Just Jump

A few years ago I went cliff-jumping with some friends. I was so ready for it, so excited to make our way up the "cliff" and stare at the green water. I was so excited to feel the rush of adrenaline as my feet left the edge of the rock and plunge toward the ground. So one of my friends jumped. Then another. Then it was my turn. I  stood at the edge, ready to jump and..... nothing. Well, there were too many rocks. I could fall.

Everyone helped clear the rocks off so the smooth ground would be stable and I could jump. So I looked down at the water... nothing. I froze.

I read a great blog post by Jenny Hanson today called Do You Fear Your Dream and I literally sat back and said YES! I have these moods where I get really inspired followed by periods of inactivity because I trick myself into thinking I can't do this or don't deserve this or the rocks were in the way or blah blah excuse blah.

It isn't just limited to cliff jumping or even writing. I've been looking to move out of my house and into an apartment closer to my work, but the problem is I've never moved. Ever. So when I had to start looking at apartments my brain froze. I've spent about a week stalling my potential roommates because I figure they can find themselves an apartment and toss me out of the equation. Except I know they won't. Still, I'm in freeze mode.

It would be so much easier to keep living in my parents' house. Not only is it cheaper, I have a built in excuse to not participate in things! How perfect is that?

Answer? Not perfect at all. Because deep down I know that one day I'm going to regret it. So I'm going to go out of my comfort zone.

I'm going to move out. I'm going to write. And every time I hear that little voice start to speak up, I'm going to tell it to shut the hell up. Then I'll jump.

The TRIFECTA of Inspiration

I had the trifecta of inspiration this weekend. Well, okay one of them didn't happen this weekend, but I'm going to count it because trifecta of inspiration sounds cool.

So first of all, I'm not the best behaved 23-year-old in church. If I go by myself I'm probably fine, but the problem is that I usually go with my brother and sister. There's just something about us all sitting there that turns us into children. Ergo, after about 5 minutes of homily I tend to space out, sometimes playing this stupid game with my brother that is way too difficult to explain on here so I won't.

This week, we went to a "family mass" at our church. Basically during the homily, the priest sits on the floor and has all of the little kids come up to the front and directs the message to them. Besides the fact that this little girl could not stop repeating her answer to "What is your talent?" (her answer was fixing the bed. Really? That's all you've got?) this message actually clicked with me.

Basically the idea was that everyone has talents and at the end of your life God is going to ask you what you did with those talents. Now whether or not you believe in God is your own business, but even if you take that out of the equation the message still kind of sticks. The priest basically asked the congregation "What the hell are you going to do with your life?"

A conversation every teenager dreads.

So, I immediately thought "Huh. I'd say my talent is writing. At least it's what I love to do." Then the homily was over and I was playing again.

Later that day, I was laying on the couch, watching some brain-rotting TV with my brother and he said "You used to write stories, right?"

"Yeah."

"I remember some of them. You should do that again."

It was such a simple statement, but combined with the priest it really hit me. I SHOULD do that again. Little does he know that I am writing, since, for some reason, I can't bring myself to let anyone know. It made me want to get really really serious about my writing. 

The third thing is the death of my friend in August. A 19-year-old, perfectly healthy person, who just didn't wake up one morning. Life is short, people. Every day is a gift.

The Scariest Part of Halloween

AHHHH IT'S HALLOWEEN!!

I love Halloween. Scary movies, jack-o-lanterns, candy, trick or treaters. Everything. One thing I don't love?

NANOWRIMO STARTS TOMORROW.

In context, I'm not freaking out as much as I would if, say I was being chased through an abandoned house by Michael Myers.

This Michael Myers would be just as scary.

So Good Luck to everyone attempting NaNo this year! Here's a list of things I did to hopefully gain me a win. I'll let you know if any of them actually help:

1. Subscribed to my Region on nanowrimo.org.  They had a Kickoff party yesterday that I had to miss because I was trapped in the frozen wasteland that was Connecticut (no offense to anyone who lives there but that place was AWFUL during the storm). I'm planning on attending at least one Write-In either this week or next week. If it's helpful I'll go back. I've never written with other people involved so it'll be a new experience.

