Annoyance

One thing about being a writer that I find very annoying is when you are working on a project all the other stories that just run through your head. While I have been working on Flare File book three I have had one other original story and two fanfiction stories running over and over through my head. So as I am making my word count for book three I am rewarding myself with getting to write fanfiction. But of course when I sit down to write that the need just dries up. I tell my spouse that I am a tortured artist but he says that I am not dramatic enough for that. I think that when I am writing I am. Mostly because I will yell at my characters. I mean it. I have really yelled out loud at one of my characters.  He was being very annoying so I yelled at him. He wanted some plot stuff to happen that could not happen yet. So to make him shut up I told what had to happen before any of the stuff he wanted could happen. It did not shut him up. If I did not like the character so much I would have killed him and just worked with the other main character. She has patience. So I am going to try and write some fanfiction now. Maybe then I can get some peace and quiet in here.

Yes I'm still alive

Well It has been a bust two months since I last posted. Sorry for being so quiet of late. Good news is I love my job. Bad news is I have not written anything in a while. But I am working on an idea for a new story. I am going to outline it and try to start really writing it soon. I want to get back to my WIP "The Gloves" but I don't know when that will happen. I am going to try and make it soon. On a personal note I have finally started listening to podcasts. I know it is 2013 and I am just starting the podcast thing but I am always late to the party. One cast that I have found and just love it 'I should be writing'. It is just great with a working author as the host and she is so informed and fun to listen to. If you want something uplifting from a published and still working on author then check it out. Well this is just a short note to prove that I am still with the living; so have a great day/week!

So I'm back!

Well I have finished grad school and I passed my last term with all A's.
So I am going to get back to writing more than just book reviews. By September I want to have a short story that I started writing about a year and a half ago. Then I am going to give it to my spouse to beta read it. Then I need to start rereading his first novel to help edit. Wish me luck everyone! I hope that my self control is greater than my desire to be lazy. Or better yet the reason that I was having trouble writing was because I was so stressed and busy with grad school that now I am free everything will just come together.

It was what they had always dreamed of

It was what they had always dreamed of. Clove and Nix clasped their hands together as the sun set in front of me. The wind lifted sand from under their feet as the waves beat nearby.
“Do you think like here?” asked Nix in his deep voice.
Clove nodded still watching the sun slowly move into the sea. Nix smiled as he pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead. No other sounds but the wind and water.
“It’s been so long since we had time together.” Clove said her voice softer than normal to not break the hush around them.
“Yes far too long.” Nix agreed.
The war was still raging out there in the universe but for now they were not part of it. Nix pulled Clove back to their open air tent. The white of the cloth was blazingly bright in the sunset going from white to orange. Inside there are was everything that they would need for a nice break from running from the Empire. Didn’t matter that the Emperor was dead everyone still wanted the plans in Clove’s head. Nix’s ship was close by and they had their net connections on but unless an empire vessel got too close then they would have no interruptions. Dinner waiting for them as they entered the tent. A fine spread of their favorite foods from Brie and chocolate to thinly chopped Alfal nuts from Nix’s home world. (They are like almonds with a bit of a bite at the end.) Nix took Clove’s hand to help her as she sat down. The cool breeze and low humidity helped with her constant pain. That and being with Nix, not in a dangerous life threatening way. Just her and him; on a beach. Nix’s finely scaled hand pulled at her skin slightly but nothing she was not used to.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“Just that I’m so glad that we’re here, alone and alone.” Clove reply smiling at him.
Nix smiled back and pulled her closer to him.
“Me too.”

