I can haz writing plan! - An Insecure Writers' Support Group post

This is part of the Insecure Writers' Support Group posts

So I am going along, reading my blogs when I ran across this post by Magaly Guerrero (who in turn got it from from Ms. Misantropia who got it from Gypsy Spirit Rising) and I thought, "Lists...why is it always lists?"

Things like lists make me twitchy. I hate "haftas" and the thought of rigid scheduling makes me feel like this. But I know I've done great work when I have a solid framework to stay in. So I took this idea and applied it to the spiritual portion of my life, (I might blog about that later) and came up some specific tasks with timelines and everything - and it's been working beautifully. Yay! Go me!

And then Magaly and I started chatting about writing, and the process of writing, and I realized I could tweak this too. I already have my modest writing goal, but I could do with setting up a few more and I mentioned it to her.

Turns out that lady is full of ideas, all of them for more work! The great news is I have written enough small stories for a compilation or two and one of my short stories could be expanded to novel length. This doesn't mean I'm abandoning the novel I'm working on, but it does mean that I've given myself permission to work with other stories I've been feeling pretty good about (but thought needed something more). One the one hand, that seems like crazy talk. On the other hand, the idea of doing more stuff, playing with more characters - it's exciting! And it’s that bit of excitement, as mad as all the rest of it sounds, that I think will help me produce stuff I am satisfied with.

So Magaly, all this is your fault! Thanks amiga!

Yeah I know I used this song on an earlier post. Shush, I like it.

That Kind of Love Affair Or An Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Post

This is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog posts. Sorry it's a day late, but blogs are electricity and internet dependent - which is an issue in the Northeast right now!

I made a simple but fascinating observation about the writing process. I'm moving at a decent clip and being fairly consistent with writing - well, except when I wasn't. Sick family members and snow days are a legitimate excuse I suppose. But I had gotten so good at squeezing my minimum in, that I knew it was just that - an excuse. I know it's because I felt a bit stuck as to where my characters were going, how to get them from point A to point B, and how to do it without it taking forever.

"That's it!" I thought. "I suck as a writer. I don't know if I can manage a full novel. Short stories, sure, but who am I kidding?"

And then while returning from ferrying my newly recuperated offspring someplace or replenishing my pantry (I forget which), something hit me. I knew exactly how I wanted to word things, exactly where the characters were going. I couldn't promise less wordy, but I had an idea. I was so wrapped up in it, I took the wrong exit driving home which irked me because it meant I couldn't get to my laptop as fast as I would like.

Yep, I'm a writer.

I did take a break from novel writing to get a short story ready for the Vampire's Day Soiree at Holly's Horrorland

I still do think short stories are most likely my thing, but I've grown fond of the challenge of novel writing, in a masochistic sort of way. One might say my relationship to writing goes a little something like this...

Keep dancing,

Kestril

Writers Read (An Insecure Writer's Support Group Post)

Part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group group posting

I had a relaxing but productive holiday break. After making myself accountable to a serious writing buddy (thank you Magaly - I hope you are having a fabulous vacation) I am pleased to report I am making slow but steady progress. I have a minimum word count I try to reach every day. It's such a ridiculously small number, I'm embarrassed to share it. But it's usually enough to prime the pump to get ideas flowing and there are plenty of days I exceed it. Of course, I've had plenty of days when I barely make it as well, but I suppose that's to be expected. If I waited for conditions to be super perfect I'd never write anything, and that just isn't acceptable.

The other thing I've been doing is researching, aka reading books in the genre I'm writing. That's been a help in getting a feel for world building, a pretty crucial thing when writing fantasy. I started off with The Belgariad (Volume 1. Thankfully, a friend of mine owns Volume 2, because the end was driving me nuts) and am now re-reading an old favorite Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist.

As fun as this research is there are a couple of dangers here. The most obvious one is getting so caught up in the story I forget to write! The second is comparing my style to other writers and finding it wanting. My style is different from those, most notably in the dialog. I'm trying to keep the high fantasy tone without making it sound too stilted or silly. I think some of my humor comes across in the characters' words but I also need to make sure it fits with the world I've built, and not the world of the Northeast US in 2014.

Please gods, don't let me create the literary equivalent of this

I've got smart people's whose opinions I trust giving me feedback on these baby steps (another chapter almost done, woot!) But it's still a bit nerve wracking. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have stuck with something easier for my first attempt at a novel, but the idea for this story was picking at me too much - I had to explore it.

I'll leave you all with a song inspired by another fantasy series I loved when I was a little girl. I think I may re-read some of these too.

NaNoDeJaWriThrmo...or something like that (An Insecure Writer's Support Group Post)

Part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group postings

The good news is that I have made a nice start to the novel. I've got an outline, chapter summaries for the first few chapters, a nice chunk of background info (world building sort of things and character summaries) and most of chapters one and two written.