2. Bookmarked writeordie.com. I'm considering buying the desktop edition, but I want to see how much it actually helps me for the first week before making the whole $10 plunge. Stay tuned for updates.

3. Plotted out my time in a nifty little chart based around what TV shows I would be sad to miss and which ones I can do without. Sorry, Sunday nights. The Walking Dead gets an hour.

4. Fully charged my computer so I can write on my 40 minute each way commute. I took this morning off to nap, but once tomorrow comes there'll be none of that.

5. Finished writing Arieties. Scenes are done. Handing it off to my critique group for comments. 

So I'm as prepared as I am going to be. I was going to write an outline of my story but let's face it, I'm a pantser. It doesn't work. I might write up a page about the characters I already have in my mind but even that seems like a lot of planning for me.

I now have less than 24 hours before NaNo begins. What have you done to prepare?

A Halloween Writing Prompt

Halloween. Zombies, vampires, witches, ghosts. Any one of them could take up residence here:

From www.lovethesepics.com

Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Six Flags amusement park in New Orleans and it was never rebuilt. A photographer and his friend took pictures of the decaying park and it is really something. Granted, they had to trespass to get in, but I'm definitely putting this on my list of places I want to see in person. The cheesy subtitles don't take away from the creepiness in most of these pictures and, as they reference several times, it is the perfect setting for a horror story. If they don't clean it up a tiny bit to make it safe  and make a haunted attraction out of it, then whoever owns this park is really lacking in imagination.
 
More pics from this collection

NaNoWriMo

I've taken the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo.

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it is super scary. Basically the premise is that you, as a writer, complete a novel in one month. If that doesn't scare you, then I'm not sure what will. I've never done it before so I'm kind of excited to see if I can do it. I'm also cheating, so that helps.

My goal is to have at least 20,000 to 30,000 words done on my current WIP before NaNo starts so I can finish it in the allotted time. I think there's a goal of 50,000 words for NaNo, but I'm shooting for 80,000 so I'm really just leveling the playing field. Plus, I'm still going to be editing Arieties so that will take up a little bit of my time. I ended up revamping the ending (again) so I'm hoping to have it ready for my critique group in the next week. I haven't done the math, but that would put it ready for beta reading (again) by the end of NaNo. Then the scary part. I want to start working on querying in January (eeek!).

Is anyone else giving NaNo a shot this year?

I think I may be falling in Love

I fall in love a lot. Not Love, which is reserved for very special people/things like my family, Boyfriend and my cat. No, I fall in love all of the time.

Seriously, I fall in love with ideas, shoes, characters, people and then I fall out of love with them just as quickly. The time that I spend in love with these things varies. For example, I was in love with the idea of buying myself a motorcycle for about three hours on Saturday. Seriously, I was on the verge of doing all of my research when I fell in love with the idea of building furniture and then with painting furniture (which I actually did, but did not love). I was in love with Eminem for about 15 minutes the other day.

Well hello there.

It passed.

Now I am in love with a new story that I've just begun. I'm still editing Arieties and I've developed a little system where I edit in the morning and write in the evening that seems to be working for me. Except for when this new story starts taking over. I am in love with my MC and her story, though her world still needs some fleshing out. I've gone through a lot of ideas in the past few years that haven't panned out into full length stories, even though I loved them. 

This is the second story in two years that I feel like I might commit myself totally and completely to. I'm falling in Love with it. The other story? Arieties. Finished. Still being edited, but finished. That excites me more than anything I can even think to describe. Honestly, I've got that feeling where if I do this right, it could be really great. I Love Arieties and I cannot wait until I hit the point where I Love Skye and her story, too. Right now I think I Love it already, but I don't want to put a ring on it just yet. I mean, this new story already beat out Eminem, furniture building and motorcycles, so that's a start. If I'm still working on it in a few weeks I'll have to compare it against my ultimate love (who would become Love if he was real and in front of me).

