IWSG: The I-Have-Returned Edition... (#37)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment.

Hello, fellow neurotic authors! I know I've been gone for a LONG time, but for good reason. I can't explain it all in enough detail without writing you all a tome, so just know shortly after my last post in September of 2018, my personal life became unrelentingly difficult for a while. Then, by around January, my health declined significantly as a result, so I've been battling my way back to some semblance of normalcy ever since. Now, I'm in the middle of planning a move to another state, so I'm not out of the woods just yet.

My writing has suffered, as well, sadly. I wish I could say I've finally finished my first draft of my latest novel, but I cannot. I am nearly finished, though. I can also report that I'm doing better on the health front and it's getting better every day. I think I can actually participate properly in IWSG now, so I'm going to give it the ol' college try. Yeah, believe it or not, I was too ill to blog....

June 5th question: Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favorite to write in and why?

I've always read the classics, like Dickens and Austen, as well as Young Adult fantasy and sci-fi. I read Regency romance, like Georgette Heyer, as well as a smattering of modern-day authors of that genre (it's the Jane Austen fan in me). I will read a few genres that I don't normally read, like hard sci-fi or even high fantasy, although these genres are more rarely read.

I'm drawn to writing YA fantasy and paranormal fiction, though not as much sci-fi for that age group, and I've been writing a Regency romance novel for the past year-plus. I feel like I pretty much write in the genres I usually read, even if I stray from the reading path on rare occasions. Like, right now I'm reading a clean Scottish paranormal romance, which is one of the rarest things out there, and I would never consider writing in this genre, but the entire premise of the novel really intrigues me.

I just write mostly the type of fiction that is similar to what I read because that's what interests me on the whole. I like stories about teenagers getting caught up in paranormal situations. Maybe it's because they are still children, yet almost at adulthood, they just react the best way to odd phenomena. I like stories about young Regency-era women struggling to find their place in the early 19th century English world and, ultimately, finding love, because my hero, Jane Austen, illustrated the plights of these young fictional heroines so well, her brilliance lives on two-hundred years later.

What genres do you read and write in? Do they happen to differ? 

IWSG: The Update-from-Hell Edition... (#36)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

It's been a while since I've "shown my face" around here, but I decided I feel well enough to at least post a few words. It's been an interesting several months....

I've been struck down since last spring with all kinds of hormonal issues relating to my age (if you can take a hint... I'm in my early forties...) and adrenal fatigue, which also causes its own set of hormonal problems no matter your age or sex. All rolled up together, it's called Hormone Hell and it's not a very fun place to be. I'm still there, but I wanted to send an update so I feel more normal. It's kind of working.

I'm still trying to balance everything out and my adrenal hormones give me the most trouble regularly. I get very low blood pressure as a result, so it's like I'm wading my life through water. Salt helps, but I need to heal my adrenal glands. A helpful hint: don't ever ride on adrenaline for too long or be under extreme stress for too long (as if you have a choice!). You will get sick and your adrenals will burn out. Be kind to your body and don't abuse it. You don't have a spare, though spare bodies is a cool idea for a sci-fi novel!

This month's optional question: What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why? 

Well, I've been intending to self-publish since early 2011 after discovering it was something that actually made authors some money. I didn't think it did until Joe Konrath was publishing the sales numbers for some authors and, in particular, Amanda Hocking. She sold around 10,000 copies in one month alone, so I knew it was something that had become possible, and I really hated trying to figure out how to write a good query letter.

The TRUEST form of hell I've experienced is trying to figure out how to get a super stressed-out literary agent to read beyond your first sentence of your query letter without hitting the "trash" button. I learned these are not the kind of people you want to invite over for dinner, that's for sure. I was so depressed at that point, I was about to throw in the towel, but I kept on hearing about Joe Konrath and his ebook sales all being due to having an existing audience, and discovered his blog and how all those lit agents were lying about that, because he didn't have an existing audience at all. I was done listening to their lies and never went back.

It felt immediately liberating knowing I'd be doing all the publishing myself for my own works. Some people might not like all that extra stuff, but I actually like it so much, perhaps more than writing! My only issue is that I can't get my first drafts finished so I can get to the fun stuff beyond them.

Anyway, that's my story. What publishing path suits you best?

IWSG: The No-One-Ever-Said-I'm-Not-a-Failure Edition... (#35)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

This month's optional question is, "When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?"

Well, this question implies that I have somehow already figured out how to get through the stormy days of writing by still writing. I can assure you that I haven't done any such thing. I still wait it out until the sun starts shining again before I get back to it. Sorry. No one ever said I'm not a failure at this writing thing.