Nope, didn't win NaNoWriMo this year - and I didn't expect to.

I expected it to be a kick in the ass to start writing down ideas that could fill a novel, and it was that. I also knew the combination of the emotional roller coaster I've been on, along with my fear of failure was a rich petri dish for procrastination to flourish. So my goal was just to start, just see I could get something done, even when I felt not so great. And possibly see where my procrastination temptations lie. I can't say house keeping is usually so alluring I can't resist it - but when the choice is between that and trying to figure out the perfect words to describe a scene, well, let's just say my house looked awesome in November. Also, I am glad Candy Crush has a limit on lives.

My actual goal is to have a rough at least 80% done story by the end on January, making this a 3 month jog instead of a 1 month sprint. It's just more realistic for where I am. So while I feel, yeah, I kind of was lame in making writing my priority in November, the 3 month goal works. I'm not giving up; I'm taking it at my own pace. The goal isn't to hurry. It's to finish.

NaNoWriMo 2013! (An Insecure Writer's Support Group Post)

This post is part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group

Between my last IWSG post and this one a lot has happened. The two biggest things of course were the passing away of a dear friend of the family's and the passing away of my dog, Faye. There have been points where I'm doubled over with grief, but there have been good days too. I remember my friend Mike once commenting on a story I once wrote. He was rather annoyed with me, because he felt my writing was good and it irked him I didn't do much with it.

I tend to be the kind of person who dismisses compliments, rationalizing that they are mostly out of fondness for my quirky self and not based on any actual merit. This annoys the hell out of my husband by the way. But I've had enough friends and family whose judgement I do trust telling me I need to give my writing a serious shot and NaNoWriMo's timing couldn't be more perfect, so here I am, testing out what I've got.

I can't completely put aside all of October's grieving - I'll probably be crying for quite a bit but I have done some writing I've been proud of during this period, and while I may not meet the word count at the end of November, I'll be pretty darn far along by then (and December looks relatively calm in terms of activity this year).

So New Moon, New Year (my fellow witchy folk understand what I'm talking about) and a new look for the blog. How do you like it? The artwork was created by the amazing Sunshine Shelle (I saw the original in her etsy shop and had to make it mine). And I owe a lot to Magaly Guerrero at Pagan Culture for helping me get the fine details just the way I like them (and for checking for typos). It's just what I needed to mark my new fresh start.

Get ready NaNoWriMo, because here I come!

I have found it is difficult for me to be sad and listen to Motown

So if I creatively procrastinate, does it count as creativity?

This is post is part of the Insecure Writers' Support Group

So I've actually kept up a semblance of a blog for at least a couple of months now, even though I still don't think I've really found a good "voice" for it.

Is this a Pagan blog? There are so many great ones out there, who really needs another?

A random crap that happens in my life blog? I think I've ended up defaulting a lot of the time to this, but ultimately, that isn't what I was going for.

A writing blog? Well, I did start it as a place to experiment a bit with my writing, but I've been a bit shy about putting stuff out there. Part of me worries stuff I write will be just awful so I'll only end up embarrassing myself. The other part worries that if any of this is actually any good, some idiot will come along and steal it.

I shelved the question for a little bit by throwing myself into some long overdue basement renovation. I promised the kids ages ago this would get done and as August wound down, it seemed as good of a time as any. My mother made a huge fuss over it over course, as if I were single-handedly demolishing a square block in Center City Philly and then rebuilding skyscrapers from metal I had forged myself (well, the wall texture paint compound was kind of heavy for me to lift, I managed just fine). But there was something therapeutic about it; not just getting one long overdue project I had procrastinated on near completion but the creative process of painting the faux stone work (it's supposed to resemble a castle wall), of picking out the right decorations that have been gathering dust in our basement (sword replicas! coats of arms! fake torches! An Asian scroll!) and making something cozy from what had once been just another arachnid sanctuary (don't worry, said arachnids have been gently encouraged to skitter to the laundry room or discretely take shelter behind some of the second hand furniture that's been moved down there). I took a lot of joy in that creative process.

I know that when I finally get really going with one of the bigger writing projects I have in mind, I'll feel that same joy in creation. There is still the worry of "what if it sucks?" creeping around the back of my mind with writing that certainly wasn't involved in the basement project. Hell, if I just threw a TV and some folding chairs down there, my son would still use it to escape his sister for a bit - there was no way my "audience" would have hated the result. I suppose maybe the answer is to stop thinking of "audiences" and start thinking of what makes me happy.

The next two Fridays I'll be posting bits of short fiction I've written. These aren't anything fancy, but more like writing exercises I'm OK with having the general internet see. I'd love feedback on them if you get a moment.