The Will Reading

The heirs, sat, waiting for the announcement. He prepared himself for a riot when he read the will. The eldest son was there but he was glaring at everyone but his friend. Cal was more likely to bite heads off than smile; so far his pretty friend (Olive that was her name strange human name) had managed to keep from him from doing that. Cal was the only child of the chieftain to not only leave the area but the planet itself. He had made a name for himself as an import/export specialist and was now the wealthiest of the children. In addition to his fully functional third eye. Thank the spirits that Cal had it behind a bandanna so his siblings would 'feel' safer. The lawyer knew that the bandanna did nothing to stop Cal from reading minds or deciding to hurl that seven foot wooden javelin through one or all of their heads. The lawyer swallowed trying to get up the courage to read this damned will.
"Well, get on with it. Some of us have other places to be." Cal said glared at everyone but Olive.
She made a hissing sound at him and he frowned at her. For about half a second before just frowning at everyone but her.
"Yes my brother is right. Father's dead, burned, and now it is time to see who has the most power now." Talkt the first legal son but second to Cal spoke up.
"Y..yes of course." The lawyer stuttered out picking up the thin paper. He broke the seal on it and rolled it open. Of course there was the usual things, like money for the chief's concubines, with some extra for Cal's mother as the mother of the first son. Then came the big things. The things that were going to get some people killed and as the sweat rolled down the back his neck the lawyer said:
"And to my son Cal I leave the deed to...

Moving spider eggs

I had never seen one as big as that before. And that was saying something because I had been shipping ‘unusual’ things for about ten years now. I looked up at the client who was smiling at the giant ice spider egg the way a new mother looks at her baby. I was tempted to take off my bandana, that protected my third eye, and read his mind but decided against it. Anyone who looks at giant ice spiders, or at least their eggs, like that was head I had no business in.
“When can you guarantee delivery?” Mr. ‘Smith’ asked.
“Well I think that I can get to the over side of Neptune by tomorrow about nine in the morning.” I replied.

Mr. ‘Smith’ nodded, still smiling at the egg, as he signed my paperwork. He did not even notice the 25% mark-up I had added because it was a GIANT ICE SPIDER EGG. Even if I had pointed it out he would not have cared. After all no other shipper would touch it not just because it was a giant spider egg but mostly because you cannot just buy one from the net. But that was why he came to me and that was why I was in business. Import export business was a lucrative trade; if you stomach and/or live through your first job. Not the strangest thing that I have moved but definitely one of creepiest. I knew that I was going to be having dreams about this one for a while.
I put the egg in cold storage and locked the door. No way that thing was going to hatch while I was delivering it. The run was good. I got the thing out of my ship, signed for, and I was taking off when the first hairline cracks started showing on it. I was glad that I got paid up front. Ah the beauty of the modern age, credit sticks run through within twelve hours, and I had cleaned that 'Smith' out.

Standalones and flash fiction

Today I am going to be doing more than just one thing. I am going to give what I think about standalone novels and then I am going to be give some flash fiction. I have not been writing anything but stuff for my graduate classes, this blog, and my book review blog. I know that looks like a lot but I am annoyed with myself about not writing anything else for so long. So I am going to be taking a prompt from ‘from my write side’ http://frommywriteside.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/master-class-2013/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-2 and writing a quick flash fiction piece about it.

Standalone novels are the pillars of literary novels. All great novels from the previous centuries are standalones. I think that standalones are both harder and easier to write. For the easier; there are no plot threads that the writer has to worry about, no long narratives, no worry about the forgotten love interest. Just one story and just one book (after editing and rewrites I get that.). Downside about standalones; the writer may not have the time or the space to tell the full story, there may be forgotten plot points or characters that were important just dropped from the narrative leaving the reader confused. I know that there is more to say about both series and standalones but for now I think that I am finished with both. If you think of anything else that you believe that I should talk about please just leave me a comment and I will address them.

My prompt is One of the biggest complaints of motherhood is the lack of training.

One of the biggest complaints of motherhood is the lack of training Ona thought as she watched her eldest son walk away with the dust from the coming wind storm following in his wake. The red light from the thick atmosphere of Jupiter tinted his black hair red and the anger in his stride made it a darker red. She was the favorite concubine of the headman but her son, his son too, was not good enough to be the next leader of their people. Ona cursed under her breath about the ancient laws that stopped her son’s ambition. He was going away now. He was going to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, to be a success there. His father was yelling at his back but her son did not turn, did not response to him at all. Her son, her Cal, was going to where she would never see him again. In vain did Ona beg his father for mercy or understanding or anything that would stop Cal from leaving. His father would not listen to her or to anyone but the old laws. The space shuttle that would carry Cal to his new life was lifting off and in a shower of dust and flame he was gone. Ona turned her back to the landing site and walked behind Cal’s father back to his home. In her heart of hearts Ona knew that she would never forgive him for taking Cal away from her or Cal for leaving.

