Ug! Two week streak. Fantastic.
Hubby was oh so kind to make sure to share..... his cold.....
Friday, when I normally would have the house to myself, due to Hubby being out with his friends playing their weekly game, was a writing wash for me. None of them wanted to play the format of Magic that was being hosted at the local gaming store - as I mentioned last week - and so we all got together to watch a movie instead. It was a fun time, but an unproductive one.
And Friday was my last healthy day.
I woke up Saturday with a non-stop running nose and a wicked pressure headache. Popped some meds, which ended up doing nothing really, and headed in to work. Since my normal Sunday Solitude was also a wash due to being scheduled for the overnight, I was planning on spending the day writing, sleeping, and trying to kick this cold before it got as bad as Hubby's.
While I was mildly successful in preventing it from getting as bad as my husband's, this cold still majorly kicked my butt all week. I only survived work via travel packets of tissues, a near-endless supply of non-medicated throat drops, and my shifts only being 4hrs long. When I wasn't working I was huddled in bed; mostly sleeping.
Hubby stepped up and did the chores around the house, but he's still getting over the tail end of his cold, and so said chores were sort of a minimum: laundry, do the dishes needed for that meal, take out trash, etc.
The self-imposed bed rest did allow me to finish my second book of the year, but I only managed to get it done by the end of February by the grace of the Leap Day. I was about five chapters away on the 28th.
My brain hasn't really been functional enough to write anything creatively, though. I've tried. It's been keeping me about seven attempts and two days each to respond to anything in the X-Future game. This Sunday was supposed to be the first adventure of my first campaign DMing, and not only did I cancel due to exhaustion and illness, but throughout this week I've been trying to figure out a pre-written adventure that was part of the D&D Starter Kit I bought nearly a decade ago. My mind can't even unfog enough to think of a simple dungeon for the players to run through.
I skipped out on my bi-weekly local writing group meeting on Tuesday as well. I was still too sick to really leave the house unless I really needed to - e.g. work - I didn't want to infect any of those ladies, and I didn't have anything to share anyway.
The closest I got to working on my next chapter is a very vague outline. As I mentioned last week, I'm attempting to gather up a bunch of "too short to be a solo-chapter" roleplays to add to the chapter where Chayse is training Lia; to beef it up a bit. I have two others I can use. Neither are crucial for over-all plot, and I was originally going to breeze past them, but it does show that there's more characters at the institute than just Chayse, Nix, Lia, and Annika. Also, it adds some fun character development. Actually transferring this outline to narration? My brain fogs up again. Man, I need this cold to go away!
I have been trying to stay creative. I did mention that I've attempted to stay active on the forum. Just because I'm ill doesn't mean the new players should be deterred from playing due to my inability to interact with them. So, I attempt. It takes a while, and it's not the most exciting posts, but it gives them something to respond to at least.
I've also been grinding through getting this first adventure ready for Sunday. No clue if I'll follow through, though. Yet again I was scheduled to help with the overnight - something I'm NOT happy with, but think of the money.... - and one of the players may have already had something scheduled.
Right! I forgot to mention. One of Hubby's friends Goob watched the movie with us on Friday, and we were talking about the D&D stuff. He's mildly interested in playing, but - much like the rest of us - hasn't had a consistent-enough playgroup to really get into it. So, Saturday, when I should have been resting, writing, or at least planning the first dungeon, was instead spent helping him - and later Spink - build his character. Between the two of them, this was an all-day event. Spink didn't go home until close to midnight, and Hubby and I had work at 3am. Not much rest to nip my cold in the bud.
Anyway, Goob has a pseudo-prior commitment for this weekend that he's still not sure he's going to follow through on. If not, then we'll D&D if I'm not on death's door from working the overnight again. If he does to with the prior commitment, we may still play, but bring him in a little later. Only problem there is making up the experience gap from him missing the first game. Third option is to not actually start playing until Hubby and I come home from our PA trip mid-March. That gives me another two weeks plus change to figure out a dungeon. It might be best.
I have been trying to doctor the "boxed adventure" I got from the starter kit so that it's mildly original, and fit the party a bit better. Trying to come up with my own NPC dialogue and character motives for the quest-giver as well as the monsters the players will come across. Make the whole thing seem more organic than "you all randomly decided to join together to go into this dungeon and fetch this thing for the local baron." That counts as creative writing, right?
The true embarrassment is that Ali Luke draws at random among Writers’ Huddle members that check-in weekly during the challenges. Even if you didn't hit your goal, if you checked-in you were still eligible to win the weekly prize.
Guess who won last week?
I know, if I felt so bad about being rewarded for slacker behavior - as I teased Ali about - than maybe I should have purposely delayed my check-in until after she announced the winner. I was too sick-fog-induced to think of that at the time. I had hoped that maybe I could have used it as a motivator to kick some writing butt this week, but my illness has just held me back more than my chaotic schedule last week did.
Hubby's off at work. I'm home most of the day. I'm hoping that will result in SOMETHING productive. We'll see. At worst, I can try to use my bedridden-ness to get started on my March book: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish", the next book in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. This will probably be my "book I once abandoned" selection for the reading challenge. Once again, here's a reminder of the list for any who wish to participate:
I managed to finish my chapter on Saturday. Finished at about 4300 words. Unintentionally called it a week by not even bothering to write on Sunday. I probably could have, too. Quarthix and his fiance were over to character create for my upcoming first attempt at DMing a D&D campaign. One would THINK that would mean I'd be busy. However, I STILL don't know the game well enough to help answer questions without looking at the books myself. I could flip to exactly where in the book they can find the answer, but I don't know off the top of my head. So hubby was the one mostly helping those two build characters while building one himself.
Me?
I sat in the same room and watched the movie "John Carter" on TBS. So productive.
Anyway, my point is that Sunday was a bit of a writing wash, as was the rest of the week.
Between frantic cleaning and other such chores, doctors appointments, added work shifts, nursing my sick husband, filing taxes FINALLY, exercising - yup, just started that back up again; good timing - and an impromptu 4hr visit with Spink on Monday, I have no clue where this week went.
I attempted to write on Tuesday. Spent two separate hours on it. However, I had hit the point where I no longer had the posts from the forum pre-set for me to write. I also didn't realize that while my spreadsheet of the forum threads was extensive, it wasn't close to complete. So, I spent those two hours filling out more of the spreadsheet, and reading the posts.
I had written the last chapter to set up the next thing Hubby and I role played: Chayse helping Lia learn to control her transformation so she didn't burn through clothing. I hadn't read that segment in years. Had I done so I might have skipped over that entire closing segment of the chapter, because the training, while important for Lia's character, is very short and not the most entertaining.
So I'm trying to see if there are other such short, not entertaining enough for its own chapter, but crucial character development bits that I could mush together into one chapter. I THINK I have a few figured out, I just need to finish mapping everything. I'm stumped as to when I'll get any writing time this week, though.
Today I'll be at work until about 5pm, and so in theory I can probably get started today. Monday's are normally my big writing day since I'm usually off. This Monday, however, had the impromptu get-together with Spink, along with the exercising, frantic cleaning, laundry - in which I ended up spending the entire isolated time chatting with an old friend instead of writing - and some husband nursing.
Tomorrow would be my other big writing day most weeks. Hubby would go off to Friday Night Magic, a weekly gaming event in which gaming stores host tournaments for Magic: The Gathering. Since I don't play Magic, I use those quiet hours alone at home to write.
However, Hubby's fairly sick, and so I doubt he's going anywhere. He wouldn't be going to FNM this week anyway since he's not a fan of the style of play they're showcasing this week; there are multiple "versions" of Magic that get rotated through the schedule. Since Quarthix and his fiance aren't really into this week's FNM as well, there's a strong possibility we're turning tomorrow night into a Movie Night. Spink and her fiance may join in as well.
