Getting back on the horse

So what have I been up to?
Nothing of great importance.

How is life here in California?
Great! We got rain last winter. It is now winter 2018 and we search the skies for clouds.

New year, new me!
mehhh..

Well, we'll work on it.

Since it is 2018, and a new year, I thought I would brush off some of the story ideas and get my butt in gear.  Let's see if we can't get something written yeah?
So what to work on? What do I like? What is "talking" to me?

And when I say "talking", I mean what can I pull out of a folder, input into Scrivner, and not just stare at a blank screen for hours?

I am never too sure what to put in these blog posts. *scowls*
How familiar should I get?
Want a picture of my dog?
Surprise! I don't have a dog.

Wanna hear about my newest story idea?!
No! You'll steal it! *looks around clutching idea to her chest*

It be January, and I missed the Steinbeck Center's open house.
They had a whole week of free admission! I went last year; it was great! Oh...I've told you that right? I live in John Steinbeck's hometown.
 It's MY Hometown now, however. He's dead, and a Noble prize winner, and internationally famous, but Goals..am I right?

I will once again, attempt to post something every week.  Maybe I'll write about the valley and the area that inspires me to write. Maybe I should go for a drive and get those old juices flowing. I used to love driving down River Road; look out over all farmland. The mountains, the Valley, the arroyos, the canyons, the weird upside-down river, the ocean just 30 miles to the east, all of it has featured in some manner in many of my stories. Even if it is as set dressing for a fantasy world, or a sci-fi piece, or a paranormal fiction piece.

So, let's get back into the swing of things.

Welcome, 2018! Let's do something outrageous!

Where do your ideas come from?

New Blog Post!

Most of my ideas come from “What if” moments.  Say I am reading a book, and thought that the hero did a spectacularly stupid thing.  What if he did something else instead.
Like Romeo and Juliet.
What if:
— the letter got to Romeo in time?
— He didn’t take the poison when he was in the crypt?
— Juliet decided to run away with him when he left Verona?
You know stuff like that.

My best ideas come when I am doing something else. Like sweeping, or washing dishes, or taking a sit down bath. When my body is on auto pilot, my mind can gnaw away on ideas.
Little things come together.

I was startled by my neighbor today because I was working on the dialog of a scene of my NaNo project. . .OUT LOUD. His wife had been a writer, so I am hoping that he is used to that sort of thing. Or else he may be moving soon. Or think I am crazy. He hasn’t SEEN crazy!!
Yes, I am a self talker.

I need to attach headphones to my cellphone so it looks like I am taking a call.  Instead I am talking to my voice recorder app. (Which I haven’t downloaded yet)

My BEST ideas come to me in dreams. Those are the ideas (if I can remember them) which I just know in my gut are good. There is no real second guessing a dream story idea.
I can rewind my dreams and rearrange them to my satisfaction.  A nice little talent, if I do say so myself.

Sometimes I rewind and re-dream things over and over again until I am sure I’ll remember it when I wake up.

I don’t think I dream Works in Progress.  At least if I do, I don’t remember it.

I find ideas everywhere. I keep them in my head.  I tinker with them and gnaw on them.  See if they won’t fall apart under pressure. If I am satisfied, I write them down on paper.  Which in my mind is like setting them in stone.  They are real. Unchangeable.

But we all know how NaNoWriMo chips away at “unchangeable”.

Is it considered writing if you don’t put it down on paper?

Apologies to anyone still hanging about watching this space.

So what have I been up to? I would say “nothing”, but that is the lazy answer.

I stopped the other day, and tried to pin point when I started to write.

My earliest stories were formed in my head.I have “written” stories in my head for years; since I was a young kid. However mine weren’t grand epics of originality. I would play the “What If” game. After reading a story or watching a television show, I would think to myself: What if this happened instead of that? What I didn’t know was what I was doing was fan fiction. I never wrote these stories down on paper, so most of them are lost. When I did write stories down, they were “original” things written out in long hand with pencil. We didn’t have a computer. I still have those stories but I have never transcribed them and put them into the computer.

In the late 90’s, the Internet exploded. Our family purchased a computer with Internet capabilities.

This changed my life.

I found fan communities, and fan art, and fan fiction. I had always been a thinker of stories, but I had never written them down. I finally found a community which was begging for continuations of the television show we were all watching. I really liked the show, liked the fandom, and decided to write a story. It was eagerly consumed. So I wrote four more with plans to write more (which never came to fruition) before I burned out. I stayed with the fandom until it shrank, and then like many people I moved on to the next thing. I didn’t write any more fan fiction though. I found I enjoyed reading other people’s fan fiction than writing my own. Some of the writers were really good.