As always thanks for reading and see you next week.

Be brave!

One of things that I have been complaining about for months now is graduate school. But it has given some things. It will (hopefully) get me a degree then a job in a library somewhere, it has given me a lot of self-knowledge, and it has given me some good friends; who I really need to call and get lunch with sometime. Other thing that it has given me it exposure to many different writing styles in the forms of all the papers and articles that I have read in the past two years. In doing that I have learned something very important; that is I am so tired of reading things written by smart people who are trying to prove to me that they are smart.

Allow me to explain that. In the world of academia there is this need to make sure that everyone knows that you are smart enough to be writing for the academic journals or a textbook. I would love to tell them is- If you are writing for an academic journal then I believe that you are smart. I do not think that you have your degrees by accident; I believe that you are someone important enough to be listened to. I know that this something that is not just in academic writing. I have read books that just scream ‘I am a good book! Look at me! Read me!’ If you can get your book published then I believe that you are a good writer and that you can write a good book. You do not have to prove to me that you are, I am willing to go on faith with you about it. I understand wanting to make your sale or your brand or whatever you are working so hard to get to. I know that you are working very hard to get there and if I believe that if you work hard, put your all into something, you will get everything back. You will get the book deal, you will get the readers, and you will be successful. But do not spend that time yelling through your writing about it. Just trust in yourself and in your work.

Self-knowledge is the best way to do this. Know where your strengths are and do not be afraid to see your weaknesses. The only time that weakness can hurt you is if you ignore it. There are so many people out there who can and will help you. Know where you can go for help, be that emotional help when you are hitting your head on the wall or someone who will read your work with honesty. Be brave and write on, readers!

Reading and Writing Concluded

Just a short post today more about reading and writing. Last week I mostly talked about reading and finding things that you like in the writing, then learning how to intergrade them into your own style. This week I want to talk about when you find bad writing. Now I am not really very critical of nine out of ten writers. I know how hard it to write the first draft, then you have get the courage up to show it to another human being, then you have to find the energy and drive to edit the piece into the ground. I understand all that. It is not easy but there some things that just kill the writing or the story for me. Now luckily, I think, that all these problems are easy to work around. I have two major problems that will kill a story and sometimes even a writer for me.

The first problem and the least is the prose. By that I mean the prose is just not readable, something went wrong with the writing process and now it is just bad. But take heart there is an easy way to fix this. Read it out loud. I am not kidding. Read the book or passage or dialogue out loud. If it does not sound right then it will not read right. I use this when I remember to and there is a difference in both the quality of my work, my happiness with the work, and even in my grades. I love audiobooks; so I have a habit of reading out loud to myself. I do this when I am having a hard time with the Lupus or if I am just not understanding what is being written. I know that makes it take longer to get through the piece but it is worth it in the end because you will have a better written piece.

The other major problem is much more serious. That is when the author does not do their research. When you are writing in your own world you make the rules but some things are the same. Like if you are writing something that is supposed to be real world then the sun needs to rise in the east. The biggest example I can think of is a YA novel that I read last year and the writer did not do research on how a rape survivor acts. The heroine, who has been trained at this point to be an assassin, wakes up in her bed knowing that someone else is in the room. The person touches her foot and all she can think is about is how warm his hand is. To this day that offends me. The heroine was brutalized, beaten, and strongly hinted that she was raped at least once in her life. No rape survivor is going to act like that. She is going to lose it and I know this because I have taken friends to my local rape clinic, I have held their hands as they told their story over and over. I am not saying that they live in fear every moment of their lives because that is not true either but if any of them woke up to some guy in their room they are not going to think about how warm his hand is. If you want to know what book I am talking about I will answer in private message but not in a public way. Well this one ended up longer than I thought it would. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Writing and Reading

Something I hear from everyone in the writing field is that they all read and they read all the time. The reasons that are given are that it gives you new ideas, it shows you how any people are writing about X or Y, and that is makes you a better writer. Well I agree. Reading what others write will do all that for you and more. There is something about it that does good things for our brains. As a librarian I cannot stress the importance of reading enough. If you want to know more about the brain science behind why it is important just Google ‘brain science and reading’. There are many excellent articles from Science News and others about the importance of reading to the brain.