Otherwise, Spink and her man are possibly crashing my place for THEIR character creation for the D&D campaign. A campaign I still don't have a plot or adventure for. So I need to work on that in time for Sunday.
Saturday is another possibility for writing since I only work until noon. I'll still need to figure out the D&D campaign for Sunday, though, and I don't want to fall too far behind on my chores again. Not after the frantic cleaning I've done this past week. I'm really hoping to fit writing in on Saturday regardless. This not writing thing is just stressing me out.
Sunday would be my last-ditch effort to write. Hubby would be at work on the overnight. I would have difficulties going back to sleep, but I wouldn't want to stay out of bed to do things like clean. That way I can just pass out if sleep finally hits me.
It normally doesn't though. At least not for two or three hours. Sometimes as many as five. It's a decent writing chunk.
Not getting that this week though. This week has been such a crap-shoot for writing! They're down a guy at work, and since I'd be awake at 3am anyway to drop Hubby off at work, they are having me come in and help on the overnight shift. There goes the last of my quiet down-time.
Once that shift is over Hubby and I are going to crash, wake up, play D&D with Quarthix and his fiance, she's going to go to work, Quarthix might linger for a bit to hang, and once he finally leaves who knows if I'll still be alert enough to write. I could try.....
Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comics
by Bryan Lee O'Malley
I just can't get my head on straight with this writing thing. Everything else in my life seems to need immediate attention this week, and so writing gets pushed to the side. I wouldn't even be able to get my Book of the Month done if I hadn't started reading on my work breaks. I could go back to writing during them instead, since Hubby helped fix my netbook for travel. But I barely have enough time to boot up my computer, wrap my head around what I want to type, and get it on the screen before my break is done. Reading is simple. Flip open the book and go. Plus, I have a free hand to still eat and drink on my breaks when I'm holding a book. Not so much when I'm trying to type.
It's a good arrangement: read on work breaks. Makes sure that I read nearly every day, and helps me get through the reading challenge. I just wish I could equally find the time to write. This past week I've been either in the middle of something important, middle of eating - because I lost track of time, or still at work when my daily writing hour alarm went off. Even when I have time scheduled I STILL can't seem to find the time to write.
It's a downward spiral. I get frantically busy and can't write. So I'm cranky the next day because I didn't write. I get so cranky that I can't think straight, and end up not getting writing done a second day. Then I get REALLY cranky about missing two days in a row, which usually bums me out so much I don't even ATTEMPT on the third day. At this point I'm pissed at myself for not being productive at all during the week, which only makes my new-found writing depression worse. I get pissed that my chain of "no zero" days is shattered. I'm cranky in everything I do throughout the day because I'm doing that instead of writing. It's just bad.
Further proof that I'm supposed to be a writer? Reactions like this! When I'm a worse person when I don't write, and a happier person when I do. THAT'S how I know I'm supposed to write.
Anyway, enough complaining about how unproductive I've been this week. I actually have a couple hours left before work today, and so I'm going to try yet again to get SOMETHING on paper.
Alright, so, even for a few weeks, and only for a scheduled hour, I still can't manage to write every day. Not even for something as puny as 500 words. It's a bit pathetic, actually. Even when I'm done with work later in the day, you'd think being out of the store by 3 would give me enough time to do everything else that I need done with an hour to spare to write.
You'd be surprised, apparently.
I keep letting Life get in the way, and it's annoying me. Really annoying me. But of course, once I set my mind to something as simplistic as "No one talk to me between 4 and 5pm because I'm writing," that's when I'm not even in my house during that hour. I guess it makes sense. As soon as I went "I'm moving my updates to Thursdays since I have them off all the time," that's when I started consistently working them.
Once again I'm debating switching my writing updates. Perhaps Mondays since I have them off. Maybe I'll even change my availability so that I never again work Mondays. Then again.... I need money, and that would be a dumb move if they need me on Mondays in the future. Which will most likely happen as soon as I move my blog update days to them.
I did manage to hit my 3500 words a week goal, though. Barely. I wrote about 1200 words on Monday in order to finish up the previous chapter - which I believe I already commented on last week - and then I finished up this week's chapter at about 2000 words. In one sitting. It was a semi-long sitting.
I was so mad that it kept me until Friday to write anything - besides this blog - and so I just sat in silence, and wrote. Next thing I know, I have the chapter done. It's short, compared to my other writings, but it seemed to have a natural stopping point that I listened to.
Saturday I edited, polished, and added a few more words to both improve the chapter, and get me the remaining 300 words I needed for my weekly goal.
I haven't had any sort of comments on really any of the chapters in The Second Generation Begins, and so I'm a bit nervous about how this chapter is/will be received. It's basically a retelling of the earlier chapter "Rescues and Robots," but through Lia's Point of View. I was debating breezing over this solo-role play that I did on the board, but I feel like it really showcases Lia's character, and the bond growing between her and Chayse. So, I rolled with it. It's tiny, and so I hope it works and isn't too boring.
I'm now working on the chapter I originally thought I was going to write when I started "Giant Robots of Death," but with the natural stopping point I had at the end there, I just couldn't continue on to the next scene.
So, now we have Lia tracking down Chayse. It was weird trying to figure out whose POV I was going to use for this chapter. Whose chapter was it? In the end I went with Chayse. I had two Lia chapters in a row already, and the lead-in to the chapter included a conversation between Chayse and Gambit that Lia wouldn't have been around to hear anyway. I could have had her hear it when she found Chayse, but it would have been hard to stop her from interrupting it.
Also, my husband isn't nearly as descriptive as I am. He writes enough that you know what's going on, but he doesn't add in things to showcase personal ticks a character would have. For instance: Lia, when nervous, bites her lip and plays with orange streaks she keeps dyed in her hair; Willow, when feeling particularly mischievous gives herself a Cheshire Cat illusion of ears, twitching cat tail, and large grin; Trish, when bored, plays with fire the way that someone might play with a lighter: snaps her fingers to create a flame, snuffs it, snaps to create another one, snuffs it, etc.
Does the reader need to know these ticks? Not really, no. Especially when the reader is simply another player on the board. Hubby's lack of elaboration keeps play moving. We know enough to set the scene and interact. That's all that matters.
For novelization, however, we need a touch more. Otherwise Chayse is this blank canvas that allows every individual reader the ability to paint him completely unique to their own imagination. It's not a bad tactic; a lot of books are starting to purposely be vague in character description specifically for that point.
It's not me, though. I have a set image in my head, and I feel it's my job to try to portray it so that everyone can see the same image I do. Again, personal preference.
Which is another reason why I try to get into Chayse's head whenever possible. I've talked with Hubby enough to more-or-less know what goes on in there - same with Devon - and so, if I can't at least figure out exterior ticks that will showcase his state of mind, I can literally go into it to show the reader what's up.
I can have another character note Lia's lip biting while playing with her hair, and the readers should know that she's nervous or self-conscious. Chayse hides this feeling - for the most part - because he feels he needs to be the rock for the other students. In which case, if he's nervous or unsure about something, I have to dive into that cranium to let the readers know that.
Anyway, those are all my reasons behind the POV switch to Chayse in the upcoming chapter.
It's going moderately well in the writing schedule front. I wrote about 1600 words on Monday; a good start. I'm about half-way through the scene. I also just picked up on how much Lia used to tease and call Chayse nicknames. When I originally wrote Lia, I was definitely channeling Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series. The way she picked on him, and called him things like Seaweed Brain. Lia did the same exact thing to Chayse.
Picking on people and giving them nicknames has evolved into an exclusively Willow thing, and no one calls Chayse "Cajun" anymore either. I like the change up. It definitely fits Willow's personality more. It will be interesting to explain that transition, though. Also, maybe it's about time Lia starts calling Chayse "Swamp Brain" again whenever he's being particularly stupid.
