Archive for October, 2008

Not that I didn’t before of course!

This morning I decided to get my arse into gear and start training for a half marathon. This isn’t as random as it might seem. I have a list of things ‘to do’ which range from mastering php right through to … yup, running a half marathon. It’s not written down anywhere but rather it’s in my head and every year I try and do a couple of things off this list.

Things I’ve done have been either for my own benefit, sitting down and reading something I keep putting off or useful. Like learning to weld, or learning to build corsets. One year I gained all my aromatherapy and massage qualifications. (Yup, I’m a certified therapist, kinda scary no?)

So this year it’s nano and (rolling year) running a half marathon.  I think the half marathon one is a particuarly good one to pick this year as I still need to loose about a stone in weight but me and diets? We no see eye to eye!

So, the plan is to aim for the Belvior Half on 12th April next year. There I have a date! Commitment that is! *crosses fingers*

This means I can do the pre-training up to the end of the year and start actual training in january. Go me huh?

So yesterday someone mentioned something to me about struggling with plot because they got started, then everything they were plotting they’d seen in a film or a book someplace. It got me thinking (and googling).

Apparently there are only seven basic plots (or 36, or 69 depending on which source you decide to go with) and everything boils down to one of these seven basic situations.

Ok, that I can go with. Humanity as a whole have always told stories, over campfires, round tables, in the written word. So in all the time we’ve been doing that, you’d think it had been done to death right? Every single stories already been told.

I don’t think so. Actually I’m pretty damn sure they haven’t. Why? Because everyone’s different and what comes out of each person’s imagination is different again. You could give five different writers the same basic info, say Fred and Jane are neighbours, Fred’s an insurance salesman and Jane just came out of a bad relationship, they meet when Jane’s pet dog goes missing.

Everyone of those five writers will come up with something different. Guaranteed. They’ll weave different stories. Writer A may be a contemporary romance author and we get a sweet love story. Writer B is a horror writer and it turns out Jane is a serial killer intent on drawing Fred into her clutches. Writer C does paranormal and the ghost of the dog leads them to … see where I’m going. Each writer puts a different slant on the same thing.

Same with characters. We have Fred and Jane but in each story, they’ll be different people. Moulded and shaped by the writer that’s created them from little more than the name they were given.

My point here is, don’t second guess. Sure your plot may be ripped from hollywood for the basics but that’s just the basic line. Everything else, the characters, YOUR take in it, that’s all you. And that’s what writing is about, your imagination.

more animals

*tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger*

Will stop with the tiggers and do something sensible…

… maybe this afternoon *tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger**tigger*

Oh wow. Today started off badly, in fact this WEEK has been a bad week. Spiralling economy means the job’s not good, arguments with the other half left me convinced that … my opinion of my hubby this morning wasn’t printable.

But I got back to my desk to some great news earlier. Lyrical Press have contracted Rockstar!!

I am SO impressed, haven’t stopped doing the tigger dance yet and this silly little grin keeps crawling onto my face. I really really like the Rockstar story. It’s Zette and JJ’s story and involves a marriage clause in a will and a rock concert. And lots of sex!!

*Does more tiggers!*

Ok, I will calm down at some point tonight! And tomorrow I’ll explain a little more about the story!

So I’m preparing for Nano and I’ve been reading through every book, article and list of hints I can get my hands on. So far, they’ve been good, even entertaining. But two things resonate with me, two things that can easily be lost when you’re writing.

One, you need to have fun!!

I love writing. I’ll write anything. Leave me alone long enough with a bit of paper and you’ll come back to find plot notes, character notes and random lines of dialouge scribbled all over it. Along with random flowers and eyes, but that’s a different story (yes, I said eyes. Just single eyes. Often highly decorated and with long lashes but just one of them. Perhaps I have a hidden thing about cyclops or something, I dunno. Actually … cyclops. Not seen them in stories recently… *grabs notepad*)

Ok, back to the point. You have to be interested in what you write. You have to have fun. I always have fun with what I’m writing, it’s part of what I love about writing things. There’s something fascinating about getting right into the middle of the situation and ‘being there’. I hope that comes over in the writing, I really do because if people have half as much fun reading the stuff as I do writing it, then one happy bunny I will be. Ok yoda moment over. If you’re thinking of doing nano, or any writing for that matter, remember, fun is important.

The second biggest secret weapon I ever found was this…

Give yourself permission to write crap.

Seriously. Don’t get yourself wound up in the ‘it’s not the best it could be’. That way lies rewriting the same damn chapter for years because you got yourself in a scared little loop. Believe me, been there, done it. It ain’t pretty.

Now I’m not saying you don’t need to edit. You DO. I’ve lost count of the writers who tell me that’s what editors are for (and I can hear several screaming already just at the thought). Do your writing career a favour and don’t EVER say that. Don’t even think it!! But that’s another rant, we’ll cover that another day

So, writing crap. Crap on the page is pure gold. Crap can be edited and polished to near diamond brilliance. But you have to have something to start with!!

Someone famous once said ‘the first draft of anything is crap’. I can’t remember who and I can’t be bothered to look it up Yeah, I’m a lazy bunny today. But it’s true. You’ve gotta get something on the page, however meandering and convuluted it is, to have something to work with.

So, my top tips for writing?

Write crap and have fun doing it!

Every now and then everyone needs an ‘ugh’ post. Today this is mine.

Crappy morning. Crappy job (and I work from home so you can appreciate just HOW crappy that is since I can’t get away from it all!) and just … wll, UGH!!