Oh, how I love you

Speed Dating your Characters

I do most of my story planning once I've already written my first draft. Kind of backwards, right? As a pantser (as in, I write by-the-seat-of-my-pants, a very technical term) I really only have a vague idea of where my story is going when I embark on the journey with my characters. So, in my second round of edits, I'm forcing myself to sit down and flesh out the minor characters (major characters got their own one-on-one time with me already). So I figure it's appropriate to share my procedure with you kind folks. Everyone has a different system so who knows, you might like something about mine :)

Inspiration from Postsecret.com

Without the supporting characters, the main character in your story is just wandering around alone talking to him/herself. Even in a movie like Cast Away, where Tom Hanks is stranded on a deserted island for almost the entire movie, there are supporting characters that make him more relateable and further the plot (namely Wilson).

He's more than a little creepy.

So, when I'm trying to figure out my characters, I go speed dating.

1. Main Character (1)

2. Major Characters (3-5)

3. Minor Characters (3-10)

4. Two-Sceners (2-3)

5. Everyone else mentioned by name

Wait, what? Speed dating? Yes, speed dating. I use the categories above and work from the bottom up. Check it:

5. Everyone mentioned by name gets a brief, one-sentence summary of motivation and relevance to the story. Like the first few crummy dates at a speed dating table (or what I assume they're like). "Yeesh, get me out of here."

4. Two-Sceners are the characters that appear in only one or two scenes but are still important to the whole story (i.e. the sympathetic cop who gives the hardened criminal a break that gives the criminal the opportunity to do x or z). They get 2 sentences. "You're kind of interesting, but I'm still not into you."

3. Minor characters are usually a part of a major event in the story or are in the story for a significant period of time. They tend to be more in the background, but still interact with the MC enough that they're not just Two-Sceners. They get a whole paragraph about motivation, significant personality traits, and relevance to the story.

2. Major characters are the buddies. The best friend of the MC, the enemy of the MC, the guy who follows the MC around the entire book until he just becomes useful. These are the characters that can make or break a story. As a result, they get 3-5 paragraphs on personality, appearance, motivation, brief background (usually not included in the story but helpful to the author), and anything else that seems important. 

1. MC - obviously take all of the time in the world for this guy/girl.

Everyone has a different process, this is just the way I get to know my characters. The main point is to not forget them. The supporting characters in someone's life story are the ones that help to move the life story along or change the life for better or for worse. They make a huge impact on the story either way so please, no cardboard friends.


How do you get to know your supporting characters?

Creating a Contrast

So I was doing research for a client at work the other day and I stumbled across this article about the creator of Oreos. Now this is a marketing blog, but one part struck me as being extremely pertinent for writing:

"Dynamic novelty is all about creating a contrast between two opposing forces. The opposition creates harmony and by having both, you can stand out."

They're talking about the taste of Oreos in the article, but I am going to apply it to stories. The contrast can be simple: the antagonist vs. protagonist, good vs. evil. Or it can be within a character, like conflicting ideals or the realization that all is not as it seems for a character. No matter what, the conflict has to be there. By going deeper with the opposition (i.e. taking the conflict internally or having multiple opposing forces) you can create an engaging, life-like story line that draws the reader in and makes your story stand out from the masses.

How about you? How do you create dynamic novelty in your story line?

The Obligatory Dark Part

How many times have you watched a movie (specifically comedies/romantic comedies) and reached the point where you think "Ugh, I know they're going to get back together, but now they're pretending to hate each other. I hate this part" ?

Love the movie, but come on. If anyone didn't see Kat getting mad that 

Patrick was paid to take her they were not thinking.

There are a lot of movies I like that have this, and I realize that it's necessary to move on to the ending of the story and make for a more satisfying conclusion. Still, it's the part of the movie that I get up to refill my popcorn/drink/etc. Books, likewise, have this part. It looks like the hero is never going to get to his/her goal and yet you know that they'll make it there in the end.

The trick in writing is to make me not want to skip a bunch of pages or to make my butt glued to that couch until the very end. Even if I know that the hero gets the girl, make me question it. Too often, writers get attached to their characters and put them through necessary evils, but by making these evils completely atrocious and painful it often creates a better story.

Literary Agent Donald Maass (@DonMaass) tweets writing prompts designed to make your story better. While I personally don't believe that every single one of the prompts should be included in every story (personal preference) they are all ridiculously useful ways to make a story better. For example: "What’s the emotion or experience you’re most afraid to put your MC through? Go there. Do it. Now."

