiliating my reviews now (how fancy), I entered a contest, added an item cover, all sorts of great stuff has been going on. Hopefully this entry will put me on that same kind of path, but even if I don't get the same kind of response from everyone, it will at the very least help me sort through my own opinions on everything that I'd like to get a move on. You guys probably know the drill already. This is just going to be a list of projects with me ranting about them, so you can feel free to skim or skip entirely and come back on another day for a chance to read a more interesting entry. If you would like to read through this however, you are welcome to read through this. If anyone does read all my project notes and would like to weigh in, let me know what sort of things you think are boring, what sort of things you'd like to see on my portfolio next, or have suggestions for projects that are better than anything listed, let me know. I love hearing your opinions, chatting with you, and getting advice about writing things.  Synopsis: Information on the project, what it will be like when I finish, how far along I am in the process, etc. Good Things: Things that I'm looking forward to, am excited about doing, etc. Issues: Why I haven't finished yet, issues I have with finishing, what I'm stuck on, etc.So, here we go:  Books  The Statuesques:Synopsis: A story about a local urban legend, the power of conspiracy, and secret government facilities. Still in the very, very early stages of being written, I have a prologue and a very rough outline.Good Things: I really enjoy the concept for this one, I think it's probably the scariest horror idea I have. The designs for the creatures came out super creepy and I can't wait to actually use themIssues:It's a huge project. The outline (and keep in mind this is not a detailed outline) takes up pages all by itself. It involves a lot of research and even though I know basically where I want the narrative to go I have probably less than 10% of my characters created for this. Plus, I'm imagining that this book is going to be really, really long. I'm currently an unpublished writer - and I'd like to work on projects that will get me closer to my goal of being a published writer. I can't think of a single publishing house that will look at a horror manuscript of this length from someone with no publishing history and no agent. Untitled.doc:Synopsis: The first zombie book I ever wrote (the first horror project I ever worked on of this size in fact.) After the new government has a hang on the outbreak and all of the safe-zones contained they start doing their investigation to discover the source of the virus. In a thorough search of one of the first scenes, they find a flashdrive containing one file labeled simply "Untitled.doc" which turns out to be the digital journal of a teenage girl recounting her experience during the start of the apocalypse. I'm in the last stages of editing after probably about a dozen rewrites.Good Things: I really just like the idea. I got pretty attached to some of the characters I created for this and I'd like to finally see it finished. Especially since I have started notes for another project involving my main character that I'd like to start. Issues: I guess the main reason I haven't finished editing was because I lost enthusiasm on about the second re-write. I wrote the first draft when I was 11 or 12, and I just wrote it for fun. It was paced badly, there were plot holes, it didn't make a lot of sense and half of it seemed to be random quotes from various songs and television. With each re-write I feel like as it improves it becomes better from a literary standpoint, but that it loses some of it's charm. I've had to take out a lot of the very vivid scenes that inspired me to write the piece, and in the last rewrite I finally took out the introduction letter - which was my favorite part. I felt like it wasn't realistic, and it needed to be done, but it made me sad and I lost a lot of motivation to finish. I'm also having trouble balancing the tone of a teenager with the dark themes of the book. I wish I had finished editing while I was younger. Masonland:Synopsis: A woman returns to her home town to help take care of a child she used to babysit after his brother and parents die in an accident. As she tries to comfort the child she begins to uncover the dark things that have been going on in the household and the potentially paranormal tie ins to the family's death.Good Things: I really, really like the protagonist, Alex. She's my first transgender character, and something I've been trying to work on lately is minority representation in my books. I've done a lot of research and gotten a lot of help developing her, and I'm more than ready to have her actually in the story.Issues: The first issue is that I'm bouncing between two different ways to take the plot. They both have their merits, and I'm not really sure which way would be better. The other issue is the title / name of the little boy. I pulled Mason from a random name generator, and the book is named after the imaginary land the baby-sitter used to describe when they would play make-belief, (she named it after the child, obviously) I really liked Mason and how it sounded and everything, but I feel super weird about it because I used to babysit a kid named Mason. It has absolutely nothing to do with him (haven't seen him or the family in years) but the last thing I need is for this to make it and then get sued for life-right violation or something. I haven't been able to find a name I like as much, by my paranoia is begging me to change the name of this project. 21 Days:Synopsis: Yet another zombie book, surprise! This one is more of a Tamara kind of zombie though, not like a Z-day zombie. The fiancé of a very wealthy man is finally found after being a missing person for years. She's in pretty terrible condition and he pulls a private team together to try and erase all of the damage. During one of the operations she's technically brain-dead for a few minutes. They're able to revive her but she comes back changed. Then one by one the team of people working on her start disappearing. I have a complete outline and 2 chapters written.Good Things: I really like the character, and I think it would be a lot of fun to work with a sexy zombie after doing so many projects with more traditional, creepy zombies. Issues: Even though this is a very different take, I feel like I have too many zombie projects going on. I used to be on a real zombie kick, and now that I'm not anymore I don't like being stuck with all these unfinished stories that are all about zombies. Hate Me:Synopsis:This one is sort of hard to describe. A man leaves the love of his life to get his life sorted out and it's just about the journey he takes trying to recover and make his way back to her. I have a couple chapters and a complete outline.Good Things: I feel like I know all the characters really well, they're fully developed. I also know the whole plot from start to finish, which is nice.Issues: I lost my favorite and most recent draft of this when my computer fried, and it's just been hard to get motivated to re-do all that work over. Plus, since it's more of a character piece than a plot-driven story, I'm not sure