So I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo for August and I have to say that I am doing better this time than in June. That probably has to do with my current joblessness and classlessness. I literally have nothing to do but read and write. Which would be awesome if I didn't have things like bills. Money is so over-rated. I have almost 20,000 words written and I am aiming for 100,000. This will be the first book in a trilogy. After I finish book one I am going to start book two. Now book two has advantages because it was the one I was writing before I realized that my one little fantasy book is really three little fantasy books.
I know that many writers would love to have the problem of writing three books and I am doing it. It is just that I was not expecting it. All my planning, because I did about year of planning, before I started my little story. I wrote a chapbook, I had people read what I wrote and give me their honest opinion, by that I mean I had my classmates in writing courses read and talk about it, I talked about to God. I am not kidding, I would stand in the shower and be like 'God this is crazy right? I mean writers don't make a living writing' and on and on like that. God is very patient and totally a saint. So I finally sat down and started writing. 64,000 words in I realized that my characters were leading me on. They wanted more than one little shot at the page. They wanted more like three. Then the world where they live was like 'Hey you! Yeah you, writer person! You can write like two more stories in here!'
After I finish the first trilogy then I am going to write a hard sci-fi story. I really want to write that one because the characters are like bursting out at me. My fantasy characters are happy at the moment and are more like 'Take your time dude but DO NOT PUT US TO THE SIDE!'. Yes they yell at me. At least they're nice when I'm writing them. They mostly go where I think but sometimes they do pull a fast one on me and they wake up hanging upside down from the inn with no money and no idea how they got there. Have to keep them in line somehow. Also after I finish the trilogy I am going to be getting it edited first my partner, who can understand what I am trying to say when I am too sleepy to move my mouth (He's amazing), and then a friend who is an editor after that I if I have A. a job so that B. I have money, I am going to be sending it to a professional line editor. Well that is it for this week. See you next and thanks for reading!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Funny creative writing stories
So for the past few weeks I have trying something different with my writing blog. I am still writing in real life(whatever that is), I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo but being me I do crazy things. Like I am trying to write a 100,000 word novel in thirty days. I going Meh so far but it is still early days yet. On to the funny stories. By the way these are all college stories.
To start with this are stories that I think are funny so keep that in mind. In my first creative writing class my teacher explained how this was going to work. We would have one short story due each week from varying from shorts to a 15 pages final story. We could write poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. One day a week we would all read one to two of our classmates stories. She looked at all of, only about eight of us, and told us this- 'When you are having your story read, you cannot speak until we are done talking about. Everyone take out a pen. Put it in your mouth. That is what I will be looking for when we are reading your story. It will remind you that you cannot speak until we are done.' On imagine eight undergrads with pens in their mouths just looking at one another. And every time we had a class reading people had pens in their mouths. We had people looking in at us like we were crazy but no one spoke until the class was done talking about the story. It was a great first class.
In my main poetry class one thing that our teacher has us do was submit to a contest that was on Justin Bieber. I do not have any younger relations who are old enough to be interested in the Bieber so I had to do a google search on her... I mean him. This is my poem that I wrote.
Oh singer divine with
hair that never moves
That was the favorite poem I wrote in that class, well at least my classmates loved it. I own it so Mine!
The last story is from my last class as an undergrad. It was an awesome class be the way. It was a flash fiction class that really helped me get into writing what is now my novel. The teacher was explained about how to act to each other when we were reading and talking about the works. He said that we should never, ever do what happened in one of his writing classes. The class was a normal writing, so there were egos and big dreams and all that drama, but they were doing their first in class reading. When one of his classmates stood up and said 'This is what I think about your work' and pissed on it the paper in front of the class. Our teacher just stared and that is what we did, just stared at our teacher. Of course we all started talking at once. 'Did that really happen?' 'What was done?' on and on. It really happened but thankfully not to me. I am sure how I would handle that.