That prompt (number 29 out of 40-something) acknowledges that it's often the writer that's holding the story back. I'm guilty of it, I know I am. I love making my characters sweat, but I hate actually putting them in the fire. They're my little creations. But think of it this way: if your reader gets as attached to your character as you do, they'll be rooting for him/her even more if they have to overcome enormous odds to succeed. I'd rather watch someone climb a treacherous mountain than skip over a hill.


How do you get past putting your characters through hell?

Did I really write that? A guide to metaphors and similes

Okay, it's not looking good for Sunday check-ins for ROW80 so I think I'm just going to stick to Wednesday updates instead. Now, on to my Monday post:

Last Thursday former literary agent/current author Nathan Bransford critiqued a writer's page with his main takeaway being "Avoid being writerly. "

As he explains it: "When you're being writerly, your writing is making things less clear with clever word play."

Now, as a part of an online critique group, I find that I can pick out the "writerly" and point it out to other writers. Surely I am not guilty of this, right?

WRONG.

I was editing a story that I'd written and found this line:

She ducked her head, her hair catching on a rusted nail that stuck out from the wood like a fishing pole over the ocean, trying to catch...

Guess where that sentence ended up

Apparently I'd stopped there and continued, I'm guessing because even while writing it my subconscious was trying to get my attention and pull me from that train of thought. Seriously, a fishing pole over the ocean? What the heck?

I don't remember writing this, but I know that I did and I can even guess at my train of thought. It probably had something to do with "Oh, this scene doesn't have enough descriptive imagery" or "I sound too telly, I need to do some more showing." Blech.


Metaphors and similies definitely add to writing, but are a main symptoms to the "writerly" disease.  So how do you self-diagnose? There are a few things that I do while editing:

1. Look at the similes, metaphors, and descriptions in your work and ask yourself if they are necessary. In my example, I was just describing a nail. Totally inconsequential and never mentioned again in the story. The "fishing rod over the ocean" doesn't convey any more imagery than "nail jutting out from the wood" would. The MC didn't even see the nail until after the fact, so the description is totally and completely unnecessary. Similes and metaphors are important descriptive tools when you can make them work.

2. Look at the frequency of similies, metaphors, and descriptions in your work. If you have a metaphor appearing every two lines, chances are high that the reader is going to notice them and become more distant from the story. The metaphors should flow within the words so that you barely notice them while you read instead of feeling like a forced writerly tool.

3. Look at the length of your similies, metaphors, and descriptions. My example could work if I adjusted it a bit and the MC had some knowledge of fishing rods over the ocean. However, it is getting too long. Part of the reason I probably cut it off was because it was just trailing along with no end in sight. 

Here's an example of a simile done well:

From The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

"The ride was actually over in six and a half minutes, and I had no choice but to hobble like an off-balance giraffe on my one flat, one four-inch heel arrangement."

The simile describes how the protagonist looks so that the reader can envision the scene (1) and is short and to the point (3).  

How do you self-diagnose writing ailments?

This whole bloggy thing

So as a dedicated participant of ROW80 and even more dedicated procrastinator, I have been visiting the blogs of my fellow challengees (that should be a word) and noticed something of note:

There are some seriously talented bloggers out there.

I'm not talking about just the writing, I expected decent posts by people who were participating in a writing challenge, but the designs overall. Some use the blogger/wordpress/livejournal-created designs, like yours truly, and others... well others blow my mind clear into space.  As I've mentioned before, I'm a virgo, just coming into my virgo-hood and the organization of some of these pages amazes me.

Which brings me to my page. I am a blogging newbie. I have no idea what I'm doing on this thing and, frankly, I prefer to learn as I go anyway. So I've decided to set some rules for myself to try and make this less of a teenager's closet and more of a color-coordinated celebrity shoe collection (if you've ever seen Mariah Carey's "Cribs" episode you know what I mean).


1. Post Schedule
I will post every Monday with my check-in posts for ROW80 on Wednesday(definitely) and Sunday(probably). Wednesday will be more of a commentary of where I'm at with my writing while Sunday I'm probably just going to throw up my check-ins just to keep myself on schedule (if I even make it on Sundays, I'm a busy girl!).

I know it may seem like I'm breaking my own rule by posting this on a Thursday, but I will reserve Thursdays and Fridays (whichever is the end of my work week, since we are doing Summer Fridays) for random postings if I feel that they are needed.

