What writing feels like

I have the best ideas for posts while trapped in the car for the commute to or from work. I started thinking about how it feels to search for that idea, to drag that scene from the uncharted depths of my brain. I read somewhere once that family members of a writer shouldn’t be alarmed by the tendency of writer in their care to stare off into space for long stretches of time. Caretakers of writers are reassured that this is all part of the creative process.

I couldn’t agree more.

When I feel an idea tickling the edges of my consciousness, I find myself staring at some distant point, but I don’t see what is in front of my eyes. What I’m seeing is the image of that idea, recalled dream fragment, *name your intangible thought process here*. The best way I can describe it to someone who doesn’t think this way (and may potentially see me as somewhat impaired by my writing process) is groping through thick fog. You know something is there, you may even catch a glimpse of it, but it’s not showing up with any great clarity. Trying to find something in muddy water is another good analogy.

Or imagine being in a pitch-dark room, groping for an electrical outlet, with a lamp in your hand. You may not find that outlet, but you might bark your shins on the furniture. You may hear voices from another room or feel a breeze but have no way of finding its source. Or you find the receptacle but the lamp plug doesn’t fit. But when you find that power source and get that lamp working, wow… You can see the furniture, the paintings on the walls and, best of all, the doors and windows into other rooms. That’s when you know you’ve got something.

Pass me that lamp, willya?

Finding a writing group

Since my favorite place to hang out and exchange ideas and advice seems to be dimming by the second, the need to find another forum or group is asserting itself in me. A new page/service I hope will contribute to this is Jon Gibbs’ FindAWritingGroup.com. In this group, Jon is hoping to link together writers and groups from around the world. Since I am searching for a new group with limited success so far, obviously I wish him all the luck in the world with this venture and I bless him for taking it on.

What do I want in a writing group? For me, to many rules and requirements is a huge turn-off. I understand there has to be some structure so everyone gets a fair share of posting and crits in, but set-in-stone regulations stop me before I ever get started. Maybe if I wasn’t working and writing was my only occupation I could devote the time and energy it takes to fulfill those requirements. But I can’t shake that nasty habit of eating, and those darn creditors insist I continue to work at a regular job. Coupled with my desire to start classes again soon and you see understand my limited time will become more scarce.

A writing group that is like a bunch of good friends is a perfect fit for me. I’m talking real friends, the kind that aren’t afraid to tell you your hair looks like crap or ‘did you really leave the house wearing that?’. At the LOL Writer’s forum, that’s what we were, but with me and one other person participating in the homeworks I’m posting every two or three weeks, with random drive-by postings from busy members, it’s not enough. I crave the interaction that comes from someone reading your excerpt, finding the typos and inconsistencies, making suggestions about how to make it better. I love reading other people’s writing and doing the same for them. I could be more in-depth in my crits, often I’m more a cheerleader than anything; maybe that structure I bridle against would help.

At any rate, the search continues. Wish me luck.

I’m done…

Old Dogs is finished. I tried to make it to 100,000 words and it resisted all my efforts so I took the hint that to force more words right now would hurt the story. So, it’s gone off the beta readers, two so far. All I’ve heard so far from my friend at work was that she hadn’t had much time, but what she’d read so far she liked. Encouraging words…

Downtown Babylon, my NaNoWriMo project for 2009, has been poking at me lately to review and expand. With a three day weekend, maybe I’ll have some time to do just that. Molly is an interesting character and I’m glad she’s been so generous with her stories.

While I’m in what could be described as a slump, since I’ve only written one little homework in weeks, it doesn’t feel bad. Instead of frustrating, it seems relaxed. Maybe finishing my first draft, ever has something to do with it. I know there’s still much work to be done on OD but to have actually finished with the first stage does feel good.

Maybe this is a taste of things to come. One can only hope.

And I’m spent…

But I did it!!!!! Right down to the freakin’ wire, but it’s done. 50,000+ words in 30 short days. About 15,000 of which were written in the past 3 days.

I am very tired now…

NanoWriMo- Day One

As you can see, I’ve gotten a good start on my NaNo project this year. I didn’t even get started until this afternoon but I already have better than my daily goal in the can, so to speak, and some rough outlines of scenes to come. Hopefully this will be a firaly easy goal to kick, especially with the extra time off coming my way this year. Veteran’s Day on the 11th and Thanksgiving later in the month should give me planty of time to rattle something quasi-coherent out. I’m waiting for the inevitable ticklings of my other characters, clamoring for attention, climing I’m ignoring them. Well, technically I am, so that Molly has her time to be in the spotlight. Even if these never get published, it’s all practice and improvement toward the goal of becoming published someday.