Tuesday got away from me, but I did read off what I wrote so far for the chapter while I was at my writing group. There wasn't really much by way of comments on the story itself - not that I would really alter anything since this is all just conversion from the roleplay - but we did get into a semi-long discussion about X-Men in general once I was done.
Yesterday also got away from me. By the time I was done with work, and dinner, I was back out the door to drive about 45minutes to a movie theater - because I live in nowheresville with a one-screen theater that isn't showing Deadpool - in order for me, Hubby, and two of our friends to FINALLY do our Valentine's Day double-date. I wasn't feeling well at ALL on V'day, Hubby was exhausted from the overnight shift, and one member of the other couple also wanted to just stay in, due to how insanely cold it got randomly over the weekend.
Anyway, my point is that between work, dinner, drive down to the mall, watching the movie, and the drive home from the mall, I had maybe an hour total to just sit at home and chill. I SHOULD have used it to write, but I needed a mental wind-down, and so it was spent catching up on Facebook, emails, and DeviantArt uploads by artists I follow.
Sadly, I also have no hope for getting any fiction writing done today. Due to my slacking yesterday, my "first thing in the morning writing" that I COULD be using for fiction is instead being utilized to write this post. Then it's work. Then it's come home, change, grab something to eat real quick while clipping coupons that I've been avoiding all week. Then back out to the store with Hubby to grocery shop for the week, then over to the fabric store to FINALLY get more to maybe ACTUALLY finish that darn blanket for my nephew, then off to Walmart to pick up a small array of things we need, and then FINALLY back home again. Grab some more grub, unwind for a bit, and then MAYBE get writing done. It's possible, but doubtful.
Maybe if we also include a run to the laundromat today. I could bring my headphones - which I always seem to forget - and write while doing laundry. If not, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow, and I'll get a lot of writing done again. Between laundry and Hubby being away for his weekly Magic thing, I'll have plenty of downtime to utilize.
I have high hopes of completing this chapter on schedule. I might even get the 3500 words a week yet again. I have no hopes of ever writing 500 words daily again until I can get the world to follow me with getting on schedule.
Silly, Life, just work with me, here!
One last fun little note to shout out. I don't recall if I mentioned this last year, due to me trying to keep my private life out of this blog if it didn't directly affect my writing one way or another, but my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a very aggressive strain of cancer. It was a rough go, but the woman is.... is there a word for "Scrappy" on steroids? Anyway, she'd a fighter that's too stubborn to die before she gets more time with her grandbabies - and sees the ones that I'll produce, I'm sure - and managed to do what apparently only 11% can.
This Tuesday she found out that she is officially cancer free! She also discovered that she somehow fractured a rib on each side.... but she's cancer free!
Facebook sticker Hacker Girl by Birdman Inc
Alright, now that I have that out of my system, I should probably get ready for work. I'll catch you next week, with hopefully a better daily writing record....
This has been a very fast week, and a massive productivity crapshoot.
I wasn't able to finish the X-Future: The Second Generation Begins chapter before the end of Sunday due to a whole bunch of chaos last week. So, I started this week attempting to finish the darn thing, edit it, and get it published. It was a difficult battle in doing so.
Mainly because at some point on Sunday I busted the charger cable for my netbook. Still don't know how or when. It was working fine earlier in the day, and then it just stopped working for me when I moved from the bedroom to the living room. Hubby was able to get it at JUUUUUUST the right angle for it to still work, but it had to be at exactly that angle. Then it was over to our friends' house for the Super Bowl, and once more Hubby had to set up the charger at the proper angle for it to work.
Then Monday came around. I made the mistake of shifting which outlet my laptop was plugged into after Hubby was at work. I couldn't get the charger to work any longer, but I had a full battery. However, between everything I needed to do, the battery drained faster than I anticipated. Before I knew it, I was done with the writing, but not the edits of the chapter. However, my laptop was blinking that it only had 10percent battery left. I struggled with the charger for a good half-hour or so. The laptop was now frantically beeping that it only had about 5percent battery life left, so I caved in and turned the dang thing off.
Between attempting to get the laptop to bring up a menu it's supposed to after hitting FN+ESC - which it refused to do - and scanning everywhere else on the computer, I finally gave up. I took the battery pack out - since it was turned off anyway - to finally find the model number so I could buy a new charger online. Problem was, the only one on Amazon that listed my laptop's specific model number also had a 1star review saying that it didn't work for said specific model - there were about a dozen listed that it was supposedly compatible with - even though it claimed it would. Nervous that I was buying something I wouldn't use, I bit the bullet and bought the cord anyway since there were no other options that I could find in my frantic panic.
I got the cable in the mail yesterday, it works fine - stupid 1star reviewer - but it's about half the length of my original cable, so now I'm stuck working on my laptop only about 2ft from an outlet. Thankfully, Hubby bought me that new battery a few months back, so I can unplug once it's fully charged so it's not as big of an issue. But if I want to finish up something when the laptop is dying, off to my little outlet corner I must go.
Anyway, so it's Monday, my laptop is dead, and I still have to finish with my writing hour and posting the chapter. I decide to go on to Hubby's laptop to do so; thanking myself for writing everything in Google Docs so that I don't need my specific laptop to finish.
Problem is, I didn't want to screw up Hubby's Chrome settings, so I logged in under Incognito Mode. Except, Google Docs won't work unless I log in. Thinking "I'm in incognito, it will be fine" I went ahead and logged in to Google Docs, which logged me in to Google+, which then reset all of Hubby's Chrome presets to mine. Weirdly enough, even though we never went onto my computer under Hubby's account, when I revived my laptop yesterday my Chrome had all of his presets. Weirdest part is that Hubby's laptop claims it's set up under his Google+ account, and my netbook says it's logged in under mine. So, why do I have Hubby's presets and bookmarks, and he has mine? We have yet to figure this out, and so we're slowly rebuilding all of our bookmarks and the like. It's quite frustrating. So much so that I didn't want to bother looking at my computer at all yesterday.
So, mark that as a Zero-Day for writing.
Back to Monday. So, I'm on Hubby's laptop. Logged in on Google Docs. Finished the chapter, edited it, and published on DeviantArt and FanFiction. I was even proud of the fact that I didn't even get my full hour of writing in, but I still managed about 1200 words!
If you'd like to check out the chapter. You can find it here:
I wanted to go straight into the next chapter. It should be significantly shorter since it's mostly written out via role play, there's not much I'll need to alter, and there isn't any new room I need to describe. I thought that maybe this would be the week where I could get the X-Future chapter done, as well as get another writing prompt set up for my meeting this upcoming Tuesday.
Instead, I have yet to even START the chapter. Stupid computer.
By the time I gave up attempting to revive my computer, and found a cable I could order to charge it again, I barely had any time left before Hubby was done with work. He came home, we celebrated the Lunar New Year - yeah, because wearing all that red was really bringing me good luck; thanks Year of the Monkey - and then he played some more Skyrim while I finished posted my chapter. I just didn't have the energy to get started on the next chapter after that whole headache. Especially since the actual chapters are in Google Docs, but the list of posts I was converting are all on my private laptop. I'd have to manually sift through all of the X-Future posts all over again to try to gather up what I needed. I wasn't ready to do that with everything else going on already.
Tuesday was a real bummer. I had to be in work an hour before my shift to drop Hubby off, and I had to stick around an hour after my shift for Hubby to clock out. I could have gotten so much writing done, but nope. Computer was out of commission. At least I got some reading done.
Same with yesterday. I had another three hours or so bookending my shift after dropping off Hubby and waiting for him to clock out. Once again, I didn't have my computer to write on, so I read. I guess that's a plus at least.