who would ever want to read it if I finish. Sessions:Synopsis: This one is told from the point of view of a therapist as she talks about one of her patients. The patient claims to have created the entire world they're in because that's her job - she creates worlds from scratch, but the pressure of it is finally getting to her. The longer they talk the less grip the therapist has on reality.Good Things: I really like the concept of this, I've been wanting to work with it for a really long time.Issues: Character development. I need to spend a lot of time developing characters for this one to work and I haven't done it yet. I also go back and forth about how I'd like it to be told, first person perspective, third person, or possibly not as a traditional narrative but as a personal journal of some sort. KalidisaSynopsis: A futuristic science fiction piece about a con artist getting side tracked in her mission to explore the galaxy as she accidentally infiltrates one of the most prestigious government organizations.Good Things: I've been wanting to do a Science Fiction piece forever, and my con artist is one of my all-time favorite characters I've created.Issues: I originally planned for this to be a series of graphic novels, and telling a story in a visual format is very different than telling it as a novel. Now I'm not sure how exactly I should break it up or how it should be presented. Knife or DeathSynopsis: This is a book (or possibly a series of smaller books) about the woman with the responsibilities of the Grim Reaper and the one mortal she takes pity on.Good Things: One thing is I've been wanting to write this forever. The first version I did when I was 9 years old, and I've recently gone back and reworked a lot of my characters, added subplots, etc. It would be nice to finally do something real with this, and the prologue (which is currently featured on my profile titled: "Wherein God Waits" has gotten some great feedback.Issues: Like with Kalidisa, I originally wanted this to be a series of graphic novels. In lack of that, I've had to change the story structure quite a bit which has made developing a complete outline difficult. The Unlikely Line of O'Malley MenSynopsis: This is my take on a time travel story. It follows one family, the O'Malley's, through a series of alternate realities. In each reality they happen to be friends with the inventor of the time machine - but each time the time machine is invented it changes the course of history and travelling back in time has the unfortunate side-effect of pushing back the date that the time machine is invented, leaving a line of stranded inventors and their friends in worlds that no longer seem to exist. I'm not very far in this project at all.Good Things: Again, I really like the concept and some of my characters. I think it would be a great take on the whole time travel paradox if I could pull it off.Issues: Due to the ever changing nature of the plot, it's been really difficult to figure out how to write this story in a way that it makes sense and tells a good story without becoming too confusing or convoluted. School's Out Volume 1Synopsis: A woman working for the police department is put on a case that ties in closely to a traumatic event in her past.Good Things: This was the first series of books I ever worked on. The first book is the first book I ever finished. I spent a lot of time figuring out the plots and talking about the characters, setting up the environment. I finished the entire series of 12 books and there are some great ideas in there.Issues: The books are terrible. I wrote them when I was young, and there are so many mistakes. I'd basically have to start over with everything except for the very basics. I also included a lot of clichés in the series. I did it because I was exploring different storytelling tropes and I wanted to have a fun take on them. It was fun to write, but it would be miserable trying to piece a plot together by the time I took out all of those things. Chronicles of Despair Volume 1Synopsis: The first installation in my fantasy series about a breed of half demons, and a young woman's journey to overcome the words of her abusive father and find her place in society. The series leads into the more traditional fantasy format of adventuring in a group, but starts in the gritty time before all of that. At this point I have a complete series outline and 2 books written.Good Things: I like the characters and the world is very, very developed. Issues: I have a really tough time focusing on the original concept. My dream for this series was to create an elaborate fantasy world, which I did, create a traditional adventuring campaign, which I did, and instead of telling the story as the group is finding one another and give glimpses into everyone's history - to take one character and start from the very beginning. That way it could cover everything that is usually just alluded to in big stories like this, acceptance, corruption, revenge, remorse and then start on the larger question portion as redemption. I wanted it to be a new take on the genre. Now after becoming so involved with the way ASoIaF, I've found that it's harder to resist the urge of jumping viewpoints and talking about the bigger things going on in this world I've created. The Case Files of Justin Case Volume 1Synopsis: My first attempt at a full-on murder mystery story. This follows private detective Justin Case on his first job assignment.Good Things: My dad would love it if I finished this story. Ever since I was little he's been giving me punny names to use in stories, and one year for Christmas I wrote him the first chapter of a book where they were all included, and it was this one. It was also a lot of fun to write.Issues: I'm not any good at writing murder mysteries. I always want to talk about the murders and the murderers and how people die, not so much how it gets solved. Creating an outline for the book has been really challenging. Short Stories Fired:Synopsis: A short zombie story I'm working on about a scientist who reacts badly to being fired. Currently a rough draft.Good Things: I could submit it to this month's issue of the zine, and it would take up half of my pages.Issues: I've been trying to write less zombie fiction. Bus Station Sermon:Synopsis: A creepy run-in with a preachy stranger ends up saving a woman's life. Currently a rough draft.Good Things: I can use this on my portfolio as a horror sample when I finish, and also it's not about zombies.Issues: I felt like I really had to force the ending to get it down to an acceptable word count for the zine, and I didn't have enough time to edit the way I would have liked. A Man's Best FriendSynopsis: The story of a pet dog so loyal he'll do absolutely anything for his master, even from beyond the grave. I have half of a rough draft completed.Good Things:It will be nice to finally call this one done just because I've had it sort of half-finished for so long.Issues: It's really long. I don't know exactly how long yet, but I'm willing to bet just about anything that by the time I finish it and type it up it will be over 10,000 words, which means that I'll have a second story too long to do anything with hanging out in my portfolio. X Amount of WordsSynopsis: A young man