I know it's an area where I need some big growth, so I'll be working on it. We'll see what I feel I need to do when the time comes. I know I have to get better at just keeping the nose to the grindstone, so I'll remember how embarrassing it was to have to admit to this on my blog (today) and it will motivate me to persevere through the tough writing days from now on. See? Who doesn't want to be one of the cool kids?

What do you do to get through the stormy writing days? Maybe you have some sage wisdom to impart to me.

IWSG: The I'm-Kinda-Boring Edition... (#34)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

This month's optional question is: How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal / finish a story?

I don't do any celebrating when I finish a story or achieve a writing goal, although I don't finish my stories often, so that could be why. I suppose it never occurs to me to do anything. Just achieving the goal is reward enough!

I'm not very creative about stuff like this because I get so focused on just trying to get to the finish line. I suppose I'll go around and see what other authors are saying they do to celebrate because I've got nothing. Outta juice!

What should I be doing to reward myself for achieving a writing goal? Any suggestions? Maybe I'll be inspired by other people's ideas. Leave them in the comments.... ;)
 

IWSG: The It's-All-Planned Edition... (#33)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

This month's optional question: What steps have you taken to put a schedule in place for your writing and publishing?

As of last spring/summer, I figured out "batching" is a scheduling trick that works for me in being productive for things I love to procrastinate. I spend three days per week, always leaving a day in between, just dedicated to writing and doing as little of anything else as possible. They are "writing days," thus they are just for that and not reading, watching TV, playing video games, or going shopping, etc. Just writing. I find I actually have the energy to do the writing with this trick.

It actually works for me really well, so I intend to keep doing that for writing. Right now, I'm doing research on the historical era I'm planning on writing about for a forth-coming Regency romance novel on the docket, but not batching that research, so I probably need to figure out how to do that. I'm having trouble with it. Batching helps me so much, I do it with the dusting because I HATE dusting....

Other than this, the plan is to write this historical romance novel, then write a free newsletter novella of the same genre and then write yet another historical romance novel. Can I do all this in one year? History would say, "no," but it might be worth trying, anyway. I may get a novel completed for a change by trying to get two-and-a-half completed in one year.

As for publishing, well... we'll take things in stride. I need to get used to finishing long novel WIPs first before I go "planning" how to publish said finished drafts.

What have you done to plan out your writing and publishing this year?

 

IWSG: The I-Can't-List-Everything-In-One-Post Edition... (#32)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

This month's question: As you look back on 2017, with all its successes and failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

What a loaded question! (For me, at least.) There are just too many things I wish I would have done differently this year, even limited to writing. I'm not perfect enough to look back and be so proud that nothing needs tweaking. I won't air out all those grievances, but I'll cough up one or two of the best (worst) ones.

It's like I imagine authors would say on their death beds, like how most regular people say they don't wish they'd spent more time at the office because they wish they'd have spent more time with loved ones. Maybe authors say they wish they'd written more. I definitely wish I'd written more this year. 

I spent some time learning a lot about how to write, and while that was not time wasted at all, I did end up spending time getting sidetracked by other non-writing projects just because they had been looming over my head for months and years needing to get done. I wanted to get them done before fully launching myself into writing a couple of novels I plan on writing afterwards, which is now something I still need to do starting early next year.

The next thing is I wish I'd gotten more outlines planned/mapped out for my stories because they take such a LONG time to outline. I'm finally outlining the best way for me, which means long, detailed outlines, but, man... they take forever to get done! It's worth it, though. I need all that hand-holding when I write a first draft because I got lost in the forest of my long stories very easily. Guess I need to learn to speed-outline.

I suppose that's enough from me. Any more, and I'll be writing a novel-length blog post that will need to be outlined before I can even attempt to write it!

Would you do anything differently from this year concerning your writing?  Just me?

 

IWSG: The 'I'm a Dungeon Writer' Edition... (#31)

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly support system for blogging writers in need of finding other writers to connect with and share our deepest insecurities in a safe environment. Created by the clever Alex J. Cavanaugh with the expressed purpose to "share and encourage."

Yes, I've changed my blog theme! 

This month's question is: Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

I have only ever "won" NaNoWriMo one time, and it was the Camp version of it where you could set your writing goal yourself, so I set it for 15k words and did win. Not too incredibly ambitious. 

I'm not much of a NaNo person because I like writing at my own pace and not trying to keep up with other people. (AKA, I'm slow....) It seems to work well for social writers, but I am, most definitely, NOT a social writer. Stick me in a dungeon all by myself with a laptop computer and I'll be better off.

I've yet to publish anything, so I don't have the ability to say any of my NaNo projects have gone on to be published.

Well, that's all for me this month. Short and sweet.

Has NaNo made a difference in your writing life, unlike mine?