So those are some my stories about creative writing classes. I do not know what I will write about next week. So see you then1
To start with this are stories that I think are funny so keep that in mind. In my first creative writing class my teacher explained how this was going to work. We would have one short story due each week from varying from shorts to a 15 pages final story. We could write poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. One day a week we would all read one to two of our classmates stories. She looked at all of, only about eight of us, and told us this- 'When you are having your story read, you cannot speak until we are done talking about. Everyone take out a pen. Put it in your mouth. That is what I will be looking for when we are reading your story. It will remind you that you cannot speak until we are done.' On imagine eight undergrads with pens in their mouths just looking at one another. And every time we had a class reading people had pens in their mouths. We had people looking in at us like we were crazy but no one spoke until the class was done talking about the story. It was a great first class.
In my main poetry class one thing that our teacher has us do was submit to a contest that was on Justin Bieber. I do not have any younger relations who are old enough to be interested in the Bieber so I had to do a google search on her... I mean him. This is my poem that I wrote.
Ode to hair most
prefect
To Thee oh greatest
of great, oh singer of high pitches
Thy hair is most
prefects, thy hair that never needs to be brushed
Thy voice will lift
up our lowly spirits up to thine high seat
Seat above the needs
of hair brush or voice lessons perfection just as thine are
Rejoice in thy
hearts, rejoice in thy throats for the hair eternal has come unto us!
The last story is from my last class as an undergrad. It was an awesome class be the way. It was a flash fiction class that really helped me get into writing what is now my novel. The teacher was explained about how to act to each other when we were reading and talking about the works. He said that we should never, ever do what happened in one of his writing classes. The class was a normal writing, so there were egos and big dreams and all that drama, but they were doing their first in class reading. When one of his classmates stood up and said 'This is what I think about your work' and pissed on it the paper in front of the class. Our teacher just stared and that is what we did, just stared at our teacher. Of course we all started talking at once. 'Did that really happen?' 'What was done?' on and on. It really happened but thankfully not to me. I am sure how I would handle that.
So those are some my stories about creative writing classes. I do not know what I will write about next week. So see you then1
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Technicals of writing
Sorry for this post being two days late. Life and stuff but here it is.
So last week I talked about the real secret to writing being just to write. That is true but there are little things that you can do to make your writing better. As someone who's college degree is based on writing I do not want to discount writing classes. I have taken six classes solely dedicated to writing that is not including all the classes where I was expected to write papers or responses to whatever we were doing if you include those I have a four degree in writing. Those six classes were just about creative writing not about paper writing or anything like that and the last three books were not part of the teaching it was solely about doing your writing and how to make it better.
In my many classes about just writing I have only two books that I have kept on writing. Every other book I either did not buy or I have sold back. But this two are really good books with helpful things in them. The first one if Fiction Writer's workshop by Josip Novakovich. This book is great is breaks down chapter by chapter from Setting to Revision. At the end of each chapter Novakvich gives you writing prompts about whatever the chapter was about. The prompts are excellent and they do push you as a writer. It is easy to read, with interesting points about writing and I still use it.
The second book is Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern. I have had this book for over two years. Stern defines just about everything that you could have a question about. For example Convention- A literary convention is a feature that readers accept even though it violates what is considered real or probable.
That is just the first sentence Stern goes on in depth about all of his terms. He even tells you where to go if you are looking for something similar at the end of the definition. I have had this book for almost three years and again I still use it.
Now for my last thing about helping your writing is to find your local writers group. Most cities have one and if yours does not you should start one. There is nothing to beat having someone read your writing and give you honest thoughts about it. How this was done in my writing classes was this. Everyone would have read the work at least two days before meeting, they would talk about the work without the writer saying anything ( how that was done was by putting a pen in between their teeth), the talkers would give their thoughts but they were never to be rude or mean or anything just negative. That does not mean that if they did not like the piece they had to lie but the talker had to express their feelings but remember that the writer has feelings too. It is something that is learned, I am still learning it but if I think about how I would feel if I said this versus that I stop. Next I will share stories about my years of writing class stories. See you then.
