IWSG: The Future Writing Career Edition... (#26)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?


I'm back from the dead, as I usually am every few months on this blog, to answer the IWSG question. This question gets harder and harder for me to answer each passing year, but I see myself a published author with a book or two under my belt. But, as each year passes and I have nothing to show for it, that becomes a harder vision to see. Maybe I'm never going to publish anything.

My only idea for a plan to get there is to actually finish something I start and self-publish it. That would be easier than seeking a publisher, when it comes to actually publishing a book. At this point, that's all I want to accomplish because it would mean I finished a novel-length manuscript. A girl can dream!

All I want for Christmas is a finished manuscript! Anyway, knowing me, this will probably be my last blog post of the year, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you all, myself included, have a wonderful Holiday season.

Did any of you think of giving up on your dream of being a published author before you actually succeeded in accomplishing it?

IWSG: The Missing Writer Edition (#25)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Who is this missing writer, you ask? That would be me... because I haven't posted on my blog here in quite a while now. I figured it's about time to come back and at least check in.

I don't have anything great to report, other than that I turned forty last month. Is that great, though? I suppose it's great that I'm still alive and kicking after taking forty trips around the sun. That's actually a very cool way to frame the idea of getting older--makes me feel like a space traveler--a veteran space traveler. Otherwise, I've just been too super distracted by life to get any writing done at all. So, the answer to this month's IWSG question, "How do you find the time to write in your busy day?" would be, "I don't." My writing was going well back in the winter/spring time of the year, but it's practically nonexistent these days. I'm figuring out why I can't finish the projects I start and I have figured out some good, likely reasons.

I have the tendency to not plot out my stories. I realized this is probably a reason why I get stuck and find I can't finish a story that is relatively long (novel-length). Also, I remembered that I did finish a 30,000-word novella a few years ago and DID plot it out, so that could be proof that plotting from now on will help a lot.

I tend to drop stories with characters that end up not being interesting to me after I've spent some time with them, or even time away from them. Similarly, I get bored with stories that are too run-of-the-mill and lack originality. So, I know I have to reuse old characters from stories I have dropped in the past that I still like to this day, and create some stories that feel a bit unique, if possible (doing this on purpose is hard, actually). I'm getting so finicky in my old age!

My villain characters tend to lack good, believable motivation and the why behind their actions. It's just one of those things I find I'm weak on as a writer and storyteller. That alone has derailed me a couple of times--no joke! So, I know I have to be clear on that while planning out a story.

I've also come to realize that I'm not inclined to figure out my story's theme before I write it out, which I believe does the most damage and makes it hardest for me to finish a draft. I was reading a nonfiction book on how to translate marketing strategies into storytelling elements and one thing the author mentioned was how theme should be figured out in advance of writing and that how each scene should be striving to imbue the theme. I'd never even thought much before about theme, so this I feel is helping me with my planning to gain some real confidence before heading into a draft.

Another book I found helpful is Write Your Novel From the Middle by James Scott Bell, which is a very interesting concept and one closely related to theme. You find your main character's "mirror moment," or the moment that usually happens around the middle of the story when your main character sees himself/herself for who he/she is or will decide who to become because of this moment. Then, you write the story from there, coming to it and then extending out from it. It's an intriguing idea that helps plotters and pantsers alike. It's also great that it's a pretty short and to-the-point book and can be read very quickly.

I've been reworking an old idea for a Young Adult vampire novel I was writing two years ago, but dropped and, while not actually writing it yet, I've been helped a lot by these writing help books and by being a much stricter plotter. I'm, at this moment, reading a book that has nothing to do with writing but finding so interesting, which is all about the science of persuasion. It's pretty amazing, but the best way to put it to use is through marketing. I am, however, trying to see how these persuasion techniques could be translated into storytelling itself. How else are the great books persuading people to love them so much? Must be some persuasion psychology going on there that we don't understand.

In case anyone is interested, the book is called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, PhD. One idea that struck me was the idea that being likable helps in being persuasive, and there a some ways to be likable, but one way is to be similar to others. People will usually like what is not just familiar, but what is similar to themselves, including paying more attention to someone with their same name. I figure it couldn't hurt to write a protagonist who can be viewed as likable, right? So, I researched the most popular names given to baby girls born between the years 1990 to 2010, according to the U.S. government--the ages of my future readership! Some of the most popular first names were Emily, Samantha and Hannah, among many others.

