Tag: writer

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doing the work

Some days, when I sit down to write, my mind goes blank. Other days my fingers can’t type fast enough to get everything in my head down on paper/screen. Some days words flow freely and they express things beautifully. Other days it’s more like slogging through mud.

This last week or so there has been a lot of mud slogging. Every word feels like work. Every sentence falls flat.

Yesterday, I hit a point where I wanted to just toss it all. All 205700 words of this trilogy because it is just rubbish (it isn’t) and no one would ever want to publish it (someone will).

To help counter that mind set, I went back to some of my favorite pieces in this story, some of those sentences that sing, those paragraphs that hit with just the perfect (*chef’s kiss*) combination of snark and sass in the midst of terrible circumstances.

And I remember how it feels to write like that. And I remember that all of the slogging at least means there are words on a page, and I can edit words on a page into polished nuggets of gold. And I remember how much I love this story and this character.

Never let someone tell you that writing isn’t work. Hard work.

Do the work. Get the words out. Making them pretty can come later.

Write.

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inspire me

So, where do the stories come from? What makes a good story? Or…what makes a story good?

As with all art, it is up to the Reader to decide whether a story is good or not, and for many they can’t tell you why they feel that way.

Some of us like to read dark, dystopian stories that let us see that the hell of our reality could be so much worse. Some prefer lighter and brighter stories that let us see a better world/future. Some are in it for a driving plot. Others prefer character driven stories. Some want action. Some want comfort.

When I’m reading I like a lot of different kinds of stories. I am drawn to science fiction and fantasy, especially when the characters are vibrant and relatable, even if they are aliens or elves.

However, when I write, tend to stick a little closer to home. All of my published work, and the current series I’m working on, take place in our world (at least to start). My characters are where my story comes from, what my stories rely on. Without them, there is no story.

So, what makes a good character?

Look at the people in your own life. See them for who they are, all their faults and foibles, all of their joys and triumphs. Each of your characters should be that real. Take your time with them, yes, even the background characters should have their own life.

When I am just getting started with a character, I build what I call a character sheet. It includes name, age, height, build, eye and hair color, etc. Then I will add a short backstory. I have a section for character traits (lazy, loves cocoa, overly casual, etc), and how those traits play out in behavior.

It makes a good reference point while writing, but it also gives me what I need when I read through the story for that character. And yes, I read through each story for each character before it goes to my editor…yes, that can be a lot of read throughs!

Probably 80% or more of what goes onto the character sheet never makes it into the story, other than being in the character. For background characters that can be as high as 90%, but I could pick up that character and write the story from their point of view at any time because I know them that well.

My characters are people. Sometimes I hang out in the bar in my head with them while they tell me who they are.

What about you, Reader? What do you look for when you’re reading?

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I get by with a little help from you

This week, I once again found myself without a day job. The company I was with laid me off on Monday, so I am back on the job search. I’ve come to really not like looking for a job. I’m good at what I do, and I have always let the work speak for me. I don’t like having to swagger.

I’m in a bad spot financially, but I have been here before, and I know I will survive. And, I have a mini sort of vacation this weekend, and already have an interview lined up for next week.

I’m going to take today off of the active hunt, but I will answer calls if they come, and do some writing instead. What good is time without work if I don’t utilize it?

If you would like to help support an out-of-work writer, there are multiple ways to do that. I still have copies of my books “Forever” and “Tonight” available for purchase, $10 for Forever, $7 for Tonight, $15 for both if bought together. You can use my contact page, or hit me up directly on Venmo, Paypal or Ko-Fi. Links below.

Venmo

Paypal

Ko-Fi

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tear stained alleys and sun drenched fields

Sometimes, when I feel stuck working on a book, I’ll sidestep to a short story or some poetry. Sometimes into one of the other books in some state of written languishing on my hard drive. This last week, I’ve been wading into the poetry waters again.

I have a deep and abiding love for poetry. I can spend hours on a single line some times, working and reworking it until it’s perfect. Other times the words just drip straight out of my soul and stain the page permanently.

I have an entire bin full of pages of poetry, some dating all the way back to the 1980s. And sure, some of it is truly suctackular, but I never do seem to be capable of throwing it out. Each piece is a part of who I am, or who I used to be.