coming to terms with his diagnosis of terminal brain cancer by making metaphors. Rough draft completed.Good Things:{/b] It's an okay story, I'd like to use it as a realistic fiction piece in my portfolio. Not a whole lot of work left to do on it.Issues: My most recent draft is on a flash drive that I have no idea where I put. I Called 911Synopsis: A Reddit nosleep story I was working on briefly in the style of "Story of Her Holding an Orange" about a man accessing another world through his phone.Good Things: The story is creepy, it was an attempt at a new style of writing for me, and it would be nice to see it through.Issues: I completely lost the rough draft of this. KittenSynopsis: A horror/sci-fi story about a man's slow descent into madness and the horrific experiments he subjects his fiancé to in an attempt to give her a better life. I have the rough draft mostly completed, though there are a few sections I'd like to go back and include.Good Things: I really need more sci-fi samples, and this is probably the best short sci-fi story I've ever done on my own that isn't some sort of fanfiction.Issues: The rough draft is just really messy, and I know it's going to be a hassle to fix. Rough drafts are usually the most fun part, and if I have issues with them it always freaks me out to continue the project. West StocktonSynopsis: This is the short story version of another novel I want to work on. I wrote the story story as a prologue and then changed my mind, and it got cut. Rough draft is completed.Good Things: It's a creepy story, and I really enjoyed working on it.Issues: Now that I want to work on the project as a full-blown book, I'm not really sure what I would do with this if I finished. Hide and SeekSynopsis: A true story about my first successful attempt at a ghost-summoning ritual and what I learned from the experience.Good Things: The story is mostly done, and it would be really good for me to have more nonfiction samples.Issues: It's a very personal story and one that I know not a lot of people are going to believe. She Hangs AroundSynopsis: Another nonfiction piece about playing with ghosts and why you probably shouldn't do it.Good Things: This one is less personal that the first one, and probably a little bit more interesting. I also have a little more source information and a slightly better record kept during the events.Issues: I still know that no one is going to believe me. SummerhallSynopsis: A short story about the gst of an old family estate. Haven't evens started.Good Things: I'd like to finally work on a nice, traditional ghost story.Issues: The idea came to me in a dream, and I would need to develop a new cast of characters. Ghost-Writing Reality BitesSynopsis: A novelist of erotic vampire fiction gets a chance to live out her lustful vampire fantasy, but realizes that it's not all she dreamed it would be. Complete series outline and about 20,000 words completed for rough draft manuscript.Good Things: The plot, character development and nearly half of the writing is done. Issues: I don't like vampire stories or romance stories. I think the vampire human love triangle thing is incredibly overdone. The whole reason I was writing this was for a job and when someone dropped out instead of being reimbursed for my time I got to retain the rights to this. Summer SandsSynopsis: The bastard child of a king watches her lover fight in a war fought over the death of her father. One chapter completed, vague outline.Good Things: The setting is cool, and I think it's an alright concept.Issues: Fantasy erotica always has so many things to name, and it's requires a lot of development time for a genre I don't even like. El Ducit Mundum Per LuceSynopsis: As society is being rebuilt again from the ashes, a doctor who has become disgusted with the system falls for a man trying to cheat the company she works for. Rough draft partly finished.Good Things: I do really like two of the characters for this one.Issues: There's still a lot of development to do, and again, I'm bad at romance. Collaborations Tales Through TimeSynopsis:A series of illustrated fantasy books that involve fairy tale adaptations through different time periods.Good Things: I'm working with a really exceptional artist, and it's a fun project to work onIssues: One big plot hole that I need to figure out before I can really get into it. Oh My Zombie Wedding!Synopsis: A comic about a band that travels back in time to warn humans about the upcoming wave of zombies. Good Things: The script is basically completed for the entire series, so there wouldn't be any work on my part.Issues: My artist dropped out. More WdC Things BookSynopsis: I'd really like to try working on a book item.Good Things: It would be fun, and give me formatting practice.Issues: I need to actually pick a book to work on. ContestSynopsis: I'd like to do a prompt contest on behalf of the zine.Good Things: I'd meet new people, get to promote one really awesome writer, and it would help us fill out our submission gallery.Issues: I don't feel like I have the time/funds right now to host and keep up with a contest on here. Misc BlogsSynopsis: I have a whole bunch of content written for my theme blogs that I haven't gotten to use, articles, spotlights, reviews, countdown lists, etc.Good Things: They'd give me more blog content if I could post them, and all that time wouldn't be a waste.Issues: I can't really work on them until I get my laptop replaced because the netbook refuses to format them. PodcastsSynopsis: I have a series of short stories that I'm thinking of adapting into a podcastGood Things: The story would be well supported by a podcast format. I'd get to revisit some of my old characters. It could be good promotion and a way to build a fanbase.Issues: I don't currently have a way to record that sounds decent. Graduation TestSynopsis: The entry that I submitted for the Screams contest the other day turned out sort of okay, and I'd like to revisit the concept without such harsh restrictions.Good Things: I think it's a neat idea, I'm looking forward to working on it.Issues: I don't know what I want to adapt it into. I don't know if I just want to fix my issues with the short story or turn it into something longer. Crowd-funding TrilogySynopsis: I think it would be really cool to crowd-funding project to raise money for me (and potentially a couple extra core members of a team) researched paranormal things. I had the idea to run a making of blog while the books are being written, and I have 3 themes, each one would be a little more expensive but I could use the first two books to promote, raise awareness for the third. The first would be about ghost-summoning games and rituals. The second would be about haunted artifacts and the third would be about the world's most haunted locations.Good Things: I think it would be an awesome project, and if I could actually get the funding I know I would have a blast working on it.Issues: It's always really scary to consider crowd-funding anything, because if it doesn't work out that's just a lot of wasted time and stress for no reason. I've also never had to crowd fund something before and as interesting as it looks, it really scares me.And that's it, guys. That (for the most part) is all of the things that I'm working on, considering. Now I'm going to go take a nice long break, because formatting this was a huge pain in the ass and I want some food. -Cat |