I had decided to start up "Life, The Universe, And Everything" by Douglas Adams. It's the third installment in the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series. I wasn't sure what book category I wanted to read next, and so I figured I'd go back to Hitchhikers - it's a small enough book that I can easily carry it in my purse - for the challenge. I wanted to go with "A book you abandoned" but I couldn't recall which one that was. Part of me feels fairly certain that I finished "Life, the Universe, and Everything" and that I abandoned the next book "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." However, Hubby doesn't remember me finishing "Life..." and so, I don't want to start up "So Long..." if I never finished "Life..." But what if I did finish "Life..."? Is this a waste of reading time? I read too slowly for me to be able to get this and another book done within a short month, especially when I missed the first week of it!
Well, then I rationalized that even if I did finish "Life..." I can still mark it off as one of two books: "A book I've read at least once before" or "A book published before I was born". And if it turns out that I was right, and I didn't finish this book the first go, I can use it as I originally intended: the abandoned book.
I think it was the abandoned book, because it's already starting to annoy me. While the first two books were fantastic and hilarious - and I have chuckled at this one too - there's something about the situations Arthur finds himself in that seem a bit too over-the-top compared to the earlier novels. I'm pushing though it, though. I think another hiccup is that in the first two books, Arthur is out in the galaxy, experiencing new worlds and cultures. I'm just as new to these worlds as the protagonist. I'm learning with him. "Life..."? Well, there's a whole section dealing with cricket and general English culture that makes sense to those that live in Adams' native country, but for a foreigner like me, I'm confused as to what is going on. On top of that, since Adams' assumed most of his audience knows exactly what is going on, he felt he didn't need to explain anything. Which confuses me more. If it were an alien thing that he's pitching at the readers, he'd know we had no clue, and so he'd explain things. Cricket? Nah. People know what's up.
I mean, I did play a game or two of cricket in college - thank you, eccentric Communications professor - but I don't recall much of anything. So, my brain is about as fried as Arthur's at this point in the book.
I'm hoping to get past the overboard opening of this book and power on through it, and enjoy it enough to want to read the remaining three books in the series.
I'm just batting 1000 with these series books. First, the Kane Chronicles were sort of lackluster for me, and now Hitchhikers.... I need more Percy Jackson....
Alright, I know I've been sort of all over the place with this post, and honestly, I don't have the time to bother going back and editing it to be more linear. So, let's recap, shall we?
Monday: Tried writing. Laptop died. I had a freak out for about an hour. Finished writing, editing, and publishing the chapter via Hubby's laptop. Celebrated Lunar New Year.
Tuesday: Laptop still down due to no charger. Fat Tuesday/Doughnut Day/Faschnact Day/Mardi Gras. Ate a lot of doughnuts. Spent all morning, and the early part of the afternoon at work without access to a computer to write. Tried reading instead. Got home and frantically cleaned. Two co-workers showed up a few hours later in order to build their new X-Future characters. Had a grand-old-time, but didn't have the ability to steal Hubby's laptop for writing. Zero Day.
Wednesday: Another day where I spent the majority of it at work, but with no access to a computer in order to write. Read instead. Attempted to get home, only for the soft metal of my car key to bend in the lock. Had to have the in-laws drive us home in order to get the spare. Had a headache of a time to make more spare copies in case this happens again. Don't actually make it home until after 6pm. Ate dinner, got frustrated at life, read some more. Passed out at 8:45pm. Zero Day.
Thursday: Got up early to write this post. Something is up, though, and I've been having stomach issues all morning. Hopefully it won't cause me to go a third day in a row without writing something fictional. I have to do grocery shopping, and laundry today. I'm hoping to write while doing laundry at least. This week hasn't been going well for me.
And now I'm off to get ready for work. I'm really REALLY hoping for a turn-around today, and the rest of the week.... With any hope, I'll still have a new chapter for everyone next week. I'm just sorry for anyone who had been following my writing prompts anthology since I've been slacking on that.
Well, I'm doing moderately worse this week, but at least I have stuff to show you from the conclusion of last week.
The "writing for an hour and getting at least 500 words" daily goal seems to really be working for me. That is, when I get to writing.
Yup. Got a few Zero Days under my belt.
Still, as of right now I'm still holding on to my New Years Resolution of "no more than three in any given week". Well, holding on since I started the challenge. We're ignoring January existed.
Last week I did fantastically with the daily writing hour. Every day, 4pm to 5pm. Then I was stuck at work during my writing hour last Thursday. I managed to get two hours of writing in while working on the blog post, but I was too drained to write anything creative. One Zero Day. Friday I was just mentally shut down. I tried to write, but three hours later I still only had about 300 words. It wasn't a Zero Day because I accomplished SOMETHING; made the effort. Still, I was now behind about 700 words in my creative writing. Luckily, Wednesday's writing frenzy more-or-less covered those two days.
Saturday I was home alone most of the day, so I was able to finally finish the rest of the chapter I was working on for X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. I still had one more day left in the week, and so for Sunday's writing hour I cranked out the writing prompt story for this Tuesday's writing group. I honestly had no clue where I was going with that story. That was pure channeling. I just placed my fingers on the keyboard and let them do their thing. Still, I like what resulted from that.
If you were interested, you can see both new bits of writing I managed this week below.
"The Second Generation Begins:
Getting Into (Pseudo) Trouble"
After a mostly successful week, you'd think I'd be riding the momentum into another one, right? Yeah, me too.
Monday ended up being cleaning and errands day, followed by celebrating Shadow's birthday. I ended up not having the hour - or even fifteen minutes - to spare so I could work on the start of the next chapter. If you don't count last Thursday because I was at least writing this blog, Monday was my first official Zero Day since I started this challenge. Quickly followed by a second one.
Ironic that I ended up not doing any writing on the day I go to my writing group. I got home from work, had a few hours before Hubby needed to be home, had every intention of writing, and then Shadow asked me to call. Thinking it was a quick catch-up on what we were discussing the night before, I complied. Next thing I know, I only have a half-hour before Hubby would be done with work, and I was still in my own work clothes. I rushed around to get a quick shower, and then out the door I went.
Got home a few minutes after my daily writing hour started, but both Hubby and I - who neglected lunch due to the phone call - were starved. Once dinner was done and a few more neglected chores were taken care of, it was time for me to get to the writing group meeting. I honestly can't recall what kept me from writing when I got home, though. I know I hid in my room for the next hour in an attempt to still keep my daily writing. I'm pretty sure I spent the entire time instead chatting with Cyhyr online.
I was trying to get her to poke her husband Ronoxym into doing one of three things:
Send me his prose. At the beginning of the year, when I was setting up my challenges with everyone, I sent Ron the challenge to complete one piece of prose per month. It could be a one-shot, a chapter, a scene, even a section of dialogue. I didn't care how large or small the prose was, I just wanted to see him complete SOMETHING every month. Last I chatted with him, Ron said he was ready to send me something by the end of January, and yet....
Send me his challenge. Since I sent him the above challenge, along with a few other writing stipulations to try to help him focus, Ron wanted to send me a year-long challenge in response. According to him, he has one already in mind for me, but it was too long and complex to try to send to me while on his phone. He was supposed to send it to me once he got to a computer, but it's a month later and still no challenge. Probably for the best considering how behind I am on my current challenges.
WORK ON PLEASE, LET ME EXPLAIN. Any form of "work." Write more, edit what I sent him, fix the outline, edit the middle section that has been waiting for almost a YEAR to be polished and published. I'd take anything....
Apparently, Ron wasn't really focused on writing at all last month; too busy trying to find alternative means of getting money - legally, I feel the need to add. It's a noble alternative to recreational writing, but the way he's going about attempting to get more money....
Knives from the Scott Pilgrim comics
Anyway, as Cy and I were talking, we decided that she would pick up the slack for her household. If Ron wasn't going to write, she would. She discussed how hard it was for her to have the mental energy to put anything down on paper nowadays. So I introduced her to the glories of "No Zero Days." She agreed that this was much more manageable - aside from her "Day of Rest" on Mondays, which are just utter chaos for her - and we decided on the simple challenge of "one sentence a day."