I flitted from fandom to fandom until I stopped and thought to myself: “What am I doing? Why am I wasting my time reading other people’s stuff when I could be writing my own?”

Going off to college really changed my mindset when it came to my writing. Before I left, it was about what was quick and easy. The plots were simplistic and shallow. Going to school, and meeting other writers changed how complex my stories were. My characters gained depth. The plots were mired in not only “get the girl” or whatnot, but also political, social-economical, and racial tensions. I didn’t realize that those influences were creeping in until I was trying to think of a conclusion to a story, and realized that there was no way to tie it up in a neat little bow. There is no fixing deeply seated racism and religious tensions. If there was there would be world peace.

My stories have changed, but my habits haven’t. I still write stories in my head, and am reluctant to commit them to paper. I do have some in the computer, but they are just floating around in little think tanks. I think it is time I take them out of the tanks and put them on paper. See how it goes. They deserve to be shared I think. Once it is on paper, printed out, edited, recompiled, and held in my hands then I can say: “Look, I wrote this.”

What to do when waiting for edits

I would say it's a great day but...

Have you ever had the feeling that you have bitten off more than you can chew?  Or, you come out of a planning session feeling pretty good about the progress you've made, only to sit back and realize maybe you haven't made as much progress as you think you have?

I've been working on a book!  Well I kind of finished a book and sent it off to my Auntie because she insisted.  So she is currently doing...I am not exactly sure what she's doing. Holding me up I suppose. So to fill up time, and because I have an overactive idea generating mind, I started a NEW story. 

The original idea was of a "spoiled" entitled girl. A lead cheerleader, the popular girl who is now the popular senior who thinks she deserves the world! Well she has it...the world in her little town in Wyoming but what she really wants is the attention of the popular jock in school.  

Unfortunately for her, he's not interested.

Enter our Main female character. An outsider to this little town. She's from the big city and immediately attracts popular boy's attention.

I thought it was a good concept, so I ran with it. I decided to make it about werewolves...well I called them Wolven and scattered them about. Made a pack, a ranch, and a commune out in Wyoming.

I started to work and tinker and named characters and start to develop them. Who is this person? Who are their parents?  Where did they meet? When did they marry? How did they get here? That sort of stuff.

I tinkered some more and realized....

There wasn't a strong enough conflict.

*bummer*

Back to the drawing board.

Rule number one in creating a story:  Think of an original idea.

Rule number two:  Conflict conflict conflict!

And then I thought...this is too much work. 

So I decided to cheat a little bit.  When in doubt, copy.

Conflict and a ready made template.  So instead of a rather boring, stuck in Wyoming werewolf story with no conflict, I've moved my story to San Francisco.

Now it's a San Francisco Wolven versus vampires, Romeo and Juliet type story.  Two clans alike in dignity in foggy San Fran where we lay our scene.

uhm...kind of.

Since I don't want to recreate my wolven pack, I am shifting them into SF. Getting rid of that Main female character (goodbye Celena!) and creating a new Female Protagonist (hello and welcome aboard Vivian).

Creating a strong antagonist (so far he's unnamed. I was going to name him Seth but it doesn't fit the time and place where he was born)

I am recycling most of the wolven pack. Keeping the young male alpha (our Main male protag) but making him 19 instead of 17 in the original draft. His father Erol has been murdered instead of wandering around the country as a loner.  Killed on orders of our lovely and "sympathetic" antagonist.

Today I spent the day in the coffee shop reworking this Wolvenheart story idea. Making it Romeo (wolven) and Juliet (vampires).  

I had to look for a name for my antagonist the uber evil villain (the Capulet) and if homeland protection is monitoring internet searches they're probably watching my IP address thinking: "What in the world is this person working on?"

I just hope I am  not alone when it comes to being a complete spaz in doing research for a story.

My wolven and newly created vampires are settling in nicely to San Fran,  and I am enjoying writing about a place I loved to live and places I know.  

I just hope Aunt Fran doesn't totally disrupt my flow when she sends back my novel.  That one needs another 30,000 words added to it and I am eager to fill in the blanks.

It's a writer's life for me!

The start of a Grand Adventure

Well, tomorrow is the start of my Grand Adventure. A Quest to write an 80k word book in 60 days.
Yes, I think I am certifiable, but if I am successful I shall have a messy manuscript in my hands a week before Fanime 2011.
Then I get to relax and play at Fanime, recharge my creative batteries, and then a month later I do it all over again and start on the sequel.
It's a rough life, but if I play my cards right, I should have three books ready for publication by November.
I am looking forward to it. Live by the pen, die by the pen...or in this case the keyboard, computer, and word processor. I am counting on you Pan Dulce to get me through this.
Lets Rock!