But what does reading do for writers? I cannot speak for others but for me it shows me what I like and what I do not like. When other writers use a certain turn of phrase that I just love I want to think of how to use it myself. Seeing both what other writers are writing about and how they are writing gives us learning writers’ guidance. When more experienced writers do something well, I want to copy it. That is not a bad thing. In fact it a good thing for younger writers to try and copy those we admire. It will teach us how to find our own voice. Every artist has a voice and the only way to find yours is to try on others first. Like when you were a child and you played dress up. You were trying on different voices to see if that one was closer to your voice. That said I do not endorse stealing from other artists. That is not the way to find your voice.

How can you try on different voices without stealing? One easy and safe way to do that is writing exercises. Take the characters or the setting or whatever really gets you and try writing it out. See where it takes you. Another thing that I have done is when something that I do not like in a book I have written out what I would have done. That has helped me get peace with the story or helped me get over the story. Do not feel bad about rewriting some other authors work, just do not steal it, of course. Be inspired by the works around you. Shakespeare borrowed, changed, and outright stole every one of his plays. They all are from older famous works so if another author has just the prefect sub plotline you need to jump start your own work, do not be afraid to use some or parts of it. Just do not steal from them. When in doubt contact the author and ask. Remember do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Until next week; write and be blessed.

Image from Google Images.

Everyone has something important

Well I was and still am not sure what I want to write about this week but I do something fun/interesting to tell you. If you Google writing blog ideas I am the fifth thing that will pop up at least for me and that I think is really cool but I do not think that it will work for others (sad face). I do not know if that is because of some setting that I have on my Google account or if I am really the fifth thing out there. I really hope that I am the fifth thing because that would be so cool. If that is really the case I want to write about why I think that is. I think that maybe everyone thinks that they know how to write. I am not talking about grammar or anything like that but they just do not need to talk about how to write. Or maybe others believe that they do not know enough about the art of writing to have an opinion or something like that.

That is not true. If you have written anything from a letter (or e-mail as the world is now) to a paper for class you have some knowledge about how to write and be successful. Now someone like John Scalzi who has a great blog about writing and more, I would trust more than someone with no writing credits under their belt. But that does not mean they do not have something of value to share. There is something that we all learn when we do the writing process that another may not know or may need help learning. So do not ever feel that just because you have not published half a dozen books does not mean that you do not have some wisdom to share about the process or just about the discipline needed to finish a piece.

Short post today but I think that it is something important that we as writers need to remember. That is that everyone has a different view of the process, a different understanding of it , and they have something important to give others about it. Until next week be blessed dear readers.

New writing schedule

So this week I have decided to try and use my free time for writing time. So far I have not had good results. Maybe it is this week because I have had personal life; like my cat going to the vet and my sister maybe here about a month early and my mother needs help getting ready for her and the children. But this week’s lack of word count is disheartening. In addition to my normal work for grad school and I have to do well to make certain powerful people happy. So I have written some on a short story that I plotted out with character bios and everything about two years ago. I was writing it when I realized that I needed to have a prologue to explain some background information that is important to the story but never talked about in the story itself. So I went back to the beginning and started writing a prologue. That is all I have done on it. It is less than 500 words and I want the story to be about 5000.

Well I am going to continue to try with this new writing schedule. Maybe this is just a bad week or maybe it just feels bad because I am trying something new. About the writing itself I have high hopes for my piece. I am writing a science fiction story and when I get it done (God I hope) then I get to give it to my beta readers. I am very lucky in my readers because I have someone who knows me so well that when I make a mistake, like switching words I do that a lot, he knows exactly what I am trying to saying. By switching words I mean this- “She walked towards the car. The rain was just a plain rain but the car made it shiny.” My brain moves faster than my hands and it shows. Then I have a grammar friend who loves me but hates my grammar. It is cool he is very helpful and nice about it. Then I have a creative writing friend and a last someone who could be a professional reader.