That's it. Just to say it wasn't a "Zero Day" and to help chip the story away a little bit at a time. Even one sentence will slowly get the story written. Much better than no sentences, and the story stays in your head forever. Who knows, these one-sentence-a-day writing briefs may lead to an exciting scene where she ends up spilling 2000 words onto the screen. The point is that she's writing.
Sure, losing 10lbs a week is exciting, but losing 1lb a week will still get you to a healthy weight. Maybe not as fast, but at a pace you can comfortably stick with, and that might lead you to maintaining that weight better than the fast-loser. Writing can be the same way. If you're frantically writing 1700 words a day, like you would during NaNo, you may get that novel done in a month. But who could keep up that pace and crank out a story every other month - one for writing, one for editing? More than likely, that kind of writing would burn you out, have you give up on writing for a while to recharge, and end up only getting one or two stories out a year anyway. So, why not spend the whole year writing that novel - still the NaNo 50,000 words - 137 words at a time? A simple 137 words, that's less than the number that's in this paragraph! Sure, it's a bit more than "one sentence a day", but not by much. And you can stick with this every day easily. End result will be roughly the same as that frantic NaNo-minded writer.
Now, that's not to say that people CAN'T write 2000 words a day. Some even knock out 10,000 words! It's all just a matter of how your brain is wired, and what your life situation is like. A person who sits in their ideal writing location for eight hours straight can most likely write 10,000 words easily. A person who barely has 15 minutes to sit down? Not as easy. Still, writing even that one sentence a day is important. It's telling yourself - and the world around you - that writing is important to you. You're not going to let it slip onto the back burner any longer. You are going to at least give it as much time and effort as you would brushing your teeth every day!
So, I say, if you're a writer as well, and are struggling to find time, even if you can't follow Ali Luke's advice to carve out 15minutes a day, you can follow Cyhyr's challenge and just write one sentence. Go ahead. Prove to yourself that writing is important enough that you won't let another day go by without doing SOMETHING writing related.
And now enough of that.
*Steps off soap box*
Back to my own writing; which I neglected for two days, even after that rousing speech above.
Yesterday I was determined. I took some time at work to go through my files, and organized what I wanted the next X-Future chapter to be. I hid away in my room for a little bit. Later in the day I did so again. I needed to get back on track. I needed more than 500 words. I needed the 1000 that I missed the first two days of the week. It kept me about three hours, off and on, but I did it. I got up to 1600 words. I have no clue how much of that I'll be keeping though.
The next chapter in TSGB is going to be focused on Lia watching footage of her mom's training in the X-Men War Room. It's an impressive room that will be brought up a few more times in the future. Thing is, I think it will only come up once or twice more before I break off for the 2yr time skip. In other words, the majority of the War Room use will be in the NEXT X-Future book I write. Which will also mean redescribing it for people who didn't read TSGB. Still, I wanted to paint the room. Painting the room is what took 1600 words.
I mean, I had Lia do some actions while she walked around the room in a self-guided tour of the sub-sub-basement she had never been in before. It's not ENTIRELY description of a room, but still, 1600 words seems like a LOT. I'll have to see what I can whittle it down to. In the meantime, it's there as establishment.
I can also relax a bit, knowing that I can comfortably go back to my daily writing hour from here on out, and still have my chapter done - in theory; we'll see how long it gets.
I can also relax a bit because I don't have writing group for two weeks, and Phfylburt has officially pulled my weekly challenges from him, at least until I'm done with the Writers’ Huddle challenge. It was a smart move. I thought I could conquer it all - the writing challenge, Phfyl's weekly challenges, and the bi-weekly writing group prompts - with the new daily writing regimen. I should have known better. Should have known that each TSGB chapter would take just about all 3500 words I aim for each week.
I tend to do this though. Spread myself too thin by taking on too much once I'm excited about a project. I mean, I do this ALL. THE. TIME. So, I'm thankful that Phfyl noticed my true ability, and pulled his challenge in the meantime.
Now, to get cracking on the actual, TRUE action of the next TSGB chapter....
I change my weekly update day to TWO possibilities - Monday or Thursday – and I STILL can't manage to post on time?! Geez. I'm really sorry about that. I've just been on the run nearly every day. I really haven't been in my house at all this past week. However, this does bring me to my next point.
I love that my husband bought me a new battery for my laptop! I feel so free without the power cord. Before, if I decided to move, I had to wait at least seven minutes before I could actually do anything. I had to sit though two or three different warning messages about the computer not shutting down properly. Then I had to fix the date and time after it factory reset. It was annoying. It was cumbersome. And it irked me that I had to make sure I was done with everything I had open before I went anywhere.
Now I don't have any of those worries. I can start working on something, decide to move to another room, or keep working on it while at the laundromat, and I don't skip a beat. I close the laptop, move, open the laptop, and keep going. It's fantastic! And I've already expressed my love for being able to work outside again. Heaven.
I'm actually working on this opening portion of the blog in the work break room! I haven't done that in over a year! I love being able to just pack up my laptop, bring it with me to work, and write while on my breaks. I miss being able to do this. I feel bad that the writing notebook I had in my purse has been neglected since July, but who cares when I can go straight onto a computer? I work so much faster this way. I can get more accomplished, and I don't have to worry about wasting time writing everything out and then doing so again when I type it up. Once and done!
Invigorating!
It's funny what little bit of your routine can really make or break you. Having that umbilical cord of a charger really broke me. Having to write by hand while on work breaks broke me. Having to stay inside to write on the computer broke me.
I'm so glad to be back!
Alright, enough of that elation. Let's talk actual writing progress.
This past week I finished up the MasterClass lessons. It's kind of like graduating high school or college again. I enjoyed learning something new every week, and now it's over. It was sort of bittersweet. I loved all that I learned, I enjoyed the way that James Patterson presented the lessons, and I was proud of myself for following through. Honestly, I had forgotten the almost obligatory need to finish due to the money spent on the class; I just really wanted to go through it and learn more and more and more. And now it's done. I won't learn anything else from James Patterson, at least, not this way.
I have some solace in three facts:
I can go through all of my works-in-progress and apply what I learned in order to at least complete one manuscript, if not actually use it to springboard myself into a writing career.
I can teach my fellow aspiring writers what I learned; deepening my knowledge while paying it forward. Patterson taught me, and I shall teach others. Not just you fine folks here – some of you, I'm sure, aren't planning on becoming authors – but my writing friends over at the Writers’ Huddle or Struggling Writers Society. Maybe even other writers I meet along the rest of my journey.
I still have others to learn from. There was a free webinar series that I had signed up for, but the live video conferences always took place while I was out somewhere – work, a wedding, visiting a friend or family, etc – and with the Patterson MasterClasses, I didn't bother going through the recordings of the video conferences. I also have webinars that Ali Luke has up on Writer's Huddle. Still have much to learn.
I have already attempted to utilize at least one piece of knowledge learned from MasterClass. On Saturday I contacted Ronoxym about Please, Let Me Explain. We talked it over a little bit, why we're struggling, and how to move forward. I decided to give Patterson's preaching about outlines a shot. I told Ron that I was willing to go through the 27pg story so far, and break it down into an outline for him to read through faster. Get the basic feel of the story back into his head. It might also help me better see where we repeat ourselves, as well as sections that don't seem to fit.
In fact, I already found at least two short sections we can probably cut, as well as one more place that we may be repeating earlier thoughts. It's fantastic to see the story from a little further back in order to better pick out what needs to be reworked. I attempted this before when I was editing PLME back in March, which is how I picked up that the third-quarter of our story seemed to completely ignore the first half.
Well, the beast of a project as our story is, it kept me until Wednesday morning to finally finish up making an outline of everything. Ron and I were chatting all Sunday night while Hubby was at work. Stayed up until 7am. I was slowly chipping away at the outline the whole time. I think we have a bit of a spark back, and I think we might be able to go in a good direction with this story now.