If you were to lay it all out in chronological order, you’d be able to watch me grow up, follow me from the angsty teen years to the angsty adult years, hear the changes in my voice as I got to really know myself. It’s almost a biography in poetry, if you will. My life story told in emotions and ideas, images painted with words.

This past weekend I spent some time immersed in those paintings, wandering down tear stained alleys and into sun drenched fields, gathering wildflowers before carefully putting the past back to bed.

Soon, I hope to be able to share with you what I found.

Until then, Readers, it is time for more coffee and the day job.

Photo by Mike Tinnion on Unsplash

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of confidence and validation

I don’t know that I can pinpoint an exact catalyst for becoming a writer. It seems that I’ve been creating and telling stories my whole life. I do know that the idea that I could write actual books with my name on the covers came in my teens.

It didn’t start with books, obviously. First came poetry. Oh my, was it some terrible poetry! It was trite and sappy or it was trite and dark. I guess it was the primary outlet of my teenage angst.

From there, I dipped my toe into the ocean of short story writing. I was at least marginally better at that, as it was essentially what I’d already been doing without actually writing stuff down.

It was inevitable, however, that I would turn to full length novels. I wrote my first one longhand on notebook pages. It was awful. It was derivative of every movie I had ever seen and every book I had ever read and I tried to cram so very much plot into it that there were inevitably huge holes and forgotten lines. My characters were either stereotypes or wooden.

Still, this is the book that bit me. I let friends read it, and, friends being friends, they all loved it and clamored for more. It was my freshman year of high school, and my notebooks and pages got handed around school.

I got my first typewriter for Christmas that year. I banged away at that thing every single day for hours at a time. First, I typed up that first book. Then I got started on a sequel. During my sophomore year of high school, I would type up around ten pages or so each night. Those pages got clipped together and numbered, because in the morning I was passing the “chapters” around to those who were reading it, and I gathered them back together again at the end of the day.

It was my first real taste of what it was like to write for an audience. I still have some of those stories around here somewhere. That second was still awful, but it was awful in completely different ways than the first, so that was progress I suppose.

Today I’m still fairly sure some of my writing is awful and I struggle with imposter syndrome a great deal (as I’m sure all writers do at some point), but I try to hold onto the confidence of that teenager, handing out pages to her peers in search of any scrap of validation and the confirmation that this is what I was meant to be.

Happy Friday, Readers! I hope you have a grand weekend.

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the state of Thána

I finished a first edit pass on the second Blood Witch book not too long ago and have set it aside to start the third book. The idea for the third book came to me a few months ago, and has been building for a while.

I continue to love these characters with every fiber of my being!

Thána is like me in ways Amara never could have been. Writing in the first person allows me to immerse myself into the character. When I’m writing, I can lose myself in the narrative and shape the worlds she moves through.

Each book moves Thána into a new realm with new challenges and new characters to meet. Usually, when I start a new book, I have the basics of the world and an overarching view of the plot, though the details don’t ever come until I’m actually writing. My characters can surprise me, and often do.

I prefer to write straight through, making notes on things I will need to go back to add in or change, rather than stopping where a new plot point arrives and immediately build it in. So I usually have a file open with the story, one with notes and in the case of these books, one with spells and foreign words I use in the stories.

Then, when the zero draft is done, I take those notes, go back to the beginning and work all of those things into the bones. That’s what I consider my first edit pass. Then I usually put it away and work on something else…the next book or something new.

I give it at least a few weeks before I go back to edit again, focusing on smoothing out dialog, fleshing out descriptions, filling in scenes, etc. My third edit pass, I actually read the whole thing out loud to myself. This serves to point out missing words, clunky dialog and repetitive words.

But, for now, it’s time for the day job where I get to write other fun things! Have a great day, Readers!

Cover Photo by Dan Counsell on Unsplash

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what a week

Like most Americans, my attention has been firmly on our nation’s capitol this week, as law enforcement investigates the uprising at the capitol and congress worked to hold the president responsible for inciting that violence.

I’ll admit that it has not been great for my creativity or productivity!

That said, I did finish the zero draft of the second Blood Witch book over the weekend. Up next will be an editing pass to flesh out a few scenes and retrofit some story points that developed near the end.

