Writing called on account of ants...

God the slog continues! I have taken some advice from somewhere, I think it's one of the books I have on writing mysteries or not. I can't be sure. And I am skipping ahead in my bookity book Tea Time Three. I am working on the events leading up to the climax. All I can think is how am I going to cobble this into a cohesive whole during editing? It has to work out some how. And of course I HAVE to finish!



It is my great lament and constant refrain that I can't just pound out a book in the space of three months. How will I ever succeed at my snail's pace? How will I ever finish the fucking book? Why I can't I write 5 things at once and grind them out at say the pace of... I dunno James Patterson? He seems to have a lot of new releases all at once. Anyone else out there fast? Anyone else out there finish a novel in under 6 months time?



Crap. I just want to cry. I also work on my MG horror/mystery from time to time. Inventing as I go. Fingers crossed that any of this sees the light of day. I guess this is the point where writers with a support system get help.



Don't you just love how every famous author is super writing/crit group uber buddies with every other famous author? I don't. Just sayin.



I bought the brand new Dragon- the soft ware that types for you thinking I can catch up on some of the typing backlog I have. Turns out my 3 year old laptop doesn't have the memory to run it. My 3 yr old laptop also has hard drive issues and an 'S' key that is a pain in my ass.



And no, I haven't written in a week or more because every morning is spent vacuuming ants and puttying shut the holes in the wall they a boiling forth from. Then the rest of the day is spent vacuuming and finding the next tiny crack they are coming in from. Also vacuuming.



Sorry for the self-indulgent post. I'll try to do better next time.



In the mean time, please to enjoy a cute photo of one of my dollies taken yesterday.





Her name is Charybdis and she is Scylla's sister. She has fangs and little bat wings and hooved feet.

Thankful for...

Well, since Thanksgiving is what... a week? Less than that? I thought I'd post what I'm thankful for.

Of course I WISH I could say I'm thankful for an agent, or even "I'm thankful my book is finished" but that is not to be! Maybe next year!

Thanks for

1- My house. Hey, I have a roof over my head, a spanky new dishwasher arriving, and a place to keep my stuff

2- My lovebird Igor. He has a bad viral disease which he will never be rid of but the virus has retreated and he is happy and healthy and as obnoxious as any other lovebird and he makes me laugh everyday

3- My friends, the few I have are good for the most part ;)

4- My WIPs. I'm glad I have ideas. I'm glad I've stuck with them. I think they will do something in the world- fingers crossed!

5- My Mom who is super supportive

6- The gym- I love the gym. I try to go at least 5 days a week but even when I don't I'm lookin' good :)

7- My massive doll collection. I love these dolls! Some of you on AW may have noticed my new avatar. That is just one of the many dolls I own!

8-Cable TV- nuff said- I lurvs me TV

9- Netflix

10- Otaku USA- who pays me to read Yaoi!

11- The library- because it's full of books!

Deperately Seeking Writing Friends

Hello.

My name is Che and I'm a writer published in the field of graphic novels and comic books but nothing past a e-zine prose wise. I am looking for other writers to be friends with! This sounds easy right?

Well, not so much. I live in a small town you've never heard of and the nearest big city is again, probably one you've never heard of... There is one local author I'm friends with but we write different genres and she has no interest in mine.

So, like any other lonely person I turned to the Internet. LJ and forums and most recently Absolute Write, where I thought- At last! I will make friends!

But to be honest, it's not going so well. Everyone knows each other, especially in the YA Old People Writing for Teens thread where I hang out, look at everyone get agented and published and addressing each other by real world first names, and I slink away. The Children's Writing thread is friendly enough *waves*. But I still haven't made any lasting friends- yet.

So how do you do it? I hear stories of people making best friends on the interweb, meeting authors, getting mentors. Etc. And all of that seems to completely elude me.

I need someone to talk about writing with as of right now I have NO ONE. No sounding board, no one to shoot the bull with, no one to talk plot, and "I'm stuck right now" with.

I could go complain on the forums I guess, and I see people making the 'I'm stuck' posts once in awhile but what I want is not random strangers but focused help.

The lengths I have considered going to to get author/writer friends- I want to go to Clarion San Diego because maybe I could make friends there. But let's break this down- Clarion SD cots some $5000. All to make friends?! OR I was just looking at the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA. What. The. Fuck. I don't have a degree in anything -art school drop out (not for the reasons your thinking either!) but seriously? Who the fuck GOES TO COLLEGE AS AN OLD PERSON JUST TO MAKE FRIENDS??

Ok. Complaints over.

Maybe someday right.

Mid Book Blues and the I Should Outline More Song

Tea Times Three has been staggering along for a while now. I thought I had finally turned a corner when I finally reached events that would lead me into act 3 and the climax of the book. But I still find myself in a slump, logging through endless conversations that I'm not sure why I'm writing in the first place.

Perhaps I should return to outlining. Believe it or not waaaaay back when I dropped out of college I wrote 3 books, one middle grade, and two YA. And I had them outlined perfectly, chapter by chapter, and I finished all three. Now, I won't say they were that good. They were not horrible, but not good enough to be published. And they were short. Like 50,000 words.

But they were DONE. And I had a plan and I executed it.

Crap.

Genre death?? Oh Noes!

I have been a genre reader all my life. I like fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The order of preference has shifted periodically but that is the general reading preference.

Which also means I am 99% fantasy author and 1% contemporary. But even the com temporary short stories I have written were genre- mystery to be exact. EXCEPT for one little flash piece called Collections which was literary.

BUT a lot of people seem to be questioning the possible market saturation of genre fiction lately. Particularly in YA. Now I don't have a finished YA piece but who knows, I may someday. And I can guarantee that it will be genre. Because I love genre. Now, what happens if everyone is sick of genre? Do I try contemp? Or hope that genre comes back into vogue?

I'm going with neither. There was an interesting discussion on LJ about manga my friend Jason Thompson put up, but in one of my replies I said that genre readers don't suddenly 'grow up' and start reading literary just because they are supposedly too old for genre.

Genre will never die. It is both a useful marketing tool and makes it easy on the genre reader to find books they want. I can tell you in a bookstore I go straight to the fantasy/sci-fi shelves, then horror if they have it, then swing round to YA and then the middle grade shelves. And on the MG and YA shelves I'm looking for- you guessed it- fantasy. 9 times out of 10 that's what I want to read and buy.

So genre will never go away. There will simply be a constant jockeying for first place among all the genres and sub-genres. One will rise but only for a time.

Vow of the Pantser

I vow to never outline my plots. I promise to have almost no idea of where the story is going beyond perhaps a vague idea of the ending. I will start a novel with little more than a handful of characters who have at least a first name. I will name secondary characters as I get to them. I will name places/streets/towns/whatever as they come up. I swear not to write any back story in advance so that my characters can surprise me during the writing process. I may or may not research before hand. I will sit down with my blank screen/paper and let the words flow. I will let my characters do whatever they want when they want without restraint. I will completely and totally make shit up as I go along.



Who's with me?