I want to go back through the outline and make ANOTHER one that's not as sentence-specific. More of a “broad strokes” kind of outline. Especially since the heavily detailed one I just finished is still about 8pgs long; and still seems a bit overwhelming to Ron. It should be faster work to go though an 8pg outline and write out broader strokes about each scene. This would make everything less overwhelming, I think, plus it would be a great way to really get at the feelings and message getting across in each section. With both outlines, I can make sure there's a common thread throughout the whole thing. Make sure we figure out the core of what we're trying to say in the story, and that everything sticks with it. As Patterson taught in the editing lesson, you have to make sure that everything moves the story and/or characters forward.
Considering how long the current part we're bogged down in is, I'm assuming I lost the story among all the arguing between Devon and Willow. Both of them go from aggressive to being on the defense to depressed. A wide array of feelings, but do they all deserve to stay in the story? I have to be able to cut my beautiful scenes if they don't work. The best way to make sure something does or doesn't work? The outline will point those parts out.
As I already said, after the first outline I found at least two scenes that might have to go on the chopping block.
I'm just really, REALLY hoping that this tactic will help Ron and I get and stay focused so we can get this story done. I want to complete a story so badly. I haven't done so in years.
Besides, it sounds like he already has one or two new X-Future/Devon-themed stories in mind, and it would be nice to clear this one off his plate before he tries tackling those other ones. Plus, he has a modern-fantasy/mystery story he's been brewing for a while. It might be nice for him to clear his head of the Devon/Willow tale so he might be able to tackle his original story during NaNo.
Oh, and while on that note, I'm opting out of NaNo again this year. November is just such bad timing. I'm most likely going to use that time to work more on building the story concept thought up for the MasterClass, or to continue X-Future: The Second Generation Begins. Ya know, whenever I take a break from cleaning and crocheting Christmas gifts.
Perhaps by the end of November, though, one of my writer friends will have completed something that I can send your way. Or, better yet, maybe I'll have a new TSGB chapter or the start of my Percy Jackson fanfiction.
In the meantime, I'll keep chipping away at the MasterClass assignments I haven't finished yet.
To start, I decided to stick with Devon when I worked on the one-paragraph suspenseful scene description. Back in like May, I was supposed to write the scene where Devon and Nys meet up with Trish, and Devon had his epic battle with her.
SPOILER ALERT!
Since Ron wasn't on the forum all that much anymore, Hubby was going to put Devon's life in peril to figure out what to do with him in the background. After a series of dice rolls, it was determined that he and Trish would have a final battle, Trish would win, Devon would die after having his throat slit, and then Trish would burn Nys alive with her parents. Once Ron returned to the forum he got pouty at Devon's demise – which was announced on the forum with no details since I hadn't written the story yet – and so Hubby revived him using a mutant who can revive the recently deceased, and now Devon is off in hiding with amnesia.
For the suspense scene I decided to go ahead and write one of the opening paragraphs of the fight. I had to work my way up to it. I started with mostly dialogue, but after about a page I made it to a full paragraph.
Here's my attempt at suspense:
“Don’t worry, Nys, I’ll get you and your folks out safe.” He started scanning the room for escape routes, and a way to get Nyssa’s parents away from that gasoline. Something about the room was off, though. It wasn’t just because the place was bare. There were stains all over the otherwise pristinely polished hardwood flooring. They were mostly along the edge of the room, but the stains zig-zagged along the floor and pooled around the Breafords. Devon took a deep breath. Just as he suspected. The smell of gasoline was too great for it to just be wafting from that barrel. It was splashed all over the room. One false move; one spark, and the entire place will go up like a Michael Bay set. He couldn’t use his pyrokinetics against Trish in order to take her out, but what was stopping her from using hers against him?
I realize now that Devon probably wouldn't need the added incentive to not use his fire manipulation; it probably didn't even occur to him to use it against Trish in the first place. It would have been useless since she's fireproof.
I'll have to rethink the closing line of that paragraph. Hey! Maybe that's what I'll do next month; I'll finish writing this scene finally.
Getting back to the MasterClass assignments, I haven't attempted the co-author one where I have to write a scene about a woman seconds away from burning alive in her bayside cottage. It does seem like a fun one, though, the next time I have two seconds I may have to try that bit. Hopefully, I'll have it set for next week's post.
The first lesson from this week's worth of classes is how to market yourself similar to James Patterson. He starts right off the bat by letting people know that to sell yourself as an author, you need to brand yourself. So you really need to figure out what you want to be known for. Patterson gives an example on how a story he wrote was originally rejected because it wasn't a thriller, and the publisher and public thought that was his brand. He was the “suspense novelist.” He fought that misconception, and now his brand is the way he want it. An author so skilled at captivating his readers that “the pages turn themselves” - as a review once stated. It doesn't matter the genre, if you pick up a Patterson novel, you'll know you won't put it down again until the story is done. THAT'S the brand he wanted.
Other authors have the same sort of branding. Rick Riordan writes Middle-Grade stories about young teens discovering ancient mythology is real and in the modern world. J. K. Rowling's brand is simply Harry Potter. Even with the saga done, lord bless that woman if she tries to write something that isn't connected to the Harry Potter universe. Steven King – while capable of writing non-horrors; like Patterson – is usually branded as a Suspense writer.
Branch out to directors, and you have Michael Bay who will almost guarantee explosions galore. Even though a growing majority of his movies don't include one, M. Night Shyamalan is still thought of as "The Plot-twist Guy." So much so, that there's a joke about the movie “The Happening” where the plot-twist was that there was no plot-twist.
So, what will your brand be? What will mine be? I'm still nervous that my “brand” is “Fanfiction Author” but I guess I'll take it for now.
Now that you have a brand for yourself, what else will move your books off the shelf? You need to market them too, obviously. So, the assignment for this lesson – and the last one of the MasterClass series - is to come up with three taglines. Given the fact that I'm still not entirely sure about a title or the characters, I should probably work on those first. However, I'll see if I can get some taglines done for next week too.
Once you have a brand for yourself, and a marketable tagline for your book, what's next? Well, to push your publisher to get some great reviews to help promote the book. Have your publisher convince newspapers, magazines, and websites to plug the story. Patterson warns that the publisher may try to half-ass this part of his or her job, and so it's your job to remind them why they were so excited to buy the book in the first place. Remind them of the money they thought it would make, or how great they felt after reading it.
You have another large job, too. You need to hop on social media and promote the junk out of the book. Go on Facebook, and Twitter, and Tumblr, and Instagram, and your blog, etc. Sure, you don't need to be on ALL of those different groups, but the more the better in order to hit a wider audience. It's all personal preference, though.
This is even more crucial if you decide to self-publish, because you don't have your publisher doing a large portion of the work. Ali suggests adding a virtual “book tour” to your social media promotions. This means tracking down blogs that you can write guest posts for, and tag on a mini promo for your book at the bottom of it in the “Author Bio” section. People who faithfully hit up blogs, but may not know about you, can find you this way. I know it's how I found Ali in the first place.
Alright, so, you promoted your book, it sells well, and it catches the eye of Hollywood! What now?
I had a few chuckles as I watched this lesson. First, I laughed at the page of the workbook for this lesson. Normally, it gives a quote from Patterson, has an assignment, and has a “take it further” section that lists ways to learn more about the subject.
The lesson on Hollywood, on the other hand, simply says this:
“Take the money. And run. And pray... That's the best advice I can give you." - James Patterson TAKE IT EASY
Sit back and enjoy as James shares entertaining stories from his adventures in Hollywood.
The other thing that made me chuckle were all of the great quotes I was getting off of Patterson in regards to working in Hollywood. Something, by the way, he highly recommends against.
In fact, just about every author does. I honestly don't know how the past decade or so seems to be flooded with book adaptations – so much so that there's an Oscar category specifically for “Screenplay Adaptation” - when nearly every author can't stand the idea of their books as movies.