For as long as I have been writing, my characters can still surprise me. Going into this book, I knew the plot points I wanted to hit, at least in the beginning and middle. The ending changed multiple times while I was writing, and a relationship developed between two characters along the way, which I now have to go back through and lay the breadcrumbs in.

There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with reaching the end of the book, even though I know there is still work to do. It was a victory I needed this week.

Now though, I need to finish my coffee and get on with the day job. I hope you are all safe and well, Readers and that you manage to find joy in these chaotic and dangerous times.

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the writer’s brain

You know, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not have a writer’s brain. How quiet would my head be if it wasn’t filled with characters telling stories, with worlds built from a scrap of an idea, with words spilling in torrents of creativity?

I may not always be actively writing, and have just this year gone through a dry spell, but even then, my head is full of activity, it just isn’t translating well enough to put on the page.

I love world building and crafting characters. I have a whole cast of characters that I have built in my head and never used (there’s a whole subsection of just talking animals). Unsurprisingly, this is also my favorite part of playing SIMs, building houses/lots and creating characters.

I wish I could paint so I could show people the rich, vibrant worlds that my head contains. I know ridiculously minute facts about these places. I know their mythology and history. I know the places where mythology and history cross paths. I have drawn maps and created languages.

Now, if my fingers could just keep up so I could get it all down on paper/computer screen, that would be lovely.

Hoping you are safe and well, Readers!

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hit the ground running

Some days it can be hard to find the motivation to get started. Some days I hit the ground running. Today is the latter. I woke up an hour before the alarm due to a nightmare and was awake enough that going back to sleep didn’t make sense, so I got up and started the coffee.

My first order of business after the bathroom and getting the coffee started, is always to hit the email accounts. I have several accounts because I like to compartmentalize my life to a degree. I generally ignore the stuff in my “junk” mail address, the one that I use when I have to sign up for something online, shopping stuff, etc, and just mark that as read. The others I skim through the inbox, look at the ones that look important, answer what I can and then I move on.

Generally, while I have my morning coffee, I peruse Facebook and other social media, play a couple rounds of some silly game, or write. During the week, it is usually the first two. On the weekends it’s writing.

By the time my coffee was ready, I had already emailed several people back, answered some work emails and reviewed a few work tickets. I was out to the work computer by 7am, taking my breakfast and second-coffee with me.

It’s a good start to a Friday. I hope all of you are having a good week (as much as any of us can anyway), and that your weekend is filled with love and kindness, Readers.

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a plan for the day

There comes a point in every book where I want to chuck it all in and never write another word.  I start to question my plot. I start to think my characters are crap.  I become fairly certain that the whole thing is a steaming pile of garbage left to rot in the sun.

Thankfully, a few days away from the book is usually enough to cure me of it, and then I fall in love with my characters again. I plug up plot holes.  I draw maps to make sure I’m using consistent language and direction when I’m writing about travels.  I fortify character descriptions, using sensual language to really let the reader see the character. I read through the book, making notes on things I need to thread deeper into the story, and then I go back to the beginning and I edit.

I hit the first point the other day, as I was finishing my first edit pass on The Blood Witch. I was pretty sure I was just going to toss it, and the year or so I’ve spent writing it, in the bin and stop calling myself a writer.

This morning, as I sit here sipping my coffee and contemplating my day, I’m reaching the second point.  I know where my holes are and I have good ideas on fixing them.  I have a list of little things I want to carry forward because I wrote them in with good intentions, and then forgot about them completely. I have a deep abiding love for my two main characters, and character notes on how to improve the secondary and tertiary characters.

My one remaining quandary is that my narrator main character is witty and fun in the first half of the book, but some of that bleeds off in the second half.  Part of it is due to the circumstances, and that will remain. But, I know that when I am under stress I get more sarcastic, not less, so I want to work on building some of that back in.

So that is the mission I will embark on today.  After the coffee is gone, the garden watered, breakfast eaten, for at least two hours today, and every day this week, I work on filling in the gaps and making this book something to be proud of.

Of course, then the real work happens because it is time to start querying.  Which is vaguely terrifying.

So, off to do those precursor things so that I can get to the words.  Have a pleasant Monday, Readers.  Stay safe.