An Un-Birthday Request

Hi all. I have returned again, some more, finally.

Rather than make excuses, I'll just forge ahead to my purpose today: My birthday is coming up at the end of the month, but it's been a stressful 2011 so far (and Valentine's was not one of my favorites this time around).

So, I love birthdays. It's not just the whole 'presents' deal, but there's something about a birthday that makes it better than a normal holiday. I think it's because it's the one day people celebrate you. That you're here. Not to go the "special snowflake" route, but I think it's nice to be the focus of people's attention, at least once a year. I have this child-like excitement for the day that I honestly hope won't go away as I get older. I hate the thought of dreading my birthday.

This year, however, because of my work schedule, I won't really get to do anything on the day itself. My family is celebrating the day before, and I'm hoping to get a few friends together to celebrate the day after (my shorter work day). But this year, teh day itself will be pretty low-key, so I was thinking.

What I was wondering, since I am trying to write more, is if there are any aspects of a story you'd like to see in a short piece of writing? An archetype or character, a magical power, a twist on an old story or fairy tale, or a particular setting. I'll take all the suggestions and try to write a short story that includes all of them. If it doesn't completely make me want to set my laptop on fire, I'll post the final product for people to read and hopefully be entertained by.

So, anything come to mind?

Maybe there's a Reason I haven't been Productive

I don't like excuses. [I amend that, I think people do like excuses, generally, when they need to use one, but no one is much of a fan when given them by others.] I try not to use excuses to explain away my behavior or lack thereof.

That said, I wrote a post last night for my personal blog and it got me thinking this morning. see, I had another idea for a new story. Specifically a new story that could be combined with the idea from an old story to create something that I find really interesting. It plays with the idea of who is the villain when it comes to vampires versus vampire hunters. Many of the UFs that contain vamps have at least one who good and sexy if not always nice (or nice and sexy, if not always good...Aaaand now I'm having an "Into the Woods" moment--"You're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right." Much love for Bernadette Peters.)

Many vamp-UFs have vampires that align themselves with the protagonist, with a lot of sexiness thrown in. At the same time, there are a good number of UFs out there with hunters as their protagonists (LKH's Anita Blake; Buffy to take it into other mediums), so there is a lot of space to play with who is the villain, who thinks who's the villain, and switch between my fairly young, but mature vampire and a seasoned hunter stuck with a new apprentice. But end up having to examine their own behaviors, and existence, and may end up working together (haven't decided the last bit yet).

Anyway, it's one more novel that has tightened its hold on my brain, which makes it about the fourth right now. But none of the other three has kept my attention long enough for me to reach the end of a complete first draft.

Excuses time: Is it just that I've been lazy in my self-control and scheduling, or was there some unconscious part that was waiting for the right story--not that the others are bad, but there's one just ready to be written and I just need to find it?

Honestly, put that way, it's probably just me not making better use of my time. Because in every story I reach a point where I get stuck (halfway to three-quarters in), and I don't use this sort of excuse for those times. Here, it's probably a matter of not knowing where some/most of these are going, so instead of plowing through and forcing a plot to take form, my mind skips on to the next shiny object



Of course, I am going to give this new story some of my attention. But I think making this realization--that I was trying to make excuses for myself and really just need to figure out the full arcs of the stories--has helped me, refocusing my attention. I need to make a trip into town today, which is an hour's bus ride each way. I think I'll take my notebook and use that time to jot down notes are all the major events of at least two of these novels.

Maybe in a few days I can return to tell you all that I've settled on one story to write to its end.

The Beginning of a Plot

Still doing the job hunt thing. Because of that, I've been turning on my phone during the day when I used to keep it on only when I was out of the house. My cell is the number on my resume, and even though I have a landline, this is the direct link to me. I don't want to miss a potential interview.

Well, today I didn't get around to turning my phone on right away. In fact, it's 1:30 and I only just did it a few minutes ago. ~sheepish grin~ But there was already a voicemail (apparently missed the actual phone call by just a few minutes). She sounded like someone's little Asian grandma--we have a lot of those here in Hawaii :)--looking for a guy [R]. She even left a phone number. I don't know if she is a relative or just older, but seriously, am I the only person tempted to call and say, "I got your message, unfortunately I have no idea who this person is and you have the wrong number?"