Yeah, I tend to be optimistic at the beginning, No doubt something will come along and piss in my cornflakes. But, until then, onward and upward!

Crossposted to Aimless and Wandering
Progress meter found at writertopia.

A decision has been reached.

Since I spent the last hour making this banner, it seems clear which story I’ll be concentrating on for NaNo this year.

NaNoWriMo, ahoy!

What’s that on the horizon?! Yet another month of writing insanity, called National Novel Writing Month!

I ‘won’ last year, by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That story, my werewolf idea, has gone nowhere since, but that’s probably because I’ve concentrated on the myriad of other stories that harass me at any given moment.

What to write this year? Well, I have a couple of choices. One is expanding on that dream that so captured my attention last month, tying together dreams, alternate universes, the concept of One True Companion for another, and Shakespeare. This might require me to become much more of a Shakespeare scholar in the long run, just for details or, since this is specualtive fiction, I can just make shit up. Probably the latter.

Tentatively titled Downtown Babylon, after a Paul Thorn song, my next choice is another non-supernatural, non-fantasy, non-weirdness story about normal people. Molly (have I picked a last name for her yet? It’ll be an Irish name, to take full advantage of the Irish-owning-a-bar thing) owns a bar in a Navy town in Florida (might as well say Jacksonville or vicinity.) It sits across the street from a church. She and the members of the church have a policy of mostly ignoring one another. Her place is more of a family place and she tends to mother-hen her clientele in her own way, tossing them on their ear when they’re too loud and obnoxious being part of the policy. Therefore her patrons tend to be pretty well-behaved. She is challenged by a young man who works at the church across the street, as to her lifestyle, which is not at all as decadent and sinful as he would like to believe. Typical for her, she pushes right back. Did I mention the on-again, off again musician boyfriend that comes around once in awhile just to shake things up? Or the homeless man she helps out? Or the dog?

Then there’s A Single Self, an idea I’ve had for ages, about a person who is the result of a single birth, in a world where identical twins is the normal way of things. Probably mostly psychological.

And I could always write on New Tricks, the sequel to Old Dogs that I’m writing right now. There’s plenty of material there and the characters won’t shut up, but I may give Valerie and Daniel a rest for the time being, just so I can come back to them fresh and with new ideas.

So, what’re you planning to write for NaNoWriMo 2009?

C’mon, spill.

*Crossposted to Aimless and Wandering, my LiveJournal*

Thank God for writing prompts

In the final throes of my two weeks off, I’ve gotten doodley done on Old Dogs, or anything else. Well, I take that back. I have managed to rewrite/tweak/enhance/fuck with a scene I had already written. It’s something, eh? Granted I was out of town for four days and enjoying my time in North Carolina, so what am I bitching about? Inertia, or the lack thereof. I’m not precisely stuck anymore, but I’m not moving ahead either. As usual, ideas for stories other than the one I’ve committed myself to concentrating on are assaulting me, teasing me with possibilities. Ahh… the possibilities.

So, on the LOL Lit Forum, Larn (bless her!) has posted a prompt. Maybe this will do the trick. Now, to stop rattling here and go rattle some words into The Story. It should be easy enough to find a scene with some tension, right? Or maybe I’ll let Rayne come out to play for a bit. She’s feeling lonely and neglected.

North Carolina was gorgeous and inspirational. Valerie and Daniel have informed me that part of their honeymoon will be spent in a cabin on a mountain just like the one I stayed in. Valerie’s fear of heights will come into play, just as my own did, on those steep and winding roads. At heart, I’m truly a flatlander, no shame in admitting it, right?

And I’ve got to stop having these cool adventure dreams. The premise of my dream a couple of nights ago wasn’t anything spectacular.  Two women that are friends, two men that are friends, neither pair knows the other to begin with. But one of the women is abducted/disappears for whatever reason, and her friend enlists the help of/runs into these two guys/involves them somehow in her search for her friend. Turns out the friend was kidnapped, but as bait, to draw the second woman out so *she* can be taken, by some sort of dark cult/coven of baddies/insert name of your nefarious-type group here. So far, the men are serving mostly as transportation/moral support (there’s more slashes in this post than a Highlander erotic fanfic!). In the dream, I was in the role of the second woman and I remember being truly afraid for my friend. I found a couple of the women that were responsible for her abduction and got really angry, supremely pissed oof, as a matter of fact, and I/she punched one of them. The expression on the face of the ringleader was truly frightening and I remember thinking “Uh oh, I’m in trouble now.” Trouble is, I woke up before ever figuring out what to do. I was aware enough of my dreaming to know I was dreaming, therefore I wasn’t really scared, but still, it was very intense. Wish I could recall more details about the men; I guess that means whenever I get around to using this as book-fodder, I can make them whatever I want!

