Monthly Archives: May 2011

Why do we choose the paths we take? I plan so much of my life, I border on OCD, but when it comes to writing, story ideas, it slips away from that. Not entirely, as I plan and outline seriously before a story is drafted, but in the sense that even I know better than to plan what I’m going to write. I would say this is healthy.

But having just finished reading a thriller and picking up another one, I suddenly am questioning why I’m writing in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. I love them, I do, and it’s not that I don’t want to write them, but I should be working on the thriller ideas I’ve jotted down on paper and stashed away.

I’ve immersed myself in fantasy and science fiction short stories. Writing them, revising them, revising them again. It IS good, but that’s ALL I’ve been doing. I feel the sudden need to expand my writing horizons. Working on children’s stories is a good start and I enjoy working on those. Why aren’t I working on the thrillers?

Could I be afraid?

My last several attempts to work on the current novel in progress have failed. I need to just write it and be done with it. Throw it in the closet for a year and ignore its existance. It needs to be c0mpleted first. And working on all these short stories is distracting me. I suddenly feel like short story writing and revising (which has been my practice ground) is more like my playground. My natural tendency in writing has always been novels. Novel length complications and plots, novel length problems that can’t be dealt with sufficienctly in a short story.

I should be writing more novels.

But I love my short stories.

Can’t I do both? Maybe. But the novel in progress needs my full attention because of the issues I’ve had in dealing with it. So, new plan, sort of.

June: finish the damn novel.

June/July/August – use the Clarion Write A Thon to revise the 4 – 6 short stories at the top of my list.

August – December: One short story revision per month + novel work. (August to plan/outline the next novel, September – December to write it).

It’ll screw with my write1sub1 a  bit, quite a  bit actually, but am I really going to make a career selling short stories that really want to be novels?

I’m calling this Plan B for the moment. Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel more focused and go back to plan A.  This planning thing I do, it kills me sometimes. Why can’t I just take it week to week and not fret about what to write next?

Because I’ll never get anywhere.

I’ve written two stories for May SAD. I’ve got two more on the verge of completion. Four would be a nice total for the month. I could be happy with that, especially considering the insane month I just went through.

And now that I’ve tied my muse up in arguing with me, it’s time to work on the family finances for the month. Nothing like money to take the mind off writing. 😛

So how’s your night going?

I haven’t been able to put as much time as I’ve wanted to into my writing this year. That doesn’t mean I haven’t accomplished anything good – I have! I’ve written a decent amount of short stories, been revising and continually submitting, and I have not given up on the novel that refuses to be written. I won’t, either. It might be crap when I’m done, but I’ll finish it. As soon as I write a few more short stories, revise a few others, and submit them.

I fully admit short stories are both my practice ground and my luxury. I’ve gotten so much practice revising, learning my weak spots (and trying to avoid them), and testing out new characters and worlds. The luxury is that short stories do not build a career which will allow me to quit my day job and send my kids to college. But I love it, and that’s why I do it. It’s for me, and I can’t wait for the right opportunity to share my writing with you one day.

I’ve been feeling a little down lately about the writing time issue. I keep waiting for work to slow down, or to sleep better. No luck there yet, but it’s coming. In the meantime, I happened upon this lovely link which quieted those feelings. It’ll come in time, I just have to not give up, right? 🙂

http://writerunboxed.com/2011/05/25/so-you-want-to-be-a-professional-writer/

I’ve been working on “Conduit” for over a week now. It’s a tricky story, and not entirely clear to me, which is probably my issue in writing it. I’m also battling spoiling by my muse in which my last two stories came out as close to a perfect first draft as I can expect right now. So this one is just going to have to be a crappy first draft. Damn perfection!

I refuse to move onto the next story until this one’s done. I don’t want to lose what I’ve discovered. I’ve also learned that my freewriting in trying to learn about Madison (the main character) is helpful during the freewriting, but the handwriting is so bad I can’t salvage what I don’t remember writing down. It’s an interesting exercise. But the story is more involved that what I originally intended.  It’s not just finding an alien’s kidnapped symbiont, it’s helping the alien she believes murdered her father, it’s learning that the truth is often hidden until one has the right perspective, and it’s about a woman accepting that her father wasn’t just disappointed by her – he never loved her.

And it’s almost down in crappy first draft form. uplifting, right?

Today was a brainstorming day. I’ve had an idea for a while that I wanted to work on, but something seemed missing. I saw my husband’s grandfather the other day, and his interest in military/espionage thrillers every so slightly shifted the focus of my story — in a good direction.

As I played the with the idea driving into work this morning, I’d hoped I could write it before he passed away (stupid cancer), but no.

So, rather sadly, I continued work on the outline. I  believe in the story. I believe he would have enjoyed it. I’m writing it anyway. It’s just going to take a little longer.

I adored this man. He not only read my writing, but would refer back to a particular story he’d read years ago. He had a good heart and lived a wonderful life, until cancer stole it from him. If this story makes publication, the dedication goes to him.

My second story was more difficult. It tried to turn into a blend of “Dexter” and “Inception”, both of which are interesting works of fiction, but not MINE. I broke it back down to basics, refocused on the heart of the story. Then I realized there was no way for a happy ending, not one that would satisfy. This is a dark character, doing something wrong. I suppose I could have made it a redemption story, but I think that’s more of a novel length piece.

“One Touch” is science fiction, and came in at 2500 words.

I thought this was going to be a SF flash, but it got complicated fast. It’s going to take me two days to complete (it’s a workday and the dayjob must get done). The story is outline, I’ve got character sketches, and I have scenes scribbled in my notebook that need to be transferred onto the screen and fit into the story chronology.

The character is slightly off for me. I don’t exactly identify with her, but she’s got serious problems. I think I need to give her some flaw that readers can identify with, since most of us aren’t deranged bounty hunters. 🙂 Maybe I’ll figure it out tonight, and write it up tomorrow morning.

Tentative title is “One Touch”.

I pulled the prompt last night, started the idea and outline this morning. “Fallen Star” is a 1900 word fantasy story about what happens when a star falls from the heavens. It was fun yet sad to write, and I enjoyed the scramble in trying to tie my ideas down before losing them.