It makes sense to do that if you get the call directly, phone rings you pick it up and the conversation happens in real-time, but it seems weird to do so in response to a voicemail.

I posed the question to my facebook people, and as I hit post, I wondered what a story would be like if someone did that. You call this number left by someone's obasan--does the lady answer? Is she friendly, annoyed, does she go into a furious old lady rant ("why don't you ever call me? I have to call you all the time and you never pick up your phone. Your mother had to give me this number...") before you have a chance to say you aren't this guy? What if someone else answers, and doesn't know this woman (she also left her name, or a contact name) or R? What if it's a different person and they do know everyone involved, including you? How far down the rabbit hole could you fall just for trying to be polite and do a small good deed?

Since I seem wired for the fantasical, my mind spun off on a Matrix-like thread. Some Morpheus character answers and directs you to go somewhere, gives you a piece of information that compels you to comply. And from that meeting/errand, the world you knew is no more or you're somehow separated from it, and the rest of the story is you trying to find your way home, or pushing deeper and deeper through the forest to see what's on the other side.

Just wanted to share that.

Happy writing everyone,

Sabrina

Crosspost-it from my LJ: Epiphany! Albeit a little one

Thank you to those who read that very long post below, reviewing The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley-Archer, and The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley--I enjoyed both and I don't always realize how much I'm writing until I'm scrolling through it after it's posted. But if you like mid-grade, fantasy, time travel, or fairy tales (especially fairy tales in the modern world), then please read the review, because I think these two series could appeal to you.

Moving on, I posted the following to my lj the other day, and realized it would connect very well to the purpose of CoffeeQuill, i.e. sharing my process on the road to and through publication. So here it is, with a few additional thoughts afterwards.

***

Okay, so, as in geometry, there is a given. Every writer works differently. Given that, I do think it behooves writers to read a lot. Not necessarily the same genre they write, hopefully not just research, but in soem form or another, ingesting the words, the stories of others.

Last night, I was getting ready for bed, and reading a few pages in a fantasy novel by James Owen (lj coppervale), "Here, There Be Dragons." I only read about 2-4 pages, closed it at page 24 to finish getting ready for bed, and I took a moment to think about how much had happened in those first two dozen pages. In my head, I started to list the big pieces of action and after just the first, had an idea on how to improve Hounds, my faerie UF.

I've known it needed work, much like its query I could see something wasn't right,, but didn't have a firm idea on how to fix it. Now I have at least one part. Get to the park faster, and see Din's death. It won't fix everything, but the risk will be more evident right off the bat, the reader will see the danger rather than just being told it's dangerous.

Like I said, not a magic bullet, but it's a start, and it'll make the first chapter or so stronger. Already I can feel the story whittling down into a sharper, clearer form in my head. Too much is going on in it that's unnecessary, I just need to go through a hard copy and start slicing.

[This is something I knew I had to do, and was going to do it after I did the same for Harry's Skin, but now I feel like I'm in the right place mentally to view the story more objectively. I was too close to it before.] <-- The one positive point about being unpublished is that I can allow myself the time to do this, and to wait for when I'm ready to work on something.

Also, I am toying with two new story/world ideas. Well, new to me. I'm going to try and let them percolate for a while, though.

***

After I wrote and posted this, I was listening to volume 1 of the Glee albums. A line in one of the songs hit me, and though it didn't seem at all related, made me reexamine another issue I was having. I tend to populate my novels with large casts, and in this particular story, I think it's too much and at least one character, a private detective, can go. Even after mulling it over, I still haven't decided whether to keep 'Det. L' or not, but more and more I think his actions that need to be there can be attributed to someone else, and the rest can be dropped. But it's just sort of funny how part of a song can trigger an idea for a story about a completely different subject matter.

Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina

A Writer's Angel and Devil, aka A Giving Thanks Post

I've been away, writing, then trying to write, then getting ready for the holidays. I'm still getting ready for the holidays. But I'm dropping by because I got an email last night. It wasn't a fun email to read, but it brought to mind something I believe about what writers need:

Everyone who wants to write a book and get published needs their own version of the angel and devil on your shoulder.