So last week I talked about the real secret to writing being just to write. That is true but there are little things that you can do to make your writing better. As someone who's college degree is based on writing I do not want to discount writing classes. I have taken six classes solely dedicated to writing that is not including all the classes where I was expected to write papers or responses to whatever we were doing if you include those I have a four degree in writing. Those six classes were just about creative writing not about paper writing or anything like that and the last three books were not part of the teaching it was solely about doing your writing and how to make it better.
In my many classes about just writing I have only two books that I have kept on writing. Every other book I either did not buy or I have sold back. But this two are really good books with helpful things in them. The first one if Fiction Writer's workshop by Josip Novakovich. This book is great is breaks down chapter by chapter from Setting to Revision. At the end of each chapter Novakvich gives you writing prompts about whatever the chapter was about. The prompts are excellent and they do push you as a writer. It is easy to read, with interesting points about writing and I still use it.
The second book is Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern. I have had this book for over two years. Stern defines just about everything that you could have a question about. For example Convention- A literary convention is a feature that readers accept even though it violates what is considered real or probable.
That is just the first sentence Stern goes on in depth about all of his terms. He even tells you where to go if you are looking for something similar at the end of the definition. I have had this book for almost three years and again I still use it.
Now for my last thing about helping your writing is to find your local writers group. Most cities have one and if yours does not you should start one. There is nothing to beat having someone read your writing and give you honest thoughts about it. How this was done in my writing classes was this. Everyone would have read the work at least two days before meeting, they would talk about the work without the writer saying anything ( how that was done was by putting a pen in between their teeth), the talkers would give their thoughts but they were never to be rude or mean or anything just negative. That does not mean that if they did not like the piece they had to lie but the talker had to express their feelings but remember that the writer has feelings too. It is something that is learned, I am still learning it but if I think about how I would feel if I said this versus that I stop. Next I will share stories about my years of writing class stories. See you then.
Monday, July 23, 2012
The secret to being a writer
I have noticed that other writing blogs like to tell people how to write. This is not a bad thing but I do have a small problem with it. Let me give you some personal information about me. My undergraduate degree in English and Creative Writing, so I have done and am doing a lot of writing, both on the technical level for my MLIS that I am working on and for four years as an undergrad. So I guess I do know something about writing. The secret to being a writer is this- Write. Do it. Ray Bradbury say to write at least one thousand words a day. He is right. Also the more you do something the more you can do it. In writing that means the more you make yourself sit down and push through the 'I can't's and the 'I just don't know if I can do this' or whatever the voice in your head says the better you get at doing what you do think that you can.
As far as write what you know, I have not listened to that for years. This reason is if you look at my plots there is no way for me to 'really' know what I am writing about. I write high fantasy, hard science fiction, and I have a steampunk story just banging around in there. There is no way for me to know about any of those places in reality. I had people in my life when I was much younger and just starting to write for more than just school work, who in an mistaken attempt to help me, discouraged me from writing about what I saw/see in my head. They said to write what I know. Well I was 8 I really did not know much. But I did, and hopefully still do, know people. So instead of writing about being a unhappy 8 year old I wrote about people that I would like to meet. I wrote/write about people that I would like to meet. Heroes, villains, spaceship pilots, and brave people who overcame their bad pasts to become so much then anyone believed that they could be. So in hand I do write about what I know because I write about the people who live in my head and on the other no I can never write about my plots like I know them.
In the end it really does not matter. Write about what you love, write about what is in your heart, write about the people you would love to met and you will write true. True writing is great writing, just think about your favorite book. Why is it your favorite? Because there is some truth in there that you see and you love the product, the book, because it is the way to the truth. See you next week.
As far as write what you know, I have not listened to that for years. This reason is if you look at my plots there is no way for me to 'really' know what I am writing about. I write high fantasy, hard science fiction, and I have a steampunk story just banging around in there. There is no way for me to know about any of those places in reality. I had people in my life when I was much younger and just starting to write for more than just school work, who in an mistaken attempt to help me, discouraged me from writing about what I saw/see in my head. They said to write what I know. Well I was 8 I really did not know much. But I did, and hopefully still do, know people. So instead of writing about being a unhappy 8 year old I wrote about people that I would like to meet. I wrote/write about people that I would like to meet. Heroes, villains, spaceship pilots, and brave people who overcame their bad pasts to become so much then anyone believed that they could be. So in hand I do write about what I know because I write about the people who live in my head and on the other no I can never write about my plots like I know them.