I decided to name my protagonist Emily because it is ranked very high for those twenty years in the hopes that a lot of women named Emily will read my book and like my protagonist more because they have the same name! It can't hurt to try. How many times have you read a novel and found you and the protagonist shared the same name? I know it's never happened to me and my name is not uncommon with women my age and older. Also, I notice most YA protagonists (perhaps this doesn't apply to other genres) tend to be named fanciful, rare, unique names that most people don't actually have in real life, perhaps making them harder to relate to. I'll see if my Emily character is easier to like and relate to now that roughly 500,000 young women in the country could see their own name in my book.

Anyway, this is getting too long of a post, and I'm probably making up for all the posts I didn't write that I should have written recently, but I am alive and still trying to figure out all this writing stuff. It's crazy how complex this all is. Yet, I still plug away. I feel like quitting sometimes, but not really because I'm old enough to know there's nothing else I would rather be doing, even if this thing I supposedly love makes me want to tear all my hair out.

How are you lot? Hope writing is treating you better than it's treating me. We're separated for now, but hoping to get back together again, soon. You know how it is--that love-hate relationship....

My Thoughts on Civil War (comic book) by Mark Millar

This month, I'm revealing my thoughts on the Marvel Universe Events comic book volume, Civil War, which is comprised of issues #1-7. I'll admit, I read this because I'm excited about the Captain American: Civil War movie coming out next month (BIG Cap fan!), so I wanted to see how the original story panned out. I can already tell many things are different from what I've seen in the movie's trailers.

This volume is more of an Avengers story than a Captain America story, which is fine. That is how this story was originally meant to be. I expect one major difference in the movie will be a greater emphasis on Cap himself, over anyone else. In the comic book volume, no one character steals the limelight too much, but you do have a lot of panning back to Tony Stark (Iron Man), leading the pro-government faction, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) leading the pro-independence faction.

The story begins with an inciting incident called the Stamford Incident in which a man with superhero abilities blows up a large area of residential homes, including a school while it is in session, with his powers. Congress decides to pass the Superhero Registration Act, which forces all superheroes to reveal their identities and become employees of the government.

Tony Stark has never been coy about being Iron Man, so he's okay with every superhero going public about their human identities. Alternatively, Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, has never let anyone know who he really is in the public sphere and he is not about to now. He can see this is dangerous for superheroes because the attitude toward superheroes is not always positive. He cops a "fight me" stance against the Registration Act and a lot of the Avengers follow him, also not wanting to give up their true identities.

We see reasons why both sides have good arguments for their positions. One superhero, who has been publically open about his true identity all along, gets jumped and beaten to within an inch of his life at a nightclub one night, turning him and his superhero sibling into anti-Registration supporters. Tony Stark gets a lot of influence from a woman who lost her young son in the explosion that sparked the Act into existence. Some of the heroes stay completely out of the fight, like the X-Men.

What we see is how far each side is willing to go to win and when Avengers turn against one another, things get really ugly. Pro-Registration folks turn to hunting down their old friends like dogs, even cloning other superheroes in order to shift the balance of power in their favor. Anti-Registration folks have to resort to trickery and backstabbing to stay afloat because they are the underdogs in the fight.

In the end, things get cleared up, but it feels too neat and tidy after everything they go through, trying to and actually succeeding in killing each other. I wish the series had lasted for more than only seven issues because it was just too dang short. I wanted to know more about why Tony was willing to become a government lap dog and why Cap was so staunchly opposed to any sort of superhero regulation whatsoever. We never explore their feelings, and theirs mattered more to me than the other characters' feelings.

My other peeve with this comic book is that the action scenes aren't really drawn in a way that makes me feel like the characters are even fighting each other. I'm used to reading Japanese comic books for boys (shonen manga) with loads of fighting that looks like the real thing, but this volume makes everybody look like when the group fighting begins, they're all just having a dance party. It's kind of unintentionally hilarious, but annoying when I want to see just one person drawn actually landing a punch on someone's face.