How I handle all this outside help? Well I do it in stages. I do not send my work out to a new beta until I have read and worked with all notes from the previous beta. I talk with my betas about their notes and why they felt that way about it. I listen to them when they are talking about their notes and I do not interrupt them while they are doing it. My betas are giving me something wonderful and I do my best to respect them when they are helping me become a better writer. Well hopefully I will have a better word count for you next week. Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Character description

Today I want to talk about something that caused more than a few arguments in creative writing classes that is describing characters. First my opinion: I do not care how someone describes their characters. I do think that there better ways of doing it but in the end I do not care. That was and is my opinion on the matter but even I was pulled (very willingly) into the big discussion and argument about the ‘right’ way to do this. There is no right way but there are better ways.

The biggest way that characters are described is the Mirror method. That is when you have a character look into a mirror and tell you what they are seeing. For example:

Rachel looked at herself to fix her hair. Long blonde hair that wanted to curl but then decided that was too much work so it just flowed into waves down her back. Her light blue eyes were round as she took in her skin. Normally flawless but the last week of stress had taken its bill to her skin. She was breaking out all on her chin. She closed her eyes and bowed her head so she was looking at her short legs when she opened them.

That is the mirror method. It has its place in writing and it is not a bad way to describe but there better ways. I do not know the name for how the best way I learned in college. But it is more showing the reader than telling them what they see. I will try do it.

Rachel ran her hands through her hair trying to untangle the long blonde locks. As she moved into the bathroom worried about how her skin would look. The past week of stressing would, no doubt, taken a toll on it. Rachel ran her right hand over her face feeling the bumps on her chin. Rolling her blue eyes she turned to face the mirror.

I do not know if that is a really big difference to you but it is to me. In the first I feel like I am telling you what to see and in the second I feel that I am showing you how Rachel looks. But if I am not then please tell me, I am still learning about this writing thing, I think that is something that everyone is still learning. Description is very important and you can do the first method, I do, but I do not use method one for characters only for places. Places can just be told but do not use it too much. It can be a quick and useful way to jump start a story but it can also make you a cheap writer. By that I mean if you only use method one then you are cheating your reader and yourself out of what you can do as a writer. The best way to not do that is to have other people read your work. Have someone who likes you but is not going to worry about your feelings. You are not your work. The work is something that you have created but you are not it. But I think that I will talk about that next week. Until gentle reader, Je ne.

The Thesaurus

  Today I wanted to talk about one of my favorite things in the world to use when I am writing: The Thesaurus. I love my thesaurus and Thesaurus.com. They have both saved my life while writing papers for classes, for blogging, for my creative writing, and for my personal writing. Now part of that is I have a learning disorder. It is just for math and spelling, when I try to remember how to do something like a math formula or spelling my brain just freezes. Now it does not matter how big the word or how complicated the formula I blank out. For the word ‘complicated’ I had to look it up. I spelled complex then looked at the synonyms to find it. Now this made my younger life so much harder than it had to be. My parents understood what was going on but my school(s) did not. They just thought that I would lazy or in the case of one teacher retarded. That teacher was the reason I was taken and tested for learning disorders and IQ. My mother, proudly, to this day says that my IQ is much higher than that of the teacher in question.

So how does this wonderful technology help the writer? Well I have already shown you one way; in that when you cannot remember how to spell a word you can just look it up. Google has smart text. As you are typing Google will try and guess what you are trying to say. Now I have defeated Google with words I am looking for. And I say this all modesty I have made Google have self-doubt. I now that some people will make fun of me but I do use Google to spell check. I know that Google is not all knowing but it is a very useful tool and I am not one to not a tool just because.

Another wonderful tool is a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms. I have two copies in my house. One that travels with me to class and out and about; the other one stays in my library in the house. I use that when I cannot remember what word I want when all I can remember is what the word means. So when I have my brain freeze I can remember what is does not mean. It is also useful because they do tell you more words that mean the same thing. I use it in that way when I am checking what a word means. Knowing the definition of a word does not mean that it the right word for the sentence. So when I have doubts about that I look up the word in my little dictionary or use Google and just read what the synonyms for it are. I have changed paragraphs because of this tool. Here are links to the websites that I use and have named in this post- http://thesaurus.com/, http://www.synonym.com/, http://www.oed.com/. Please tell me what you use when you are stuck on a word or if that is something special about me. Until next week then, je ne!