So that got me to thinking why I put myself through the hell of writing. And, lets be honest about it, it can be a total hell. You struggle to batter a plot into place, the words fight you as you try and pin them down on the screen and then, when you’ve been through all that, you hand your baby over to someone else to read and spent [insert time period here] biting your nails, convinced you just wrote a load of crap.

If you’re a writer this will probably sound so so familiar. Especially add in the little voices / doubt weasels / doubt rocks laughing at you.

So why do I do it? It’s not for the money, I’m new at the game and epublishing, it’s not the best money in the world. It’s better than a kick in the teeth but it’s not going to be paying monthly bills, thats for sure. Unless it was a vweeery, vweeery small one.

It could be because I’m quite possibly nuts (this seems to be required for spending hours in front of a computer screen, pounding away at the keys trying to get what’s in your head out) or because I’d be nuttier if those stories didn’t find some way to escape onto the page.

Now I could say stories just happen to me. But they don’t, not really. Isolated incidents, odd characters happen to me. The potential of a story happens to me, and it’s that potential of a story I love shaping into something viable and seeing it come to life on the screen.

But before that, I am very much a plotter. I’m a control freak, the girl who learned to code because she can’t stand not being able to control every little bit of a website. The one who, in any group of people, has to start organising and figuring out resources to help all members of the group acheive what they need to.

Writing, this organisation manifests itself in plotting.

When I get a story idea, or a character or something to spark things off. It can be anything, one story started with a song, another with a sample cover i was playing about with in my (non existant) spare time. Then out comes secret weapon 1 – the plot outline!!

I cobbled together a plot outline from various sources on the internet, which highlights the highs and lows of a plot. I tweaked it a bit to get it right for what I write but it’s got all the basics… the inciting incident, a main hook, challenge and failure, a lull before the BLACK moment, etc, etc.

It’s in word so I print it out and scribble my notes all over it in about the right places. So i have a rough sketch of the plot I want. Sometimes I jumble things up, add extra scenes in and whatnot. But it’s a plot!! Before I started doing this I had NOOOOOO idea about plotting. So the first two stories I submitted were equally meandering in their plot. One got a couple of very nice rejection letters, the other I’m sure has fallen down a black hole someplace. I am sure though, that one will come back with the ‘thanks but no thank’ line. Iz not a problem, they’ll both get attacked again and hammering into (plot) line.

God, this has turned into a long post hasn’t it? If you’re still with me, well done and have a cookie!!

So what happens then? I’ve got a plot, I may or may not have character sheets… I’m very undecided on these. Sometimes I like to do a full on character workup, then I end up changing it halfway through. Most times I keep a running character sheet noting down important details so I don’t change the hero’s eyes from brown to green halfway through.

The next stage is a mock cover. I am absolutely addicted to photoshop and I work as a cover artist for a couple of epubs anyway, so this is a stage a lot of people might not be able to use. Some people use music, make up a playlist. I don’t (I have a standard playlist i use) – I make images. Once I have an image that – to me – conjures up the feeling of the story at a glance I’m ready.

My next stage is… to write the title of my story on my submissions list. Just the story, nothing else. To me this is like a commitment. It’s on the list so it’s getting written and by god, it’s going to spam some publishers inbox somewhere!!

Now, with all that done. My image sat on the desktop in front of me (I’m sad, I also print these off and file them), my notes are on the actual desk to flick through and I have word open.

And this is where the excitement kicks in, and I get lost in my own head for a couple of days/weeks

And I’m really REALLY pleased with it. I didn’t think I’d have such fun writing a contemporary romance. Before I’ve always stuck strictly to things that go bump in the night. Part of it was perhaps because I was scared I wouldn’t be able to carry a story without weird goings on all over the place.

But I didn’t seem to have any problems with Rockstar. It was a bit bumpy at first but I think that was more just being able to sit down and actually get into it. I was ridiculously busy earlier this month and I wasn’t getting a straight run at writing anything, let alone sitting down for long enough to make headway into Rockstar.

But this last week I’ve really rocked through it and, you know what? I’ve had a blast doing it. There is something exhilarating about seeing those words forming into a story on screen. I’m a plotter so I know exactly where I’m going with each scene but watching it flesh out on the page, that’s a very very special thing. And I feel extremely priviledged to see it.

On another note, this will be the fifth day in a row I’ve hit over the nano mark (1700 or so words) so I feel reasonably confident about my ability to hit the mark consistently. I’m hoping to get more done at weekends but I want to maintain a steady rate throughout.

Now, Rockstar, edits…

more animals

The end line for Rockstar is in sight! And for a story that was a random aside to see if I could write a contemporary romance I have to say I like it a hell of a lot. So much so, I’ve already started sketching out a second story around one of the secondary characters called ‘Playing with Fyre’.(which already has it’s own mock cover and a damn HAWT looking bit of stuffs he is too!!)

But this story, these characters, they weren’t what I expected. Or what my beta-readers expected either, at least one expected the were’s or vamps that I usually write and was surprised to read a contemporary instead. But she loved it so that’s great!!

So I’ve been slogging away to get it finished in this week so I can do an editing check and then start planning for nano. I’ve got two stories in mind. I’ve got people to harrass me to produce the word count on a daily basis and to be honest, I’m quite looking forwards to the challenge.

But for now, the challenge is to stay awake in the bath before I can tumble into bed!!

Sleepz nao