I feel lucky to have so many people [my writerly sister, a writer's group, fellow (former) grad students in the English Department] who are willing to read my work. Most of the time, I get a sort of middling response, some encouragement or praise, and some critique and suggestions for improvement. But I feel like every writer (and of course, this is all IMHO) should have at least one friend who reads your work and points out all the good stuff, to stand by you and say you can make it, regardless of the countless revisions and rejections.

To counter that, we also seem to need one friend/critique partner who doesn't sugarcoat things. Of course, it's nice if they can put it in an encouraging way, but they should be the one person to say, "They haven't told that X, Y, and Z also need work. And these three chapters are weak/plotless/meandering/etc."

It's so hard to finish a novel, to face the hundred possible rejections from agents and publishers, that it helps to have at least one person out there who believes in you whole-heartedly. (Make sure they believe it, lip-service fiends need not apply.) Someone you can go to when you've had a bad day, the writing is stalling, your confidence is low, and they say one line to keep you going, to try that scene again, to brave the task of throwing out whole chapters (when you're so tied to your words, but you know they don't work and need to go).

At the same time, you want to be ready when you face those agents and publishers. Advice abounds, opinions vary, but one thing seems general enough and a strong enough statement to be almost universal: submit your mansucript when it's the best you can make it.

The best, the absolute best. I know that I get to a point in writing and editing when I'm too close to a story to see where the faults lie. I can tell if something doesn't quite work, but not always know how to fix it. Your "devil" is there to help you through that. To say, "Yes, that character is two-dimensional. No, your subplot about so-and-so doesn't work." It won't always be easy to hear, no matter how good they are at softening the blow, but if they're the right person on your shoulder, they'll tell you what you need to know to be a better writer. I find those are the critiques where I listen or read the comments and can agree almost immediately with most of what's being said, but it can be harsh, so I still need to step back and look at those edits a day or two later.

I said this was a giving thanks post, and it is. I find it hard to believe in or accept the historical stories we're told about Thanksgiving when we're young, but there a good idea behind it. One day when you stop and think about the things you have and the people around you that you should be grateful for. Tell them thank you when perhaps you take them for granted the rest of the year. I know it's already December, so very late for this, but giving thanks is something we should do throughout the year anyway. As hard to hear as some critiques can be, I am thankful I have someone willing to tell me what I need to know. It's nice to have one person always standing in my corner,telling me I'll get there, and they get me through some bad days, but...for both people...I try not to take for granted the ones who'll be there when I need them.

Thank you.


Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina

More on my Battle with Short Stories

But first: I love steampunk. I love it oh so much. The visuals are intriguing and amazing. I only hope that I can make my image of steampunk fit with the idea I have (because this idea already comes with distinct imagery, which I have to work past any time I write about it, here I'll need to mingle the two cohesively). Maybe I should actually draw it out, characters wearing clothes with both elements, as a visual focus for that mingling. Hmm.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. After yesterday's post, I was thinking about what is it that makes it more difficult for me to write short stories rather than novels.

One idea, the issue most writers encounter: the middle of the book slump. In a novel, I read that, or at least the first wave of it, around page 50 or 80. Then again two-thirds through the book, usually. But a short story. I've had time to muddle through not quuiite knowing where I'm going until I come to a halt. But I can rework things and plow through it. I have enough to work with at that point.

In a short story, though, there's usually a lengh limitation. In 1,000, even 5,000, there isn't much time muddle through 'here's a cool character, let's see what they do next.' So I need to know more about where the story is going (how it begins and ends, a little of the middle) when it's short, than when it's novel-length. If I don't know what's supposed to happen, I've wasted the rest of my words on meandering. To avoid that, then, I take much longer to write what length-wise I could finish in a day, because I need to think everything through before writing it down.