IWSG: The I'm Shocked I Could Write Like That Edition! (#30)

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 have to keep this post as short and sweet as I can because I've been sick for the the past month, but here's my response to this month's question:

Have you ever surprised yourself with your writing? (For example, by trying a new genre you didn't think you'd be comfortable in?)

I happened to be very recently reading a short play I wrote for a literature class I took way back in college--the class being centered around studying English drama from the Restoration Era, or the early 1700's. The professor assigned us students to write our own original play as an alternative option to writing an essay. Naturally, I chose the creative writing option, as I always did back then.

So, my play did a lot of interesting things that I didn't remember after all these years (sixteen, to be exact). I lampooned the actual drama of that era itself, which was given to lampooning everything in sight and tended to be comically bizarre, and mocked a lot of the typical tropes found in drama of that period and even from Shakespeare. I was astounded I was able to handle the comedy so well, and one scene of my comedic timing was so well-done, I had to read it a few times because it made me laugh so hard!

Mind you, I have virtually no memory of the specifics about this play any longer. I only have a physical copy of it--that's how old it is. A printed-out document that was originally typed up in WordPerfect from the late 90's or early 2000's. WordPerfect! That cracks me up.

At some point after I finished college, I got it into my head that I have no capacity to write comedy. I'm eating those words, though I still don't know HOW I wrote what I wrote, even though I can clearly see how hysterical this silly little play actually is. The me of today is not the me of that time period whatsoever. Maybe some people don't change much over the years, but I have, radically. Maybe that's why I can't, as the me of today, understand what I did back then.

Anyway, if anything, it does bolster my confidence that I can write something worthwhile. My professor was completely in love with the play and I remember having a table-read of it in class with my classmates reading the parts of the characters listed in the Dramatis Personae. I remember everybody in the class laughing a lot as it was being sort of "acted out." I guess I managed to create something good once upon a time, and if I haven't changed too-too much, maybe I can do it again.

Have you written something many years ago that you actually liked after years of it sitting in a drawer or on a shelf? (I'm probably weird that it worked out positively for me.)

IWSG: The Batching Edition... (#29)

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's IWSG Question is, "What is one valuable lesson you've learned since you started writing?"

I'm sure I could go on about the valuable life lessons I've learned since becoming a serious writer, or even not-so-serious writer, ala The After School Special, but I feel like I would rather blog about something I have learned more recently that I feel is extremely valuable in the practical sense.

I've been trying to figure out how to organize my time in such a way so as to be more productive and get things done in a timely manner. Obviously, my writing productivity was needing a boost, most importantly, because I found simply squeezing in time to write everyday was not producing a whole lot of writing.

That sounds like it doesn't make sense, but it ended up being very true because I am quite the procrastinator. What I've discovered is that when I have an infinite amount of time to get something done, I will almost always choose to put it off for the next day. Only, the next day becomes the next week, then the next month, and sometimes even the next year.

I decided to not give myself so many days in the week to write anymore. That sounds kind of stupid, right? To experiment, I dedicated only three days to writing and I would just have to get all my week's worth of writing done in those few days, or I wouldn't be getting my writing done. Those other days were simply meant for other things. Turns out, that worked wonders for me!

I am getting so much writing done, it's amazing. I have to spend more time writing each of those three days, of course, but it's working in producing thousands of word-count days for me, which I never got done in any given day with my old system because I was squeezing in writing time, rather than letting myself have all night to write as much as I could for only three days during the week.

Funnily enough, I learned about this technique earlier this year and happened to recall learning it from Bryan Cohen, an indie author marketing guru, through his newsletter. He wrote about a productivity hack called "batching," where, instead of doing something a bit everyday, you give it a dedicated day for the week and get it all done, like catching up on email, reading, organizing your closet, whatever.

I didn't jump to try it out back when I first learned about it, but I ended up figuring out batching for myself. I use it now for everything, pretty much, and I am finally getting things done. Last year, I went off the rails and just allowed myself to get distracted by every little shiny thing, which resulted in virtually no writing, or planning of novels getting done, at all. I'm happy I've finally discovered something to battle the procrastination beast with because he was beginning to devour me whole!

Have you ever heard of "batching?" Have any productivity hacks you feel work amazingly well for you?

IWSG: The I've Tried to Quit Many Times and Failed Edition... (#28)

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's IWSG question is, "Did you ever say, 'I quit'? If so, what made you come back to writing?"

I have to laugh at this question because I've tried to quit writing so many times over the last twenty years, it's better to just drop the first part of the question altogether. I've been a very insecure writer for a very long time. I remember about ten years ago giving it up completely to become an 'artist,' but, after a year of even MORE struggle and toil (as if it could get any worse), I started writing again and realized it was so much easier than drawing people and things realistically.