2. Layout
I will work on my layout on my non-posting days until I am satisfied, which knowing myself will be forever. I will try and incorporate at least one relevant picture in each post, since I've found that posts with pictures tend to be much more visually appealing.

 

I promise the pictures will be better than this.

3. Post content

Monday will be a post about writing. I am going to try to be really strict about this and I think I've done pretty well so far. The random Thursday/Friday posts can be about anything, but will hopefully relate to writing somehow. I might use Wednesday to share interesting links to other blog posts that I enjoyed, but we'll see how that goes. Book reviews may be added at a later date.

So there it is. Welcome to the new dawn of By any other name...

What things do you love about your favorite blogs?  

First check-in for ROW80

I am not off to a good start. In all fairness, we did get extremely busy at work yesterday and then I basically dropped into a dead sleep once I got home. Still, not a good start. To the check-in, shall we?

Goal 1. To write at least 500 words, 5 days a week

Tuesday: 510 words - JUST MADE IT!

Wednesday: 213 words - yeesh not too hot

Goal 2. To complete (or edit) at least two full scenes a day

Tuesday: Edited 3 full scenes from Arieties

Wednesday: Edited 1 scene from Arieties

Goal 3. To have the draft of my WIP Arieties ready for beta reading by the end of ROW80

Working on it

I'm thinking of adding a new goal for next week, but I'm going to let that idea marinate for a while before jumping in, especially since I couldn't accomplish the two that I set myself up for. I'll just have to do better next time. My personal goal for next week is to make up for the things I've missed this week. So I'm short 287 words from today (which is still not over, so I could still make it) and one scene. I can do this.

I hope everyone else did better with their goals then I did!

Universal Experiences

While watching the fireworks this Fourth of July, I began thinking about how readers can connect to characters through experiences where they connect with complete strangers, if only for a moment.

For example, I was on a high school football field with over 100 other people, just waiting for it to be dark enough to watch things explode, when the national anthem began to play. Everyone stood up and turned to face the flag. There were people of every background, age, and race class around me and for that one minute (or however long it takes someone to sing the national anthem) we were all just celebrating America.

Is there anything more American?

In writing, there are hundreds of things people will tell you to do in order to connect to your readers, but I'd say universal experiences are probably one of the best things. And I'm not saying that you have to have a scene where the hero hears the anthem of his or her state/country/villiage/etc. and get's overly emotional and goes on a vengeance mission to help his fellow man (or dwarf/elf/vampire/etc.)

For example, in the popular series (and current personal obsession) The Hunger Games, there is a scene, I believe in the second book Catching Fire, where the MC, Katniss, witnesses a crowd of people who whistle a meaningful tune. The crowd is clearly united and in support of the MC. The author doesn't need to spell out the feeling that the MC gets, or even the expression on the faces of the crowd. My mind immediately connected with the experience, even though I don't live in an oppressed district and I don't know anyone who has ever been killed in the name of entertainment. I still got it.

It would be the same if a writer described watching fireworks with a friend. You can't put on paper the unequaled amazement of a child watching the colorful explosions high above her head, or the beauty of the golden strands that trail down to earth after the initial color has faded from the sky. But writing a brief description like that would bring any reader (who has been fortunate enough to see fireworks) back to a time when they enjoyed the simple entertainment of a fireworks display, whether they were a child or an adult.

It's the little scenes that help connect the reader to the characters in a story. Think of your favorite book, I'll bet there's at least one moment that you identified with the MC or a supporting character, whether you realized it while reading or not.

The Waiting Game

When I was in grade school, I had a teacher who always said a quote that has stuck with me to this day:

"Patience is a virtue... (big pause) that I definitely do not have."

-Sister Pam

Now this was usually said when my class was acting up during art class or religion class or whatever subject she taught that year. I think it was supposed to be a warning that we needed to sit down and shut up before she went crazy, but coming from a lady who told a bunch of six-year-olds that if we didn't hold onto the railing on the stairs we would trip and smash our head open like pumpkins on Halloween, it wasn't the clearest warning she ever gave. 