Despite these niggling irritations, I liked the story, but if it had had more issues, it would have been more believable how things get resolved and would have allowed for more insight into the main characters' actions. I know the movie will differ in that the law being enforced is a United Nations treaty, and Cap is trying to help his old friend Bucky, who does not appear in the comic book at all. I hope the movie is more to my liking and, while I know their reasons will differ from the comic book's version, I also want to see a deeper delving into why Tony and Cap are taking their respective sides on this issue.

Anyone else excited to see the movie? 

IWSG: The Writer's Block Edition, Part 2? (#24)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

This month is really just like last month. I'm still stuck in a writer's rut and not able to figure out very well what I want to do with my manuscript. I have some ideas that I didn't have last month, but it all seems so overwhelming for some reason.

Maybe my imagination is exaggerating this, but it feels like I have this enormous task ahead of me and I just can't bring myself to tackle it. It's like having to solve a very large jigsaw puzzle and you're not even sure you have every piece needed to complete it. I'm honestly really bad at jigsaw puzzles and don't like them, so this is an apt analogy for me.

I wanted to publish a book this year, but this is looking like it's not going to happen, which is not the end of the world. It sucks to have to fail at a goal, but I didn't realize my goal was so improbable at the time I made it. I can still hope for next year, provided I can get this first draft finished some day. 

The good thing is I'm still very interested in my story and am not getting bored with it or the characters. When that happens, I know my story is toast. I won't continue to write something that is no longer holding my interest, just like how I won't continue to read a book that is not intriguing me. With few exceptions, I'm a character-person over plot, so I have to really love the characters in a story to keep me going, and likewise, I have to love my own characters enough to tough it out with a long manuscript.

Already some of my ideas for future stories are falling by the wayside because the characters aren't very interesting to me anymore. But, my current manuscript has an already beloved character, Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, so I don't think I'll be getting bored with him anytime soon. He's been a favorite for many years now, so there's a silver lining in that dark cloud!

Do you ever get bored with your stories before or after writing them? What hooks you into a story--character or plot?

  

IWSG: The Writer's Block Edition (#23)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

It looks like it's that time of the month again, the Insecure Writers Support Group time. This month my writing insecurities are coming out and screaming at me, again. They haven't been so much in recent months, but they have returned from their sojourn.

This month I'm finding myself having trouble with a section of my novel work-in-progress that I have never been able to get clear about. While I have a lot of the story already planned, this is the portion I'm struggling to get through because I don't know what needs to happen. 

This might be caused by the fact that I never write long novels. Everything is much shorter, usually. So, I'm struggling to write something that has to be a bit long, maybe around 80,000 words, rather than a short novel, and it's tough. I'm having trouble making myself get the writing done that needs to be done and I'm procrastinating a lot, too. I hate when I do that. :(

The only thing I can think of to do to get through this is to really plan my scenes out ahead of my writing sessions. I guess I need to just write the summaries out for each scene in the order they need to appear because when I've done this in the past, it's really helped me to write. I usually know exactly what I'm going to write before I sit down to write, but I keep it in my head. Right now, I'm drawing a lot of blanks on how to get through this section of my novel.

Is this writer's block? I don't really know what that is because it seems like it can be defined in different ways. I figure it's some sort of writer's block. I'll just have to tough it out and plan, plan, plan.

Ever suffered from writer's block? 

My Thoughts on The Martian by Andy Weir

Here's another great book I read back in January. I'm very happy to be reading some good books, since last year the books I read were just kind of "meh" or a let-down in various ways. The Martian by Andy Weir is definitely something in alignment with my interests and it did not disappoint.

First of all, some people have trouble with the science jargon used very heavily in this novel. That's understandable, since it's not everyday language. This is a story about people who work for NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and they have to use a language the rest of us normal folk don't use. It's like a different language, but if you're a bit familiar with it, you can understand. I do have some familiarity with it, or it's just that I'm used to weird sciencey languages due to having watched a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was a teenager. At any rate, I wasn't daunted by any of it, but be warned. This might pose a problem for you if you're not familiar with it.