But, again, I tried to quit only a few years ago because I was a silly newbie writer (was still in that newbie phase, which lasted a significant number of years) who conflated how I felt about writing a particular novella with how good the novella was. Or, I just didn't even think about it's quality. I don't even know, but I got some supremely harsh feedback that was honestly inappropriate and needlessly rude, and proceeded to metaphorically fling myself off my writing roof.

Only for a few weeks or so, though, did I quit before I was back to it, again. So, that lovely former critique partner didn't succeed in whittling down the competition, after all. Although, I was forever changed by such a blindsided hit, but it was a good change, as I can see now. It certainly woke me up to how truly crappy of a writer I was at the time (perhaps, still am).

I proceeded to go through a difficult phase of writing that probably every creative person goes through, which is flipping HATING the thing you used to love doing the most. Writing was no longer fun and it was then that I had the best reason to truly throw in the towel. But, nay. I still persisted because I've got nothing else to do. That works for stick-to-it-tiv-ness, right?

I guess I just wanted to see if there was actual light at the end of that dark tunnel. You hear how there is always supposed to be, and you just hope against all hope that other people are right. I do now see that they were right, after all. I have finally come out of the dark tunnel, or am coming out of it, anyway. I'm phasing into a stage where I am learning to do things with my writing that I always wanted to be able to do, but didn't know how. It's great! And it's FUN to write, again. I love it! Now I remember how it felt to be writing ten years ago when I thought I knew what I was doing and didn't really.

I also now highly suspect the true reason behind why I struggle to finish the novels I start writing. It's because I was always able to see how I wanted to write them, but wasn't able to do it at the time, and thus, would not be able to finish them. I guess I'm just too objective about my own writing and can see how bad it is and how it's not living up to my standards. The only solution is to learn how to write up to my standards, so I'm trying to do that now.

So, that's my long-winded story. What's yours? You a quitter like me, but keep getting back on that horse because horses don't ride themselves?

IWSG: The Fiction Is My Second Language Edition... (#27)

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.

Oh-ho, I am back from the dead of winter to meet you all in the fair month of March. I told you I wouldn't rear my head again for the rest of the year after that last blog post in December. (I'm so consistent about procrastinating. At least that's something.)

The topic I have chosen to write about today may seem rather odd. What in the world could I mean by saying, "fiction is my second language"? Yeah, what am I talking about? Well, this is something that has recently occurred to me after several years of suppression: I do and always have struggled with writing FICTION over another form of story-telling, that being stage play-writing....

What I mean is that when I first began to tell stories many years ago, mostly back in my college days, I was doing so in the form of dramatic stage plays, not fiction. In fact, I remember taking writing classes that required me to write poetry, fiction and drama and I always sucked at poetry (I snorted as I wrote this), struggled with fiction a fair amount, but truly exceeded my own and everyone else's expectations when it came to dramatic stage writing.

I don't know why, but it came more naturally to me. It just leads me to believe that, like anyone living in a country other than their own native country and who was raised away from that adopted land, the second language doesn't come as naturally as the first.

I decided it wasn't feasible to become a playwright in this day and age. When was the last time you went to the theater to see a play? And, not a musical, because we all know musicals are doing just fine, but I'm not Andrew Lloyd Webber. The stage play has seen better days. I won't even go into how incoherent the typical modern play is by now. You probably know what I'm talking about.... 

It is true that, for me, sitting in a theater and watching a live play is more transcendent than anything else I can think of, other than sitting through a musical, but we already established I'm not musically gifted or skilled. I knew I had to go a more realistic story-telling route, so I chose fiction. Trust me, it IS more realistic than writing stage plays.

Like an immigrant to a foreign land who must adopt the language of the natives in order to live and get by in their new environment, that's what I've been doing for twenty years with writing fiction. It just doesn't come to me as easily as telling a story through the dramatic medium.

This is just an interesting observation I recently made and it has helped me in understanding why I struggle so much with fiction. It makes sense now. It's like I forgot I'm not really from here. I would probably do that if I moved to a foreign country--just utterly forget my American roots if I lived long enough away from them.

But, like any of Hamlet's soliloquies, knowing this is not going to solve any of my problems. Though, I will be more inclined to forgive myself for not keeping up with the natives.

As for the IWSG Question of the Month: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

It's such funny timing because that's exactly what I've been doing. I realized it's been too long since I shared anything I've written with... anyone, really. So, I've pulled out an old fan fiction and am dusting it off (revising it) to share it on Archive of Our Own (AO3). It's time I stretched out these "sharing" legs of mine with something I actually finished once upon a time. If only I could finish something original that I could sell to an audience!

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?