Example: The Halloween story. I started with an idea, an image, a problem with the neighborhood cats disappearing every year in October. Then I figured out my protagonist, and I start thinking out how that one night will proceed. Do I end it on a scary note, am I skilled enough to make it scary, or should I add some humor, or a twist, or just it ambiguous? Right now, I think I know enough to get to that point, but I almost don't want to write it before I can answer that question. Thus, I am stuck in what is approximately the middle, because it's a short-short story (I try to reason, if I aim for 500, I won't go over 1,000--we'll see).

I suppose that's my cue to end here, though, and start working through that middle slump.

I'm off!

Happy writing everyone,

Sabrina

*Photo is from Lisa Snellings' blog Slaughterhouse Studios . It's a detail of one of her sculptures, Grim Reading. I love her work, and whenever I want a creepy or intriguing atmosphere for writing, I go there to get in the mood.

Birds and Short Stories

I was chatting with a new friend about the birds I can see outside my room. Just half an hour ago, the more common visiting black cat chased away the newly visiting gray one. Then the waxbills came out (I'm sure that's what they are now, I really didn't know before). There's about half a dozen birds that flutter around from twig to twig and on the ground between me and the straggly bush.

The waxbills and Japanese white-eyes quickly jump from one branch to another to the ground to a flower pot. The bulbuls come in quick then fly off. The doves mosey, strut around on the concrete and show off to the ladies. They all have their different personalities.

Different personalities and when you want to photograph them, it requires different approaches. Cats and swift birds need to be snuck up on, you have to be ready at any moment, but if you move too fast, they get away an all you have is a tiny, blurry sasquatch. The slower birds need patience because they'll sit with their butt to you for a while, then just get up and leave.

I think sometimes dealing with stories is like this. Not every story is the same (shouldn't be, IMO, despite finding unintentional similar themes or motifs on occasion). Every writer finds the process that works for them, but I think that process doesn't always work with every story.

I think, for me, there's a big difference in how I write short stories compared to novels. I'm trying, on the whole, to have a better idea where a story is going, rather than just starting with an idea and running with it. But when it comes to short stories, this is even more important. I need to know how it begins and ends, and I need some idea of the middle (compared to knowing the beginning, some of the middle and a vague sense of where events need to end up for my novels), unless it's a short story with no set word limit. If I don't know the ending scene of a short story, it's just a blurry cat photo. >_<

Each short story is also slightly different. Some need every detail planned out, others need two or three strong images and I get through it. The halloween story I'm working my way through is actually trippingme up, because it's a small, flightly bird story--I caught an idea and it stuck around, but if I sneak up too fast, it's slips out of my grasp and hops out of reach, taunting me. I have to turn it around, view it from all angles, and slowly come up to it, until we're face to face.

Happy writing, everyone,

Sabrina

Muse musings

When I was younger, about 13 or so, I believed in a muse. It wasn't a serious belief, but the day-dreaming belief of a burgeoning writer. He had a name, and when I was keeping a hand-written journal (years before I joined LJ, and at a time when I couldn't maintain a journal for more than a few weeks) consistently for months, I trailed off from writing about my day-to-day life, to writing a story. I'd decided to write it as if my muse were telling the story.

Nowadays, a muse seems almost synonymous (in my own mind) with some of the other topics I've been writing about lately: inspiration and ideas. It's a motivating force; it helps when you get stuck in one scene, so you can move forward or jump ahead; it's there to offer ideas; it has some unquantifiable quality that helps you write.

It's a nice thought. Maybe I'm just in a cynical mood, but I don't quite see how the concept of a muse helps a writer, other than to say 'I couldn't write because my muse abandoned me.' I visit Sherwood Smith's LJ fairly regularly, and she linked to a great post about one's muse, and its fickle nature. I really enjoyed the post, but instead of equaling "Godfrey" with muse, I filled in the name with Writing. Writing was sometimes hard to come by, when I'd open a new Word doc but the words wouldn't come. It was an idea, or inspiration that slipped by me, or it was just that I failed myself and wasn't trying hard enough, perhaps.

I'm not saying the idea of a muse is wrong or useless, far be it, it's not my place to comment on others' beliefs, but I don't know that it works for me anymore. I think even at 13, my muse was more a character, a wizard, mature but young, sitting in a well-made, but old robe and telling this story about a princess and a unicorn with attitude. I like the thought that my writing comes from me, it's my accomplishment. My failures, yes, but also my successes.