In the end it really does not matter. Write about what you love, write about what is in your heart, write about the people you would love to met and you will write true. True writing is great writing, just think about your favorite book. Why is it your favorite? Because there is some truth in there that you see and you love the product, the book, because it is the way to the truth. See you next week.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Unemployed but still writing
So the job that I started last week is done now. As some of you may know and some may not I have Lupus and I live in the deep south. Well Lupus and heat do not mix well at all. My previous employer was told about me and heat not working. I point blank told him I needed a cool workplace and he said that would be no problem. Now I do not know if he just forgot or what but it was a problem. He would go through the small office and turn off the window units but not the one in his office. Then the other employees would wait for him to either leave or get busy doing something else then turn them back on. For a normal person having 80+ heat inside for about half of the day is uncomfortable but live able. For me is not is live able by yesterday, Sunday, I could not walk I was in so much pain and my joints were so inflamed. It is and was horrible. So I went in today and told him that. He said that I could go. I did quit just so you know but man I am glad to be done with that place. But I now have more time to spent with the writing that needs to get done for my classes and the writing I want to do for personal. I have already put in some apps so I have hope to hear back soon. The job I would really like is working for my university in their archives because I want to be an archivist/writer/ Because I'm a nerd just in case, my dear readers, you did not know that. until next week then!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Yay writing, schooling and god awful heat.
So I live in the deep south at the moment and we are having a god awful heat wave. By god awful I mean it has been over 100 degrees for the past three weeks. As I have complained before I also have Lupus and fibromyalgia and heat is very bad thing for me. So for the past three weeks I have felt really really bad. I do not want to curse in this blog because I do not think that is the best use of either the blog or your time but feel free to put any words that come to mind because they are going to be more true to what I was feeling and thinking about the heat. That means I have not had either the energy to write or the physical ability to do so. Because of where I have my SLE lupus fluid it hurts to sit up, to have anything on my lap because it pulls on the muscles making the fluid move which not any fun for me or anyone around me. But this week-end we got rain. Wonderful, cooling rain. The heat went from 105 with a heat index of 115 to 93. In about 20 minutes. I still need to stay inside but I can sit up with much pain and I have the desire to write again. I still need to get about 25,000 words before I can call this draft done. Then I get the wonderful task of breaking up the single novel in three. Like I said in a previous post I realized that 63,000 words that I had a trilogy not a single novel. Which is fine but man I wish that I knew that before I started writing it. This week is going to be very busy with my next grad school class, starting a new job, having a relationship and some kind of social life. I'm only when I'm being pulled in five different directions. See you next week!
Monday, July 2, 2012
Just a quick note
Well I'm in between classes until Thursday and I don't start
my new job until next week so I'm hoping to get some writing and some reading
done. I have not written anything on my novel for about two weeks and I'm
feeling bad about that. But I was in very research intensive course with my June
class. The class was basically how to be a research librarian. Not bad but man
now I understand why every librarian I ever asked for help from loved me. We
were given real questions that either the professor who was teaching the class
or what the other professors had really been asked over the course of the years
as librarians. For example one question was this- A GTA comes to you with this
problem. Her professor is writing an article and wants to use a particular
reference. But neither the GTA or the professor know the title of the article,
who wrote, if it was published in a scholarly journal or in a trade journal.
They think that they know what publishing house published the articles but they
are not sure about that. The GTA does have a quote from the article but it may
or may not be right. That was really one of my questions that I had to answer.
I would never ever have walked up to a librarian with that question. I
facepalmed when I finished reading it. I was able to find the article but man
it was a pain in the a$$ mostly mine but a pain none the less. Don't feel too
bad for me but pity my partner because he got to hear all about it, with full
adjectives and very colorfully. He's a great guy with much patience. Well see you next week!
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