Other than that, this book is simply so riveting, I can't imagine anyone not liking it. It's about a botanist-turned-astronaut named Mark Watney stranded on Mars and how he manages to survive and get rescued. That's not really a spoiler since it's obvious he's going to get rescued or they wouldn't bother with the story. What makes it worth reading is HOW it happens and that produces nail-biting inducing anxiety at best. All I wanted was for Mark to catch a break for once because it was one problem after another after another! You get to the point where you want the protagonist to have it easy because you are so sick of his troubles, just like he is.

After reading the book, I also watched the movie and while the movie is really great, the book soars over its head in every way. They really gutted the movie of what made the book such a page-turner. Mark had significantly fewer problems on Mars in the movie than he did in the book. I even felt like he struggled a bit, but was ultimately not in any real danger other than running out of food. In the book, he faced that, too, but then so many other unexpected obstacles, too, that would be spoilery if I mentioned them.

Like you would imagine, it is hard to live on Mars when you were not planning on staying there for very long. I love how the book kept me on the edge of my seat and even made me laugh quite a bit. Mark has a sense of humor and uses it to steel his nerves while everything is falling (literally) apart around him. Some reviewers found this off-putting, but everyone has their unique way of handling stress, and the type to get picked for any space missions are the type who do things unlike most people, and are somehow capable of staying calm. Most people would panic and get themselves killed.

There were other humorous characters, as well, so expect to laugh at a few other people, too, not just Mark. Overall, this book gets highest marks from me. The only thing that felt left out was a true epilogue for Mark after he returns to Earth. We never get that in the novel, but it's in the movie. That was one thing worth seeing in the movie, after all, and it was done well. Although, I would have preferred to see him reunite even for a few seconds with his parents, but it's good as is.

All I know is I wish I could get lucky like Andy Weir and unintentionally write a major best seller not realizing I'm doing it, and even letting people read the book for free because I don't realize what a cash-cow I have on my hands, until I'm forced to make people pay for it on Amazon because Amazon won't let you price anything for free. Ever notice these things only happen to the authors who aren't even looking for success? -_-
 

IWSG: Cruise Control Edition (#22)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I don't have much to report this month for the blog hop, other than that I'm doing well and getting my manuscript written pretty much every day. It is coming along well! I'm very happy about that. I'm not writing circles around anybody, but I am getting some writing done regularly and that does add up very quickly.

Occasionally, I mess up and feel like I have to fix it right away, but then I remind myself that my first draft is MINE, and no one else will ever read it the way it is and is becoming. I will make a second draft after this and fix it up as best I can, and that will be read by critique partners and beta readers. So, everything is fine! I write down little notes to myself to remind me of what I want to change when it comes time to make a second draft.

This actually does help me because I have had the tendency, in the past, to write like my first draft was my last and final version forever. That really is the suckiest lie to buy into. Just let it be crap! It's a first draft and they are always crap and should be crap.

Anyway, how has everyone else's writing been going, lately? Keeping up or falling behind?

My Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP#4)

This post is a sort of review/discussion of this book. I feel like talking about the books I've been reading lately, seeing as how I'm finally reading some really amazing novels this year. Last year's novels all kind of stunk, for lack of a better phrase.

I admit, a bit embarrassingly, that I didn't start reading the Harry Potter books until 2012, and I was not 12-years-old only four years ago. I could have and probably should have started reading them way back when the first book was published in 1997, when I was 21. The thing is, adults didn't read children's books back in those days. For those who may be a bit younger than myself, the Harry Potter books were the first children's books read on a massive scale by adults as well as children. (Unless I'm overlooking something else.)

So, knowing how my oldest brother, much older than me, was loving even the first book, after buying it for his daughters, really puzzled me. He was in his forties at the time and I just couldn't believe a book meant for 11-year-olds was so good, even parents were obsessing over it. A totally bonkers situation, and I wrote it off. I figured I didn't need to bother because I wouldn't really like them, anyway.

I saw all the movies and really enjoyed them (despite forgetting most of them by now), but they didn't inspire me to read the books. One day at Wal-Mart, I happened to pass by the collection for sale and decided to buy Book 1 in paperback on a whim. It sat on my shelf, collecting dust, until about five years later. I had started keeping a book review blog by then and decided it was time to just read the dang thing. Keeping up with the book Jones's, and all that....