~shrugs~ I suppose this is just one of those meandering, thinking out loud posts. I still need to make up a post, and I do have some topics simmering. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

In random writing news: I finally found a Halloween story idea that's staying with me. I've started writing and I mostly know where it's going. (I just need to decide how I want it to end, I'm thinking more mysterious than gruesome. We'll see.)

Happy writing everyone,

Sabrina

*Painting of the Greek Muses with Apollo on Mt. Helio, by Claude Lorrain

Inspiration

I was trying to think of what to write about today. I've been fighting that sensation of thoughts like rubber balls bouncing around inside my skull. When they rebound, it's even harder to grasp.

I end up drifting through the day in my own head, trying to settle on any specific thought I can grab.

I've already spoken about 'where I get my ideas,' and where I put them (notebooks!), so I figured I'd try to share a few thoughts about inspiration. For me, some of it can come from those overheard conversations, but word-nerd that I am, a lot of inspiration comes to me through visuals.

I love art. Before I really started writing, I was drawing. I still have sheafs of papers with drawings of aliens, elves, centaurs, some dragons and unicorns. Around sixth grade I started my first novel, unfinished. It was epic fantasy, I got about 40 single-spaced hand-written pages in, and the pictures of the main characters were inseparable from the story. If memory serves, the drawings came first, and the story developed from there.

Of course, I was utterly a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of writer then, so I still don't really know where the story should end. There were two sisters, princesses, running the kingdom while their parents were at war. Father was human, mother elf, and a tentative alliance between the species cemented in that marriage. There was a long lost prince, living as a thief in the capital city. I still love the characters, and I think there might be a strong kernel there (well, the long lost prince bit has been done to death, especially when he grows up to be a thief)...Uh, I'm going off on a tangent, aren't I? Point being, the pictures came first, the visuals inspired the story.

I still draw, but not as much, and I don't feel as compelled to draw character sketches of every person in every story. Other inspiration comes from others' art. When I'm trying to get in a darker mood for a story, I visit Lisa Snellings blog and look at her Poppets and other creepy sculptures. I have a long list of art blogs, some dark and creepy, some cartoonish, some realistic.

I also find a lot of inspiration in music. There are some artists or albums that just get me in the mood to write, and they tend to make their way onto every playlist I create for different stories. Most of the time, though, certain song swill invoke specific moods and I'll get a jolt that propells me toward one story over another. A recent addition, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer," inspired me to want to write a steampunk story, but with the story growing and solidifying beyond that 'feel,' I think I'll need more than that album when I'm ready to write.

Right now, I'm trying to think of a Halloween short story to write. Short stories are already not my forte, and sometimes I have a hard time thinking of a story plot when I start with something so general as 'I want to write a Halloween story.' [Strangely enough, the latest three stories are just so, Halloween, steampunk, and YA teen vampire (with a vicious rather than sexy, sultry vampire), which would partly explain why they're all taking longer to get from conception to 'sitting down and writing'.] What is happening with the Halloween story is that an image, or mention of some old urban legend or nursery story, will spark an idea, which I jot down. But so far the interest hasn't lasted long enough to reach the writing stage. I think I need to find a catalyst and then quickly feel around for additional little propelling images or songs. The inspiration is the first burst of forward movement, but the extra bits keep me going.


---
Huh, apparently skin sensitivity is at its highest between 10 pm and 1 am, according to this guy on Rachel Ray's talk show (he wrote a book on when it's the best time to do various things, like make love). That clicks as a bit of inspiration. You might be able to play with that idea in a sci fi story. Genetic manipulation/engineering?


Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina

Brief Weekend Post the First

Just wanted to point readers to this post by Patricia C. Wrede. After a post last week-ish about where I keep my ideas, I got a smile out of her post, offering an answer to that all-too-common question: Where do you get your ideas?

A taste: "If you just look slantwise at normal, everyday things, it becomes a habit after a while, and pretty soon you have more ideas than you know what to do with."

Much like her helpful soup analogy, Wrede offers an easy-to-comprehend grocery list example.

Give it a look, and I'll be back later today with another brief post.