Quick Post

I'm in the midst of writing a 2000 word paper comparing two versions of Cyrano de Bergerac (one French version, and one English version). I'm writing the paper in French, so it's going to be a long process. If I'm posting irregularly, the two of you actually reading this blog can blame my Francophone film class.

Had a great conversation last night with an old friend. She let me bounce ideas off of her about my story, and helped me realize that the hero I'd chosen wasn't right for this book. He'll get his, just not this one.

So, now I'm trying to come up with a new hero--while being a bit too influenced by Cyrano. While it's an exciting process, birthing a new character, it means that I'm even further away from starting prose. The old hero was enough of a misfit that he was slowing down the planning rather than enhancing it, so hopefully this new hero will speed things up.

I just need a species for him. Gah. Back to the research. Encyclopedia Mythica here I come!

Er, after I work on my essay for a while.

You are such a Harpy!

So, I figured out a species for my character, bet you can guess what she is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpy

It suits her perfectly. A harpy is everything she doesn't want to be, and she's scared of heights which makes me giggle.

She isn't going to have wings. I'm going to have to do some research on the harpy before I decide exactly what her abilities/weaknesses are going to be. But this story just started sounding a lot more fun.

Foxy not so hot?

Okay, I'm wavering on the fox idea.

On the one hand, it works for a thief.

On the other, it works a little too well.

I think I might reject this idea for the same reason I rejected the thief character being somehow tied to our friends of the feline variety. It's too obvious. Too easy, both for the thief, and for me as the author. I'd rather have my characters work against type (frex: I have a chaste satyr, peace loving centaurs, and a siren who can't sing).

I think it would be more effective to find the same contrast between species and personality for my thief. She's cultured, stealthy, and charismatic. Maybe she should be a troll.

Foxy Lady

Okay, I've decided to go with a fox-related species for my thief character.

I can't find anything online that suits my purposes, so I may have to create a magical race from scratch.

As far as plot goes, all I know is that I want a masquerade ball to figure into it. Because masquerades are fun. And there's my working title: Masquerade.

That's all the progress I've made today.

Rambling

I'm between novels now, and hating it. I want to write already! I'm getting ideas for a new character, but I'm not sure how she'll fit in the world I've created.

I'd like to write another story about Maeve, but I need some distance from The Best Laid Plans, and if I try to write about her right now, I won't get it.

It will come to me, in time, but when I'm not writing I want to be. I crave the excitement, that rush that writing brings. The fun of reading is almost as good, and I do a lot of it, but it isn't the same.

Since I haven't decided what species my thief will be, I'm going to do some research. If I find anything interesting, I'll post it here.

FINISHED!

I wrote 7760 words today, bringing my novel to an end with 40,032 words, which is officially novel length, though not salable.

But it'll grow in the rewrite.

Happy day. I'm off to bed!

Update

Wrote 7,870 words last night. Brings me to 32,200 overall so far.

I started on Valentine's day. *

This book is freaking awesome.

*I actually started the day before, but deleted the thousand words I wrote that day and started the real story on v-day.

Must resist the evil tempress Mary-Sue

I'm writing a difficult scene. It's difficult for me because of the emotions. The hero of my story just caught the heroine, and his love interest, sitting in the lap of her ex-husband kissing him.

The story is written first person, from her point-of-view, and I feel like the hero just caught me cheating on him. I suppose in a way I am, since I plotted and constructed the scene.

It's not a good feeling. I hate that he's hurting, (my characters may be a bit too real to me). My initial reaction is to have the heroine do something that would make him certain of her love for him, and maybe splash whiteout all over the crappy stuff in his past so he can be a happy, well-adjusted individual and we can all take a trip Mary-Sue Land, where all is perfect and good.

We would be rich, and sing in perfect harmony even though we never sang before in our lives, and we would be able to master any type of magic without even trying. We'd have mood ring eyes and everybody would just lurve us so much because we're soooo perfect, even though we bitch and moan about how crappy our lives are. I would write all of it in neon purple prose, using big words that I don't understand and couldn't be bothered to look up. Then I would plaster my genius on the internet for the world to see. It would be good times for everyone but the readers.