Sure, it may be a great dream of a lot of authors going into it. The thought of your characters given life on the Silver Screen. Maybe not enough authors are hearing their colleagues' lamenting their involvement with Hollywood. Still, aside from a small few that are powerful enough to be a valued consultant on the movie, or – better yet – are gifted enough to adapt their own story into a script that is barely tampered with, just about all authors seem to greatly regret selling their story to movie producers.
Patterson even warns that just because Hollywood buys the rights to make your book into a movie – this is called “Optioning the Book” - it doesn't mean it actually WILL become a movie. They just figure it's popular enough that they MIGHT want to make a movie, and if they decide not to, at least their competitors can't make the movie either. So, even if your book is Optioned, there's no guarantee a movie will come out of it. Ask enough authors and they'll probably tell you that it's probably for the best.
Because, seriously, unless you can find a production house that REALLY wants your book bad enough that you have all the cards during the negotiation, or the movie is being made by true fans, it probably won't be close to an accurate portrayal of the story you wrote.
I'd give a list of examples, but you probably know enough already. And it might be a shorter list to name off the ones that WERE book-accurate.
Patterson gives two amusing examples of his realization that the movies will never be book-accurate.
Patterson: This is the honest to god truth, the only thing in the screenplay that was in the novel was Alex Cross's name. They had changed literally everything in the book. Every single thing.
The other example comes after he watched an early screening of the one Alex Cross movie while attending a Press Junket. There was a woman who ONLY appeared in the second scene of the movie, was never mentioned throughout the rest of the film, and the context of the scene wasn't enough for Patterson to figure out who she was supposed to be. So, he asks Morgan Freeman, who played Alex Cross. Freeman responds that the woman was Alex Cross's sister. To which Patterson replied, “Oh, I didn't know Alex had a sister.”
Patterson also had an amusing observation as to WHY books don't seem to translate into movies all that well. It came to him when he was invited to join the crew on a shoot for “Along Came a Spider.”
Patterson: That's where I realized... that the novelist ranks somewhere lower than the caterer on the shoot. They know why the caterer is there, but they have no idea why the novelist is there.
Oooof.
It may have been because he's had time to get over it, but Patterson DOES seem to take the film adaptations of his books a bit better than Rick Riordan. Then again, I never attempted to ask Patterson about “Along Came a Spider” on Twitter to see if I'd be blocked by him too...
It might also be because of Patterson's last bit of advice he gave us for the MasterClass series:
Patterson: The other advice I can give to you – and this is the best advice.... Start laughing, dudes. And dudettes. Laugh. You just gotta laugh at this stuff. It's very funny if you can have a sense of humor about your own work. And you better if you're gonna sell it [to Hollywood].
Fairly sound advice. Personally, I am still hoping to be one of those authors that can pen the adaptation screenplay to my own stories, and stay involved enough that the scripts won't change too much. I think I have a good understanding on how the two mediums work, and how much a book NEEDS to change for it to portray properly in a visual media; remaining entertaining the whole time. We'll see when the time comes....
The last two lessons of the MasterClass consisted of Patterson talking about his young life and his journey to become an author, and then a simple concluding video to congratulate us for completing the class, and encouraging us to keep at it.
I have a few more amusing quotes from each of those classes, but I'll save those. I might do a blog update with just entertaining Patterson quotes from MasterClass.
Okay, well, I'm going to be honest here. I started writing this blog Wednesday morning. I worked on it off-and-on over the past three days. It is currently creeping towards 10pm, and I have worked on this post in the work break room, the laundromat, our neighbor's house, my bedroom, and my living room. I am exhausted, and I HOPE I ran out of things to say for this week.
I know as soon as I hit “publish” I'm going to think of other things I wanted to talk about, but for now, I think I'm done. So, I'm going to go pass out now, and possibly get started on either the PLME broad outline or my Co-Author assignment tomorrow.
I'll catch you guys next week, preferably noon on Thursday, as planned; although I AM working Thursday again, of course....
Woah. I'm a day late, and had a "Temporary Post" update! I haven't done one of those in over a year! Sorry about that, folks. I got caught up in things Tuesday night, and so I forgot to work on my blog post. And I think I have the season's first head cold coming on, because I just could not will myself out of bed at 5am yesterday morning. So, I had to bite the bullet, and accept that I wasn't going to have a blog post written in time for the noon update. Then, we had a surprise party for Ronoxym's birthday. Happy belated to Ron and ChibiSunnie, by the way. Anyway, so right after work yesterday we were off to said party. Had to crash as soon as we got home, because I was up and back at work first thing this morning. Such a crazy week so far; I have had no time to sit and breathe - or write, or clean....
The fact that I'm pretty much guaranteed to work Wednesday mornings now really screwed with my updating all month. I really, really need to figure out when I'm more likely to have free time. It's beginning to look like Thursdays might be the better day for me. It seems like I'm getting them off regularly; today being an exception since I actually offered to pick up a shift. I do seem to also get Mondays off relatively regularly. My weekly updates might switch to either of those days. So, stay tuned for that change, and I'm sorry for people who have been with me for years. I know it's been crazy with my switch from "post whenever" to "post whenever weekly" to "post every Sunday" to "Sunday is crazy so I'll post on Wednesdays periodically" to "Wednesday update day" and now I'm switching it up again.
Well, either way, before I do anything else, I want to do this so I don't forget again. Earlier this month I was surprised when Phfylburt randomly posted the following status:
Phfyl: To my lovingly amazing wife, Do you remember when you were pregnant and we didn't say/announce anything online until after the baby was born? Because I remember! And I am also super glad you aren't prego no mo! Love, Your Husband, Me!
So, a huge congratulations to Phfyl for both the new member to his family, and the unique and awesome way of announcing it. Sorry I completely forgot to announce that last week. Enjoy being a papa!
Alright, and now to my writing.
Again, before I forget, I want to start off by stating that I FINALLY remembered to post "You're in Trouble, Son!" on DeviantArt. So, if you've been patiently waiting all month for this chapter to go to DA, you're in luck. You can find it here: You're In Trouble, Son!
Sad to say, I don't really have much more than that to share. I've been really slacking on my daily writing hours. I always seem to have something come up at 5pm this past week, and I never remember to go back when I'm done and spend an hour writing. I usually have the rest of the night, too; I've just been lazy.
One of last week's assignments for "MasterClass: James Patterson Teaches Writing" was to come up with 20 characteristics, and then cross out 17 of them to see if the surviving 3 characteristics are still interesting enough to build a character off of.
I still have no real concept for either of my main characters for the Percy Jackson Universe fanfic I thought of for this class. So creating a list of characteristics for them wasn't happening. It was just a blank screen. So, I figured I'd ease my way into it by coming up with the 20-piece list for each of My Girls: Amara, Lia, Willow, and Trish.
I. Suck. At. This.
I just can't think in simple characteristics. I think in "life events" or "complex human paradoxes". For instance, Amara is a half-elf who hates the human half of her, is trying to find a magical way of converting herself into a full-elf, and yet she disguises herself as a human to avoid unwanted advances from people who like the exotic nature of elves. It's hard to break that down into simple characteristics. I managed, but it kept me over a half-hour, and I know Amara inside and out after building her character over the past decade.
You'd think that Lia, Willow, and Trish would be equally simple to come up with characteristics for since all three of them are just different aspects of my own personality. Nope. I maybe came up with five characteristics for each of them. Aside from "Demigod", "Huntress of Artemis", "Over 3 centuries old", "Virgin", and "Good fighter", I have nothing for Pernilla, and even less for her still unnamed love interest.
I eventually gave up on that exercise. I have to face the fact that I won't be able to write the way that Patterson does. There are some techniques that just won't work for me - and the alternative way that I figure out for myself will most likely never work for him. Especially since there is no grading in this webinar, I need to put the studious part behind me and remind myself that some assignments I just won't do; or at least do well. I'm so used to getting As in school and making sure my work is done, it's hard for me to turn that off; even after being out of school for almost 10yrs.