Even this picture makes me nervous

 

 

Still, it always stuck with me. Mainly because I followed in that lovably crazy nun's footsteps when it comes to patience. I really can't stand waiting. So when I sent my first submission for a short story out, I forced myself to forget about it for the month that it would take for a response. It's only a month, right?

 

Needless to say, I checked my e-mail every day, hoping for a response, until the 31st day when I got a rejection letter. Bummer. It's okay. Move on.

I chose the next place to submit and sent it. That was a week ago. Their response time? THREE MONTHS!

 

I repeat: THREE MONTHS!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go nuts.

 

Then again, I don't have to deal with 19 screaming second graders, so I guess I'm better off than Sister Pam.

Character development while people watching

I've heard many writers say that inspiration strikes them at any moment. The tiniest thing might be ignored by most people but inspire a brilliant novel for a writer.

That slide looks sinister.

At the same time, writers can use inspiration from the world around them to develop an existing idea. For example, I take the train into work every morning from New Jersey to NYC New Jersey Transit is awful. Avoid travelling on it at all costs.  and at least three days a week I get in with no delays. Unfortunately, yesterday was one of the two mandatory days a week that NJ Transit decides to screw up, just to mess with the daily commuters.

I was stuck at one station with no way to get out for 45 minutes with a dead iPod and dying phone. Luckily I had a book with me, but I was almost done and I wanted to save it for the return trip. So I started to look around me and notice how my fellow passengers were reacting to this situation. There was the sleeping man, who I'm pretty sure never noticed we were stopped anyway. There was the girl on the phone with NJ Transit angrily demanding that they send a bus to transport us all at least to Newark. There was the couple who were chatting about their childrens' sports schedules and which one would be home in time to pick them up (Spoiler: they were on NJ Transit, so neither probably got home on time).

So I started thinking. What would the characters in my current WIP do? I had to dismiss the fact that my MC and a major character wouldn't be allowed on trains and several other characters wouldn't need them for transportation anyway, but I started going through them one by one and I learned a lot about my characters. I also had a blast with my imagination.

 

The result was a brand new scene and several characters that I had to rethink.  Both of which are going to add to my story and are helping me brush past a bit of writer's block in my editing. 

Have you ever imagined your characters in real situations, whether to pass the time or to help get through a tough spot in your story?

Don't go changin'

If you believe in astrology, then, as a Virgo, I should be obsessed with planning and organizing things. I'm not sure what else being a Virgo entails, but that part always stuck to me, mainly because I am so not. After college, I hit some weird personality shift and I did become obsessed with organizing my personal space (room, work desk, etc) but other than that? Nope.

I am what is known in the writing world as a "pantser." As in I write by-the-seat-of-my-pants(er). I originally embraced this and wrote some stories. Granted I was about 10-years-old and had no idea what a pantser was or even that I could grow up to become an author or that I could write anything over ten pages long. The point is that I did it. Then some years pass and I decide I'm going to write a novel. It was awful and I am the first to admit that it should never see the light of day, but it prompted me to join an online critique group.

I totally recommend this for anyone who wants to get serious about writing. I have learned so much and am a much better writer because of it. However, with all of the different personalities, there are bound to be different opinions on the best way to write. Everyone seemed to have such well thought out novels that I said, "Huh. I must be doing something wrong." Right at that point, one of the people on the forum posted a blog about how she plans her novels out with the different steps in novel writing. It was a great post and I decided from that point I would plan out my novels so I knew where I was going when I actually started to write.

Dear Lord, was that the wrong move for me. I would plan out a novel and then never write it. What started out as this great idea turned into something so mundane and boring for me and I just over analyzed EVERYTHING. It was awful. So, on my most recent WIP, I said "Eff this, I'm going to be a pantser again." It's turning out to be so much more work than if I had planned it out, but you know what?

I LOVE IT! And I'm pretty sure my story is better because of it.

My point isn't that planning a story out is wrong. It's not, for some people. But for me it is. You know how adults tell children that everyone is different or special in their own way (or at least they should)? Well writers are kind of like that. Every one will have different advice. Most of it is probably good advice, but it's not always the RIGHT advice.

And there's your challenge. Weed through the tons of advice out there and find what's right for you. You'll know it when you feel it.

Or don't. Whatever works for you.