| You guys may have noticed there was a lapse in my somewhat regular blogging activity. I could blame it on my quest to learn WritingML or to juggle my review affiliations, but actually it's because the next blog that I wanted to post is a giant mess right now. (Yes, I'm finally getting around to that project outlining entry, only it's taking forever.) I'm super tired and I really should be in bed but my stupid anxiety is keeping me up. I got up really early, I stayed up late to watch Game of Thrones (not late by my normal standards mind you, but late relative to the time I woke up) and now all I want is to go bed. Only I can't. Because I did the SCREAMS!!! Contest. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a very good contest, and I've actually been drafting entries for it the last couple days. The only thing is that because of me being the way that I am, I get this horrible feeling right after I take chances on stuff. It doesn't even have to be big stuff, and I get all nervous to the point I don't feel very well. I had this "great" idea that I'd submit my piece really late so I didn't have as much waking time to sit up and worry over whether it sucks or not. I didn't actually think it could keep me up, because it's just a friendly little horror contest. The people who run it seem super friendly. But it turns out my anxiety knows no bounds. It's not even just that I entered it to the contest, it's that I uploaded it to the site after only doing a basic edit. Normally I dwell on stuff a lot more before I put it up anywhere. I know it's stupid, but there's this dumb little voice in the back of my head telling me that I didn't work hard enough on it before I put it up online for anyone to see, and I missed something, and it's terrible, and someone really awesome is going to see it and think less of me and I'm never going to make it as a horror writer. That's classic overreaction, and I know it. I know that I don't have to worry about every single thing I post to this site. People on here who give me feedback are here to help. In theory I should be posting my writing a lot sooner along in the process so I don't have to suffer through the early drafts alone. But I don't know. I'm paranoid. I always see the worst case scenarios, and that's why it makes it so hard for me to do even really simple things. Getting over that is something I know I need to do, but it's a lot scarier than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, since I seem to be up for awhile anyway I'm going to rant a little bit about my entry (since it's on my mind) and then do a little work on the project blog (even though I know I'm not going to finish it today) and maybe see if I can make some progress on my review templates. When my anxiety gets really bad sometimes the best thing I can do is stay distracted for a bit until it dies down - and then try to do something relaxing. So, my contest entry if anyone is curious, is called Graduation Test and it's the first 18+ piece I've posted. It's actually pretty toned down from the rough draft that I wrote earlier this afternoon, but I had to cut down the word count somehow to make it qualify. The prompt was to write a story including the following words: Bucket, pallor, deserving, skid, and release. It had to be under 1,500 words, and I had 24 hours to get it submitted. I wrote about the normal stuff that I always write about, a very disturbed individual who tortures and kills people in his basement. It's a third-person limited perspective piece following his apprentice on the evening leading up to the last test she has to past to officially become his partner in crime. As always, I liked the longer version better. All of my biggest issues with the rough draft were things that I wanted to elaborate on and couldn't, and then I had to cut that down. Hopefully it doesn't read as badly as I'm afraid it's going to. That's about it I guess. I'm going to work on my project blog and hopefully it will be the next entry I post. I doubt it though, it's really long and in dire need of new organization. -Cat |
| Words cannot, with any accuracy, describe the cacophony of emotions boiling inside me right now. Rage, annoyance, self-loathing, and a strange sort of masochistic pride, all under the calmer resignation that my morning has led me to. In other words, I finally uploaded my first item cover. I woke up a little bit before two in the morning, and despite being tired I knew I had the whole place to myself. (My current residence is something of an oddity halfway between apartment and house, but that's a story for another time. Let us just say for the moment that I usually have other people hanging about.) Since this is a rare stretch of alone time where I won't have people hovering over me, I decided to see if I couldn't play around with something a little more out there than just typing. I decided that I'd break out my art supplies and attempt to start a cover for one of my static items. I checked in briefly to see if I had any important messages, and saw that I had received a very loving review for none other than Silence of the Lamps. Now, in the past I've never known quite how to respond to 5-star reviews of that piece, due to my complicated love/hate relationship with this particular story. It was fun to write, but I didn't expect it to ever get, you know, noticed. On one hand I love getting good reviews, what writer doesn't? It makes me feel good, it lets me know what people liked and gives me ideas on what to focus on in my other stories, and it's nice to go back and read on those days when I get the not so nice reviews. On the other hand, I find it frustrating that I somehow accidentally created my best piece as a joke - and that this story gets higher ratings than things I've spent much more time and energy on. I think I've moved past the frustration though. When I got this review today, I just felt good. There was no anger tickling at the back of my mind, telling me that I should give up because this joke piece is what I was going to be remembered for. Today I looked at it like, my natural tone of writing has potential, because I wasn't trying all that hard with that piece. I wasn't worried about writing rules or critical standards, I just wrote. And people, at least 3 people on here and about a couple dozen from various other sources, liked it. It was an enlightening, glorious way to start my morning that quickly descended into madness. Since I was going to work on cover art today, I thought it might be a good idea to do a Silence of the Lamps cover, having so recently felt inspired about that piece. In my head a cover for that story was always a black and white photo though (don't ask why, I don't know. I just get these images in my head for book covers sometimes.) Feeling as motivated as I was, I decided it would be even easier to get a photo anyway. I figured I'd snap a couple quick photos, add a filter, send them to my email, drag them over to the cover section, call it a morning, and have some coffee while watching some 30 Rock. It should have been a nice productive start to my Friday before I start in on the list of a