For those who are still curious as to what my list for Amara ended up as, here ya go:
Half-Elf
Horribly Scarred
Former Sex-Slave
Literally hunted by relatives
Hated
Shunned
Distrusts Humans
Distrusts Affection
Taciturn
Intimidating
Loves Singing (only in private)
Disguises as Human
Desires to become a full elf
Semi-Feral
Heartbroken
Lonely/Isolated
Dispassionate
Soft-Spot for Abuse Victims
Determined
Only helps those in need if she witnesses the injustice
Last week I already talked about the first assignment for the week: finding out what my writing distractions are. Socializing - which has become a bigger part of my life now that we watch football 3 nights a week - is a HUGE distraction; which is one of the main reasons I neglected my writing hours. The pain is still a distraction. Bug bites; not so much now. Instead, the cold of fall is finally kicking in. Thankfully, Hubby did some cleaning, and so I have blankets and my fingerless gloves for typing. Also, for my birthday - or a super early Christmas gift? - Spink got me a big, fluffy, super comfy Legend of Zelda housecoat.
Yes. It's a housecoat; not a bathrobe. Different design and different fabric used. Granted, it's not like the housecoats that you see 90yr old women wear - basically, a zip-down muumuu-like gown. It's closer to the Ebeneezer Scrooge long robe styling. Either way, it's cozy and keeps me warm as the fall chill sets in.
But, let's get back on topic, shall we?
The final assignment last week was to write five first lines. I mentioned last week that two out of the four printed examples were just five individual lines, and the other two examples were five-sentence opening paragraphs. After watching Patterson's critique of them, I determined that the assignment WAS supposed to be five individual lines. HOWEVER, it's not as possibly random as I had imagined last week. These are supposed to be five different possible opening lines for the story outlined the week before.
That being said, here are the five lines I came up with. Two of them I enjoy the imagery, but I'm not a fan of them giving away a huge end-of-book plot point. When I actually go to write this story, I may switch up the opening line even more; we'll see once I figure out my characters.
She had recently turned fifteen for the three-hundred-and-fortieth time.
She should have known he would be her doom when she saved him from the Lamia.
Of course the love of my life would be a man-hating, eternal maiden who swore herself to a Feminazi goddess.
Even if I knew I was going to die, I would not have changed a thing, except - of course - the ending.
Who would have thought that as an immortal I would die of old age?
If you didn't pick up on it, I also tried opening the story in three different POVs: Third Limited, Pernilla First Person, and Pernilla's Love Interest First Person.
I have to say, I'm not a fan of line #4 now that I look back at it. Blach...
The lines were actually kind of fun to write. Kept me a while to try to figure out how to open the story, but once I had a basic idea I was able to crank those five out over my 15-min work break.
Now, here I am, day 3 for this week, and I'm a bit stuck on this week's assignments.
The first one was simple enough. I knocked that baby out on Tuesday. The exercise is supposed to help us better work dialogue. Not to toot my own horn, but from my own personal feel for my writing, plus the critiques that I've received over the years, I'm actually pretty good with dialogue. It seems realistic, interesting, moves the story along - even if it's through character development - and really conveys the characters' feelings and personality.
In other words, this exercise was a cake walk.
Here's the actual assignment writing prompt:
Write dialogue (using no narration) between two characters using this prompt: A man comes home from work early and his wife intercepts him in the living room. He doesn’t want to tell her that he’s just been fired; she doesn’t want him to know her lover is in the bedroom.
Just like with the first lines - and other previous lessons - there were examples from previous students printed in the workbook. Patterson then had a video of him critiquing the examples. He started off by stating how well done some of them were, and how a lot of the students commented on the ease of this assignment. He noted that if our outlines were like that prompt - a basic concept, but with the drama clearly built in - then it would be just as easy to tap back into that drama when we're writing that chapter. If our outlines were written like that prompt was, we'd have just as much fun writing that part of the story.
He then focused on the examples that were provided. Out of the four, most were only about 14 lines long or so. Then there was one that was about 30 lines. This made me nervous, since mine ended up being over 60 lines long; more than twice that of the longest example. Granted, the main reason mine was so long was because I actually stayed with the scene until the conflict was fairly resolved; both secrets were out. All the examples cut off after a few lines. One had the husband slide his hands inside his wife's robe; neither of them knew the other even had a secret. One ended with the wife trying to hide sounds her lover was making by pretending she's scared it's a burglar. The longest one ended with the husband trying to stop his wife from finding out his secret by pretending to be deathly ill; convincing her that they should go to the hospital. The final example just had the wife tell her husband that he looks sexy in his work suit, and that he should stay in it while they go out to dinner.
No resolution, and barely any conflict in any of the examples. Mine has a semi-resolution - the husband heads into the bedroom to kick some butt - and definite conflict as the couple gets into a screaming match at each other over workaholism, porn, neglect, infidelity, and loss of romance. So, even though my scene went close two quadruple the length of the other ones, I feel like it's justified and not boring.
I am still concerned, though, because Patterson didn't even bother reading the 30-line example in his critique video:
“This is the one that goes on and on. This one is just too fricken long. It stays at the races too long. There's so much dialogue that you lose the drama of the whole thing. I'm gonna skip this one.... And that's a gut thing. You just have to be aware of what's the scene and what makes it work the best. And they just talk too much.”
Ooof. I mean, it is a bit boring, and the whole "we should go to the hospital" thing so they can avoid their secrets being found out seems so over the top. I'm hoping that even though mine is "too fricken long", "stays at the races", and "they just talk too much", that it still keeps the drama, and that I'm still "aware of what's the scene and what makes it work the best".
I am really nervous about that.
The other two assignments are a bit trickier to begin with, so if I managed to screw up the dialogue one, I'm worried about how I'm going to do with the other two.
The assignment from the Chapter Building lesson is:
James recommends taking a story from your own life experience and writing it down. To get you started, use his technique for building a compelling scene by using your five senses. What do you see, hear, smell, taste and feel? Now change perspective to see whose version of the story is the most interesting. Is it still yours?
▶▶ Using your outline, choose a chapter to write from multiple perspectives, experimenting with both first person and third person limited.
I wouldn't even know what story to tell for the first part of that assignment, so I'll have to maybe ask my husband to help me with that one: "Honey, what story about my past do you enjoy hearing?" Go from there.
As for the second part, I sort of tried that tactic with the first lines thing. My issue is I'm not sure which chapter from my outline I want to work on, especially since I still don't know these characters. I don't know their point of view. Then again, perhaps this will help me with that. Playing around with the characters - maybe writing something that ISN'T on the outline; just them interacting - might allow me to get to know them. That's how it was with Willow. I had no clue at first, and now look at her. We'll see how well I do.
The final assignment for the week is from the Suspense Building lesson:
Think of your first three chapters as a
Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Write down two different
possibilities for your third chapter. Call a friend and have them
choose which version they’re more interested in reading. How
would this different turn for your character change the outcome
of the plot itself? Would it be a correctable mistake, or would it
change the story dramatically?
I mean, I'm not writing a mystery novel like Patterson typically does, but I could see what I can do with this. There is still that same issue that I can't even really start my story because I don't know the characters. I might have to skip this one until a little later in the webinar; next week, perhaps. We'll see how adventurous I get with my writing.
Technically, according to the suggested syllabus for the class, I had one more lesson this week, but I'm so used to there only being three a week that I didn't notice that I missed one until just now; when I went back to copy and paste the assignments for this week. Whoops. It's supposed to be about ending the book, and then next week is supposed to focus on editing, working with co-authors, and getting published. It makes sense that the "ending your book" lesson was supposed to be with all the other "this is how you write a book" lessons this week.
Guess I'm just gonna tag this on to the start of next week, and end up with five videos to watch.