So, plenty of things to think about, still no progress being made. Tell me now, you’re tired of hearing me bitch about the same things over and over, aren’t you? It’s okay, you can tell me. I know I am.

Stuck…

In answer to Larn’s challenge on the LOL Literary Forum awhile back, I decided to concentrate on Old Dogs, hoping to finish a first draft-type thingy. My goal was 100,000 words by the end of September. Now, I know it’s still the beginning of September, but I seem to be hovering around 81,000 words. The more I write and read and edit, the more I keep culling little bits and pieces here and there, thereby reducing my word count. I keep getting ideas for Valerie and Daniel, but for the story that will follow Old Dogs, not the current one.

Why the hang-up on the word count? It’s something to obsess over, I suppose, and They (the writing resource websites I tend to haunt) say 85,000-100,000 words is a decent first novel length. Less than that might make a potential reader shy away, thinking they’re not getting enough bang for their buck, while longer makes publishers shy away, afraid that it won’t sell because it’s too long and won’t hold a reader’s attention.  Who knows if trying to adhere to that will help or hurt my ultimate chances of getting published.

In other concerns, NaNoWriMo is coing up and I have two ideas to choose from. One is an idea that has simmered for years, about a woman named Molly who runs a bar near a Florida military base. I have some material already simmering in my brain for this one. Alternately, there is the dream-inspired story that leapt into my head a few weeks ago. A young woman is driven by her dreams, literally, to figure out which world she belongs in, the waking world that has not been overly kind to her or the dream world, where a silver-tongued man named Will beckons to her. The latter has those shades of the supernatural that I’m always drawn to, but I’ve been enjoying writing Old Dogs, which has nothing more fantastical in it than two people falling in love.  It may come down to the flipping of a coin which one I concentrate on.

Tomorrow will bring the rewriting of the dreaded opening scene, which I am told (and rightly so) that it reads like a promotional brochure to Small Town Florida. I shall endeavour to correct that and make it a much more appealing first look into Valerie’s life.

I hope…

I need an intervention ;-)

*A group of people sit in a circle in some cavernous community hall. A forty-something woman stands, tucking auburn hair behind one ear. She clears her throat.*

Hi, I’m Debi, and I’m a writer.

*The groups choruses, voices with varying degrees of sympathy, “Hi, Debi.” She continues.*

I’ve been a writer most of my life. It started with fanfiction, like many of us. *nods all around the group*
Then, I thought, ‘There’s no harm in this, I can write my own, original fiction. *Some grimaces of understanding, more nodding*
So I do write my own stuff. And I like it, I think it’s good. And then another idea comes to me; so I write that. And another.
*Sympathy mixed with horror now suffuses the group. One of them gets up qith quick, nervous movements to get another cup of anemic coffee.*
But I never finish anything. I try, I set goals to have a certain word count by a certain time; sometimes it works. I join groups like NaNoWriMo, *gasps from some in the bunch; one voice says quietly “I hear you.”* but it just adds more stories to the bunch I already have. So I try just writing one, letting the others alone. *She swallows with a nervous giggle.*

Then, last night, just before I woke up, I had a dream. *Wide-eyed stares greet her latest confession. The whole group knows where this is going and they listen in horror, like watching a train wreck.*
I dreamed a new storyline. A really good one, I think. I want to write it, really bad. I think this could really be the one.
*Cries of “No! Don’t listen to the dreams! Just let it go!” echo around the dank meeting hall. She nods.*

I know what you’re all thinking: ‘She can’t handle another story.’ She can’t finish what she has; why the hell does she want to write another one?’ Well, I don’t know. But I woke up this morning with that idea in my head and it won’t leave me alone. So, you know what? I’m going to let it stay. It can play with the rest of my stories, and I’ll think about it and write on it whenever I want to!

*Amid shouts of sympathy and protest, she turns and walks out the door.*

I can do this, I can write this story. And it will be good.
So there, pppbbbttt!!!

 

Crossposted to Aimless and Wandering