million things to get done. I remembered that my mother had told me there was a lamp on the table for me if I wanted a new one for my office - so I decided to see if it would be worth getting a picture of. I figured if not, I could always just get a nice creepy picture of my window from the balcony, or try getting a high-def shot of my ring to highlight the marital aspect of the story. The lamp was perfect. I mean, it's absolutely terrible for my office because it doesn't match my color scheme, it won't fit on my desk or shelves, but it was perfect for this project. It actually looks like a smaller version of the lamp that inspired the story in the first place, and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I decided to take it up to my room and get a couple pictures of it. The only flat surface I had that the thing would fit on was my entertainment unit, so I had to move my tv, my various streaming and gaming devices to get it to fit. No big deal. Then my camera wouldn't work. I let that one go. It's not the best camera in the world and I've had it since middle school, so I decide just to move on. I had two options, I could either use my dad's camera or my phone. My dad is a photographer, and his camera is absolutely fantastic, but I also don't know how to work it. My phone doesn't get the best pictures, but it's not like I was initially planning on doing anything too fancy, and it was right in my pocket, so that was the option I went with. I snapped a couple photos of the lamp, they looked great, I should have declared it done. Then I got the idea in my head that it should be creepier. This is a slippery slope for me. I don't have high standards for my art or photos, but I do have incredibly high standards of what is and is not creepy. I should have let the idea go, but everything had been lining up so perfectly up to that point that I decided I might as well do it right. My first idea to make it creepier was to put fake blood on the lamp. I went down to the kitchen to get the blood container. (Here's a disturbing insight into my home life- I keep a container of fake blood that I made from scratch under the kitchen sink for uh, you know, normal reasons. You'd be surprised how often I use the blood container...it comes up a lot.) Syrio (one of my cats) thought it would be funny to trip me on my way back through which, as you can imagine, resulted in me spending about an hour cleaning fake blood up off the kitchen floor. Being out of fake blood for the first time since middle school (again, it comes up more than you'd think) I went with my backup, which is my handy bottle of red food coloring. I grabbed it and took it upstairs to get some blood on this lamp (and also quite a bit on my walls and entertainment unit.) It looked pretty good (although due to the shape of the lampshade I was unable to get a nice handprint since the food coloring was just too thin) and I was ready to try again. This is the part where I start to go a little crazy. I thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of a left hand with a bloody wedding ring turning off the lamp. That wouldn't be hard to do, but unfortunately it's just me. Take a moment if you will, to picture me, alone in the house, half crouched in my own room with red food coloring staining one hand (and my nicest ring), grasping at a lamp while I try to get a picture of this with my right hand, craning my neck around to try and see the screen while still keeping the phone tilted at an angle looking up toward the lamp. Pretty silly looking, huh? It's about to get worse. I took a couple of the ring, covered in red, sitting on my entertainment unit with the lamp behind it. Then I realized my reflection was visible in a few of those. There I was in my pajamas, my hair tangled, my nerd glasses on (way too early for contacts), red splattered across my face and hands and the blue rectangle of my phone. Now, a normal person would have at this point, stopped, and use one of the dozens of other pictures of this lamp they had already taken. I, instead, got a new image in my head. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a picture taken, looking up at a close-up of the bloody ring with the lamp looming over it and the vague reflection of a bride in the base of the lamp? The answer of course is, no. That doesn't make a whole of sense, it's too specific, it's not a scene from the story, and above all it's impractical. Of course, my brain without coffee is hardly even a brain at all. Perhaps that's why next action, instead of calling it done, was to go down to the storage unit to get my wedding dress. I think I'll leave it to the imagination of my audience at this point why a 21-year old woman who is so afraid of commitment that she travels between 3 states as an excuse not to officially move in with her boyfriend of the last 3 years - already has a wedding dress in her storage unit. (Remember, this is also a woman who has a blood container under her kitchen sink. Looking at some of these details of my life out of context has made me reevaluate many of my life decisions.) After squeezing my fat ass into this stupid dress (I have gained so much weight recently, it's not even funny. I don't even remember being that thin, to be honest) I then had to go back down to the storage unit to get my blonde wig. (I'll give you guys this one, it's because I spent last Halloween at a very elaborate costume party as Cersei Lannister.) Now I know the picture was going to be in black and white, but attention to detail is what makes these crazy early-of-the-morning adventures fruitful, and my main character has blonde hair, where as I just have a purple and red mess. I also figured that since my hair hasn't grown back since my last ill-advised haircut, the longer hair would help to hide my tattoo. About another hour of these photos, and I have finally done it. My masterpiece. A close-up shot of a bloody diamond ring on a table with a large lamp looming over it, and in the lamp you can see the outline of a woman with long blonde hair standing in the shadows in her wedding dress. I can't even describe the horrible angle my left arm was in to get this photo - but I had finally done it. Covered in red, sore, and unable to breathe in my dress I collapsed onto my bed and reached for my netbook to upload my pictures. By the time I had shrunk it down and lowered the resolution, it was just a giant mess. After struggling with it, editing the picture beyond all feasible recognition, I just used the first picture I took after getting the food coloring. It looked the best small. It was at this point that I checked my email and saw a surprise, from my friend Alan. It's the conceptual line-art for his next big art project. A cover for Silence of the Lamps, to surprise me. This has been the start to my day. This is what my life has come to. |