So, I read it and it was really great! I think these books are the best you can find in children's Middle Grade fiction. I love the voice used to narrate the story and all the little ingenius fantasy, magical elements Rowling invents for the world building. It's astonishing and gets more so in later volumes.

But, the problem for me with Book 1, and Books 2 and 3, is that they are really, at heart, just children's books. Middle Grade novels for kids. Me and this reading grade don't get along very well. When I read books written for these younger audiences, I always feel like something is missing and falling flat. While I can see their merit--it's hard not to with the HP books!--I can't help but always feel underwhelmed at the end of the day. I am a lover of Young Adult and Adult fiction because that's what resonates with me best, and Middle Grade cannot be anything other than what it is.

After reading the first three books, I moved on to Book 4 and it started out very similarly to all of the others that came before it--except that it was very, very detailed and verbose. The book is over 700 pages long, nearly twice as long as Book 3! I couldn't begin to comprehend why at the beginning. Everything was going along as usual as I read it--enjoyable and always worthwhile, but a little "meh."

Until I got about two-thirds finished. Suddenly, I felt like I was reading a different novel altogether. As many of you know--just abut everyone else has read ALL the books except me--the book takes a startlingly dark turn towards the end! Harry is going through experiences that would terrify even the most hardened mature adult in the world. I won't write spoilers just in case, but, let's face it--I don't need to worry about spoiling anyone.

I finally started to get really into the story at that point. Harry's world becomes truly grim and he finally goes from being a mostly well-protected protagonist by his author-mummy to being fed to the wolves. Fantastic! While the writing stayed simplistic as it had been from the beginning, the content turned into a Young Adult novel, and now I'm hooked!

I was considering quitting the series as I trudged along in this book before getting to the really juicy stuff, but I change my mind. I'm going to read the heck out of the rest of them, now! I even have Book 5 waiting for me on a shelf and I sneaked a peak at the first two chapters because I couldn't wait to see what was in store. I can already tell it's a YA novel in every way, shape and form. Hurray for teenage Harry!

Anyway, needless to say, I loved this book and found even the most mundane, pointless thing, like Hermione pulling a wayward beetle out of her hair, had been counted for and wrapped up in a neatly tied bow by the end. What a near-masterpiece this book is. I have no doubt I'll love the rest of the series.

 
What are your thoughts on the Harry Potter books? Read them, love them? Or, not so much?

IWSG: The New Year's Resolution Edition (#21)

Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?  
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! It's a little late, but there it is. I suppose we're all still adjusting to the fact that it's already January 2016. Like, how are we supposed to digest that? It's as if time keeps chugging away and I'm still trying to get out of bed in the morning.

Anyway, I want to do another New Year's Resolution for 2016, like how I did for 2015. Again, I intend to set a general word count of 100,000 words for the year, but I really intend to add a couple more resolutions that are a bit more challenging than that. (Gotta keep upping the ante, right?)

First off, I'm resolving to finish a first draft of a new novel I have been planning out recently. I started my goal on January 1st, so I'm already going at now. It should only be about 60,000 words long, perhaps a bit longer. It is, thankfully, an intentionally short novel for the genre I'm writing (Adult contemporary Austen romance).

Then--and this is the hard part--I am resolving to publish the book myself this year! As in self-publish! I know, right? Me, actually publish a book for real? That's like, insanely something I've never managed to do ever before. How can I ever hope to pull this off? It's only a silly dream of mine, right?

Well, I intend to make the dream a reality. So, add to my list of resolutions to actually publish a novel before the year is over. I don't even care when I do it, as long as it is by the 31st of December 2016. It's technically still this year, so it'll do. Can't get too picky about hard goals, now. 

I don't have any high expectations for it, either. I hope to do most of the production myself, although I might need a cover artist. I don't expect anyone to read it or even like it (the genre has a small audience, anyway). I just want to finally publish a book and be a real author! Then, I can get on to writing and publishing my second book....

What's your New Year's Resolution, assuming you have one? You do have one, don't you?