It is time for me to take a step back, remember why Mary-Sue Land is not right for the stories I'm writing, and turn my inner bitch back on.

I can give my characters mental hugs and happiness when the story is finished. At least until the sequel.

A New Record!

I'm feeling pretty darn proud of myself. I just broke my previous daily word count record of 5k. Tonight I wrote 7,250 words.

I love this story.

I don't even want to stop writing, but I'm so freaking tired that I can't keep my eyes open. Must sleep.

G'night!

Talent

A comment posted at BookEnds, LLC got me thinking about talent. Well, more like it got me thinking about why I hate the idea of talent.

You see, I do not believe in it.

Now there is an ongoing debate in the field of psychology on the existence of talent, but since it is an intangible idea, the articles written on the subject boil down to opinion rather than science.

So, here's my opinion:

Talent is something we attribute to people who are capable of doing something, often creative or sports related, that we ourselves cannot do. There is an idea that somehow this person is simply gifted. Talent implies that a person did not have to work at what they do, they didn't have to to take the time to develop their skills. They're just magically good at it.

What I believe is that people have certain tendencies. I tend toward creative activities, like writing and drawing. I don't care much for sports--save equestrian sports, which I adore. Now, when I was a child I had the same opportunities to play sports as all the other children in my class, just as they had the same opportunities to write. I never developed skill in sports, while some of my classmates did. Were they more talented than me? I doubt it.

They simply enjoyed sports enough to practice. They played basketball with their friends, they joined little league. (I was in little league too, but I spent most of my time playing in the dirt in right field). While my friends played sports, I pursued things I enjoyed. Writing, drawing, and reading. By the time I reached middle school, I started to hear the word "talent" whenever someone looked at a picture I'd drawn. At first I fell for it. But then I thought about the hours I spent hunched over a sketchbook practicing. I started out with stick figures just like everyone else, but I kept practicing until they started to look better.

Skills develop. I still have stories I wrote and pictures I drew in high school, back when I still thought I was talented. And let me tell you, they're pretty cringe worthy.

I worked hard to learn to draw, and I worked hard to learn to write. If I ever have the time and money, I will work hard to become a better rider. I'm not talented at any of these things, though because of the hours I put into practicing, I do have better than average skill at all of them (toots own horn).

Next time you see someone who is very skilled at something, be in awe of how hard they've worked, don't chalk it up to the mythical forces of talent.

Writing update

I wrote 3k today, which brings me to a total of 17k in The Best Laid Plans. Woo!

ICE CREAM!

And now for something completely unrelated to writing: WATCHMEN ICE CREAM

I would totally buy that.

Freemind

Wow! I finished the first draft of Bloody Key around the end of January, and took a couple of weeks off. I let an idea for my next book percolate, and downloaded a great program: Freemind. I love Freemind for a couple of reasons.

The first being that I don't think in a linear order when I'm plotting a novel. I believe wholeheartedly in outlining, but I can't do it. Not in a text document anyway. And I hate writing scenes on index cards and trying to put them in order. It always seemed like too much work, and I avoided it.

What's great about Freemind is that it's set up in a web, which is how I brainstorm anyway. But unlike brainstorming on paper, I can click and drag an idea into a different cluster. Simon Haynes, author of the Hal Spacejock series, has an example of how to effectively use Freemind here.

Which brings me to the second thing I love about using Freemind. I end up with an outline that I can work with, but I also have all the information I need about my characters and setting in the same file. This makes things so much easier for me, because instead of hunting for the color of Character A's eyes through all my pages of character sketches, I just click on Character A's information in the same file that has my outline.

I wrote Bloody Key using MSWord, and sans outline. While writing it was good practice, I'm dreading the rewrite because the book is a mess. Using Freemind and Ywriter 5 (another great program for the non linear minded) I started writing The Best Laid Plans on Saturday, and I'm 13,000 words in. So far it seems like it will be a fairly solid book. The outline isn't so indepth that I feel restricted, but I do have a path to follow to keep me on track.

If you're a non linear writer like me, and the mere thought of outlining curls your toes, give this software a try. Even if it doesn't work for you, you'll have a lot of fun testing it.

Happy writing!