| Hey guys, I feel pretty good about myself today. I feel like for once I'm actually getting things done and making progress. I made that list of things to try out here on the site, and I haven't made it all the way through it yet, but I have done some of the things, and I feel like I'm making good progress. People here have been really, really helpful which has put me on the right track. I joined a group. I have membership pending with two other groups. I've read a ton of resources on WritingML and am getting a little better at using it (I keep forgetting to try anything fancy, but I know how to tag people now and it takes me less time to use the emoticons.) I'm also slightly more comfortable with the review tool. It's not so scary. I filled out my biography section. I still need to go edit that and my bioblock, but I have all the basics up on there, which is something. I've also found an icon that I like a lot better. It's the icon I used on my last writing blog, and it's the correct shape and best of all it doesn't have my face in it. I'm still not using the Notebook a lot, but I now know more about how to use it, in theory, so that's cool. I've been in the forums a little bit. It's different to get used to in comparison to the other sites I've used, but I'm getting used to it slowly, and when I'm a little more comfortable I'll start posting in groups and stuff more and writing responses to other people's threads and stuff. As for contests, I haven't entered any yet but I found a few that I'm sort of interested in trying. There are a few longer ones that I might take a swing at in the next couple weeks, and then there's a daily horror one that's pretty cool. I like the idea of doing a horror prompt every day. It's in my preferred genre, it has a low word count limit, and short deadlines. Something like that would be great for me because it would be good practice getting things done and concise writing. I actually wrote an entry based off of today's prompt. I don't think I'm going to submit it because it's terrible, but I wrote it in about an hour and it's only about 1,000 words, so I'm sort of proud of myself. I'd be more proud of myself if I had the guts to enter it, but, hey, small steps. Also I got a merit badge! It's the welcome one, and I didn't really do anything for it, but it was amazing. I'm still not sure about the difference between an awardicon and a merit badge, but I think they're cool and at some point I think I'd like to start collecting them. Another thing I'm going to start doing is looking into affiliating my reviews to a group. There are a ton of really neat review groups that have been suggested to me and I haven't picked one yet, but I think it will be a neat thing to do. It supports the group, it gives me extra review incentives and I can start collecting GP more seriously - which is neat. I haven't been saving or anything because I thought the only thing I could buy with them was a subscription, and I thought that was pretty much impossible. Now that I have a better understanding of how things work I think getting enough to renew my subscription next year is pretty doable. That might be my new system, I'll save enough to renew my subscription and the rest of them I can donate back to the groups I'm in. One thing I need to do is start getting some more of my work up. It will give me a chance to sort stuff and display more of my writing which, is sort of what I got on here to do. I have gotten a little side-tracked reading other people's stuff and learning my way around and pretty soon it will be time to get back on track. Anyway, I guess that's about it. I'm feeling good, I'm getting stuff done, there are a ton of neat site features, and things are cool. I'm going to go try to make some decisions about things. Thanks everyone, for reading my rants again, and as always for all the help. -Cat |
| Today I got really wrapped up in feedback from the community and advice from authors. I got too wrapped up in it, and I made myself pretty miserable. Don't get me wrong, I love getting comments and reviews from people who read my work and are willing to help me improve as a writer. There's never been a review that I wish I hadn't gotten, because even the worst ones help me learn. Still, it can pile up, and it's easy to start feeling like I'll never make it because there are too many things I need to fix, and according to many standards my entire writing method is flawed. I'm not going to lie, part of me wanted to just give up because I didn't feel like this is something I'm cut out for. I learned a valuable lesson though: Advice, like most things, is better in moderation. That's not to say that I want people to stop giving me their advice or suggestions, it just means that I'm going to stop beating myself up over each and every thing that gets said about my writing. I do my best to learn from each critique, review and nasty comment. I try to absorb valuable information from writers who are willing to share their experience and wisdom. I'm still willing to change my writing, make some edits based off of readers' feedback, and evolve when I can. This doesn't, however, mean that I need to take everybody's opinions on my writing as gospel that I must follow without question. Writing is an art, and the quality of any sort of art is completely subjective. It doesn't matter if the person reading my work is an award winning novelist or a middle-schooler flunking out of English, they are fully entitled to their opinion just as I'm entitled to mine. I don't have to agree with everyone in order to make my writing better. Critics have given horrible reviews to books that have gone down in history as literary masterpieces. Books that I can't stomach make the best sellers lists all the time. Books I absolutely adore have been turned down by countless publishers. It's all a matter of opinion, and no one person's opinion is more valuable than anyone else's, including mine. It's too easy to think that the reader's opinion of the work matter's more than the writer's opinion, but that's just not true. I used to think that I had to shut out all advice to keep my writing pure, and remain true to myself. That was dumb, and I'm glad I outgrew it. Then today I started to think I could only ever improve by taking all the advice I could get, and that's also not true. Incorporating everyone's notes into how I write had me ready to give up on my greatest passion within the first couple of hours. There are always people who aren't going to like what I write about, or how I write it. There are always going to be people who sort of like my writing, but think that it could be better. There will always be things that someone wants changed. That's all okay. It's alright for me to follow advice, and it's just as alright for me not to. There are so many rules of writing from successful people that should just flat out be ignored - and are ignored by people who are equally successful. I'm never going to stop trying to learn, but obsessing over everyone's idea for change won't ever get me anywhere. It's impossible to make everyone happy, and it isn't worth making myself miserable to try. On another note, I think it's okay if I don't make it. There are writing rules and standards I won't ever conform to and if that means I never have a book published or that I never get a solid fanbase, that would be okay with me. I'd rather not have those things if the price was conformity. If I ever want just to make people happy and stick to strict rules, I'll go back to my ghost-writing job. In the meantime I can relax, and take comfort in the fact that 3 of my all time favorite writers just made up words to use whenever they liked, and they all made it. One of my favorite books starts with the longest run-on sentence I've ever seen in my entire life, and ends with one of the silliest plot twists ever to be used in horror. That author made it, though. Sometimes people who are, for lack of a better word, "wrong" about the way they do things are the most successful of all. They stuck to what they felt like doing, and it took them to the top. I don't have to be successful or "right" I just need to keep telling stories the way that they come to me. If I ever do make it though, I already know it's not going to be for concise fiction or grammatical prowess. I would never get there by following all the rules. If I ever make it, it will be for doing my own, weird, incorrect thing, and that's a good feeling to hold on to. I know I took something away from all of these thoughts today, and I hope you guys did too. I can be a very harsh critic, and I stand behind the things I say, but I would never want anyone to take my writing advice if they feel it's wrong. Following too many rules, listening to too many people critique you, what it does is cut down your creativity, your voice. If we all did exactly the same thing, there would be no point. Stand up for your decisions, stand behind the things you write. Don't be afraid to be yourself. My new philosophy, and I hope you guys can take something away from this, is that if something makes you want to quit writing, then it's something you can and should forget about immediately. -Cat |
| Hey guys, I mentioned yesterday how I wanted to get around to doing a post about the things I'd like to try on here, and I'm actually going to get around to doing that right now. So, basically this is just a glorified list of things on the site to look into, learn about, and maybe attempt, along with my current opinions, thoughts on doing them. It's mostly a tool for me so that when I decide to start branching out on here I have some ideas on where to start. It won't be very exciting, but as always you guys are welcome to look through and comment or message me if you have any ideas, suggestions, or would like to weigh in. I always appreciate hearing from my blog readers. Your input is great, and it's always good to hear from other people what sort of things I should be up to. ~Portfolio Folders~ Alright, so I know that folders are a thing on here that I'm now able to make use of, but not a lot about them. I don't know how many I can have or anything, but maybe it's time I learn and start looking into it. As of right now I don't have that many samples uploaded so it doesn't make that much of a difference, but I'm going to start working on getting more stuff up, and folders could help me keep my portfolio from looking cluttered. I was thinking I could maybe sort by genre, and then have a couple project folders where I could upload all the tidbits for certain things that I'm working on, like for the zine or leftover content from my webcomic, or commissions, or whatever else would come up I guess. Not sure, still figuring that out. (I'm also still figuring out how much of my content people would be interested in seeing up here - and how far along in the editing process I should be before uploading) ~Biography~ This isn't a huge deal, but I should probably take the time soon to set up my biography tab. I don't know if anyone really cares or not, but I think maybe my portfolio would look better it was, you know, completed. ~Notebook~ I sort of know how to use the Notebook, but I do need the reminder to use it more frequently, and maybe get a little more innovative with how I use it. So far I've mostly been posting the notes that are suggested, like when I make edits to things. And sometimes I forget to even do that. ~Writing ML~ So far I've just been using the most basic formatting possible, but maybe it's time for me to play around with things on here and learn what the limits are, what sort of stuff I can do, etc. I always dread learning my way around new things like this, but it's never as bad as I imagine it's going to be. I'm sure the formatting here isn't going to be any harder than HTML or CSS. (Not that I'm a master at either one of those, but I was able to kind of learn the basics, and I can do the same here.) -Review Tool Along with learning the formatting, I could also start using the review tool to make my reviews look a little better as well, maybe add a signature or something. ~Covers~ I don't know if anyone pays a lot of attention to item covers on here or not, and I sort of go back and forth on whether or not it's important to have them. On one hand I come here for the text, not the images, but on the other hand the extra effort sort of draws my attention. I'm not a fantastic artist or anything, but 6 years of art school sort of taught me how to do some basic stuff, and I could probably at the very least come up with some concept art for some of my pieces. If that ended up taking too much time, I do have some other options. My best friend in the whole world is a great artist, for instance, and I have some artists in my family. I could probably get help doing cover art, or at the very least get some nice photos or something. I'm just not sure if it would be worth the time, or if anyone else would notice. ~Getting Out There More~ This is an issue that I have that goes a little deeper than Writing.Com, but since there are ways to promote myself and try new things through here, it might be a good place to start. -Bidclick System I don't actually know a lot about this, but it's something that gets linked in the starting articles here a lot, and I think maybe it's a promotional tool? Maybe I should look into it? -Forums The forums on here are kind of intimidating. They work a lot differently than the forums that I'm used to and I'm never sure where to jump in, but it might be a good way to interact with people other than just reviews. -Contests Writing contests scare me, but so does just about everything. I met a guy through here who does a daily contest just because it's a good way for him to practice writing and get traffic on his profile at the same time. I don't think I can do one every day, but I could maybe try to find a weekly or monthly one to enter. It would give me knew ideas, take me out of my comfort zone, a good way to promote myself on the site, and it would be good practice to help me get over my anxiety about submitting things. It scares me, but maybe it's a good idea? -The Plug Page This also terrifies me, but I have found a lot of neat stuff through the plug page. Maybe I should consider plugging something. I would need to figure out what. -Groups I haven't looked up to see what sort of groups there are or what they're like really, but it might be another good way to interact with people and to contribute more to the community on here. Maybe there's some sort of very casual review group on here or maybe something horror related? Or...I don't know. Something with dragons? Who knows. I don't, but maybe I should learn. ~Awardicons and Merit Badges ~ Awardicons and Merit Badges have intrigued me since I joined the site. I don't know how to go about getting any or like, really anything about them, but I love the idea of getting one. It's like achievement hunting, but with writing. And I'm not sure about this (you guys would have to tell me) but I think I'm probably better at writing than I am at gaming - it might be a less stressful and more productive hobby. ~ Fun Things ~ There are some things on here that I can create only with an upgraded account, so I'd like to try when I can, even if they're things I have no experience in. They are as follows: - Interactive Story -Crossword Puzzle -User Poll -Quiz ~ Fanfiction ~ I noticed one of the genre tags is fanfiction? Is this a thing? I don't know if there's a big fanfiction community on here, I always saw this as more of an original work only site, but I think it would be really convenient for me to have my fanfiction and my original projects all in one place for once, if that's the sort of thing anyone would be interested in. Not that I have a ton of it written or anything, but I have one or two pieces that I like to read through sometimes that are inconvenient to dig up. ~Promotions~ I was thinking that if I started treating this blog more like my other blogs, it might be time to start doing promotions - if that's the sort of thing people would be interested in. There are two sorts of promotions I'd really like to do: -Promoting Other Writers I think it would be cool to start a segment on here where I promote other writers through the site. That's the sort of thing I do on tumblr all the time, and people seem to like it on there. It seems like the sort of thing people might enjoy here, even though I don't have as many readers here. I could maybe start doing a promotion section at the bottom of my entries or making a specific post about them once a week, where I could post links to some of my favorite pieces that I've found on here, writers who I really like, etc. Of course, I'd have to go about getting permission from each of the writers I included individually to make sure it was okay, and that would be sort of a hassle. I do think it would be worth it though, especially if you guys are in any way interested in the sort of things I read through here. -Promoting Myself It doesn't make a lot of sense to promote myself on this blog because it's already just me talking about myself, and if you guys want to read more of my stuff my portfolio link is super easy to find from my blog. I could however promote some of my affiliate projects, and that might be a really good way to get traffic to the side things I'm doing, and maybe get other people involved. For instance, I do horror promotions practically ever day on my horror blog, and a lot of the writing on this site is better than the tumblr stuff that I'm promoting. If I did something inviting other writers to get in contact with me for horror promotions, I could be linking it to there. I don't have a ton of followers or anything, but that's about 900 people who would, at the very least, see the author's name and the title of their piece, even if they don't read it. Another example would be my zine. We have a submissions page on our site that's painfully empty because no one submits. Part of the problem is all of our subscribers are people who mostly just read the zine, not writers or artists. If I advertised the promotions that the zine does, maybe I could get a few extra submissions on there - I know my business partner would really appreciate that. ~Books~ The last thing I want to try is books. I know that this blog is technically a book item, but books aren't something I've played with a lot on here. Maybe I should though. A lot of the things I write are novel length, and the most I've ever posted here (or anywhere) is excerpts. I always assumed I'd never have any of those online because they're too long, but now maybe I should give it a shot? Here are some of the ideas I've had in regards to where I could begin with potential book items. -NaNoWriMo Samples It would make sense to post some of my NaNoWri entries, because I've been participating (loosely) for about half my life now. I'm not the best about it honestly - for the first 6 years I did it I didn't know it was a thing you could register for. My parents told me about it and I thought "sure, okay" but instead of looking into it I just wrote a novel that month on loose-leaf paper, called it a job well-done, and stuck it on my shelf. I did that every year without questioning it, until I finally learned it was an actual online event and registered. Even now I'm not the best about signing in and tracking progress.... (now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure I ever declared my book finished for last year's entry....oops.) It would make sense to finally post some of those (and maybe validate my novel from last year at some point) to stop them just sitting on my shelf. The issue with that is the last 3 years I worked on novels with characters that I only share the rights to, and all the years before that I just worked on a series of books that I started when I was too young to really be plotting well. Neither situation is ideal for posting, but, it's something to consider. -Anthology I really enjoy reading anthologies of short stories that are all done by the same author. Maybe I could do something like that? Combine all of my short stories into a collection through a book on here. Of course, if I found time to post more of my short stories, I could just do that one at a time and it would fill out my portfolio more. That might be better. -Reviews I could do a book of my critical reviews taken from my other sites about books and movies. It would be really easy to do one all about books, games or horror because those are reviews that I have tons of. Putting them together in a collection might be neat, and then I could use it as a nonfiction sample on my portfolio site. -Books Of course, I do have a number of fiction books started. Perhaps instead of posting excerpts from things, I could pick one of my novel-length projects and take the time to actually type up, and edit the whole thing before posting it through here. That seems a bit daunting at the moment, but it might be worth it if people are interested. -Pets For awhile now I've been thinking about putting together a collection about my pets, both the current ones and the past ones. Pets in my family are incredibly loves. I have so many great stories about them and it makes me so sad when those stories memories start to fade. I could do a collection of anecdotes and such about them and compile it into one long book. Of course, I could just do that in a word document, but if I did it as a book it might be good formatting practice through here. That, and I think it would be a great way to practice incorporating pictures into my writing. Plus, again, I think it would make a great nonfiction sample. So, that's about it. These are the things I'm considering at the moment. If there was anything in here you guys would be interested in seeing my try (or if you think there's something better I could be doing that wasn't listed) let me know! Thanks as always for reading. -Cat |
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That said, it's all about the journey Cat. So you get rejection letters. You could be like me - I never get them. Of course, I never submit anything but ... 
If you want to be published, keep trying and you will get there. Don't you dare give up!