Writing and Wondering

Well, I went on a little hiatus there.   I’ve been plugging away  at a series of short stories, all revolving around a common central theme.   Also still working on some flash fiction.  One flash piece has inspired me to try writing it as a longer story or possibly even go novel length.

I’ve also been throwing around some ideas for a novel that I’d like to try as a YA book, but I’m not sure.   I thought about going with more a of middle grade style, too, but I see the main characters as adults, not kids or teens.  I could probably alter that, but it will take some thought.   Maybe I’ll just have to write a portion geared towards each level and see what works best for the characters and the story ideas.  The stories have a supernatural bend to them and involved ghouls and ghosts and other critters.   But that brings the question, can the main characters of a YA or Middle Grade books be adults?  I’m thinking mid to late 20s, 30s, and 40s primarily.    I’ve been under the impression that to appeal to kids and teens, you’d need characters close in age so they can relate better, which makes perfect sense.   I’ve been trying to think back on the books I loved when I was in those reading levels but I can’t really think of any examples where the main characters were adults.      What do you think?

I’m also taking a Creative Writing class this semester.  I thought it would be a great way to share my writing and get some feedback.    The course is a basic beginner level course, so we’re covering a number of areas in writing.  Our first large assignment was poetry.  I slogged through that and now we’re starting memoirs.  I’ve never tried to write a memoir, so this should be interesting.     After that we tackle flash and short fiction, which I’m considering to be the meat of the course.  Very much looking forward to getting to workshop some of my stories.   I’m glad I signed up for the course for this semester.  With all the budget cuts this year, I have a feelign that the smaller community colleges here in the Phoenix area will also be feeling the crunch and seeing smaller programs getting cut.  The Creative Writing program the course is part of is only a certification and not a full out degree program.  So there’s a chance I may not get to take some of the fiction writing classes.    Here’s hoping though, as taking this sort of thing through the community college is affordable and works with my schedule.

On the Road to NaNoWriMo Recovery

Well, I took the month of December off, creatively speaking.  I did pick up the knitting needles a few times (I increased the square by about 2 inches total this month, long way to an afghan), and started a short story, but otherwise I did very little creating of any sort.  Mostly I just putzed around the house, hung out with my hubby and my critters, and made myself just relax and be.

Apparently, I’ve been stressed out since Thanksgiving, as it was that weekend that I started waking up every morning with hives on my elbows, which would later make an appearance on my knees and legs (mass hive migration in the late morning usually).   Before that, I would get them now and again on my elbows, and never gave it much thought, figuring I came in contact with something that my skin didn’t like.   My doctor thinks its from stress.  Lucky me.  So I guess I’ve been a little stressed about being stressed and have been trying to keep my free time simple and relaxing this month.  Granted, crafting and writing are usually pretty relaxing for me, but I wanted to take all “pressure” off me (the pressure to create something, to meet some sort of self-imposed deadline, etc).  The holidays are usually crazy and stressful enough with all that goes on.

The urge to write has been creeping in though, and I’ll probably pick up that short story this week.  The craziness of the season is over so really, I don’t have much going on to stress me out.  I think I can safely crack open the notebook and take up the pen and write.    Its a short story that involves knitting (I’ve had the fiber on my mind lately I guess) and a funeral.  I’ll just leave it at that for now.

I hope your holidays were fun and festive.  I received some great books and a couple sets of my new obsession, Uniball Signo Gel ink pens in purple and blue.  I love the way these things write, so fluid and smooth.  Yeah, sure, they smear a little on some surfaces, but they’re perfect for someone like me who prefers to write by hand, and needs a pen that can keep up with my brain.  I’ve started using them at work now as well. Just looking at the these beauties inspires me to write.  I’m weird, I know.

Well, just wanted to post a quick update.  Now, I need to go wash these purple ink spots from my hands.   Thanks for stopping by!

The End is Nigh!

Its the last day of NaNoWriMo.   I am not a winner unfortunately.  I do not have a final word count yet, as I still have a couple hundred words to type up.  But I’m hoping I’m close to the 10K mark.   Its been a great experience and I’ve learned a lot this month about how to schedule my writing time (something I didn’t do very well this month).   I did come up with a number of great story ideas though, the creative juices they have been a-flowin’.    Now I know what to expect for next year.  I’ll be better prepared for next year.  Now I know how far in advance to start prepping, and that I need to outline because my jeans have tiny little wings that just weren’t strong enough to lift me (and I’ve lost weight for crying out loud…).

I’ll update with my final word count later this evening.

Slowly but Surely

I managed to cross the 7K mark earlier this week.  I have 7022 words typed.  I think I have a few hundred more hand-written.    I’m taking a day off work today and plan to spend a few hours writing this afternoon (in between taking my cat in for surgery and trying to clean up the house which is a mess).  I’d love to make the 10K mark by the end of the weekend, but I’d be happy with 8500.   I’ll check back on Sunday to let you know.

I’m kind of stuck on a scene right now.  I’m not sure how to wrap it up and move on.  I had another scene like that already.  I wasn’t quite sure what happened next.  So I just typed in “SOMETHING MORE HAPPENS HERE,” skipped a line and continued writing the next scene.  Looks like I may have to do that again.   I feel I’ve spent too much time on this scene already and its not progressing the story.   I needed to draw the other main character into it more, but I got caught up on the details of the setting (brutal crime scene).  I made a note to go back later and add more of her in.  I figure its better not to dwell on it now, as that will only trip me up further.   I think I will just have to bend to the will of the writing gods and skip to the next scene, coming back later to fill in the final details.    The anal-retentive control freak in me really wants to continue and to start edits, but so far, I’m doing well at keeping her locked away in the mental attic.  I can hear her pounding on the door though…

Well, I have some dirty counter tops to attend to now.  But first, I need to go wash these purple ink spots from my hands.   Thanks for stopping by!

Crossing the 5K Mark!

Well, I should have more than double that by now, but that just hasn’t happened.  However, I did manage to cross the 5K mark on Saturday (5247 to be exact).  5000 words in a week is pretty good for me, and I’m happy with that.  I’m not going to stress about my word count and I’m just going to set smaller personal goals for myself.    My goal is to reach 6500 words by the end of the day on Saturday.   We’ll just have to wait and see

I opened my Week Two Mascots from the Swap-Bot swap.  It was box full of small sticky rubber frogs!  I love frogs so it was perfect.  They’re currently hanging out on my keyboard and around my writing work area.  Now I have to figure out how to work both a the pink sheep and sticky rubber frogs into my novel.

Time to get back to work.  But first, i need to go this purple ink off my hands.   Thanks for stopping by!

Day Five Update!

Well, I had that great first day, but Day Two I wrote absolutely nothing!!  I made up for it on Monday and Tuesday and now have 3,283 words typed.  I have 300-400more handwritten, and hopefully I will get a chance to type that up tonight.  I would like to be closer to 5,000 words by now but I’ve been pulled in a couple of different directions the past couple of days.  I know, I know, if you want to write you have to make the time for it.  And I have.  But I’ve also had to make time for household duties, family, work (darn that work), and I sold an item in my Etsy shop so I’m working on getting that packaged up to ship later this week.  So I’m okay with my word count, considering all that I’m juggling.

So, what’s the story about?  Angels and Demons.  I have a general idea of where I want to go with this, but I know that the characters could decide to send me in a whole different direction half way through, so we’ll just have to see.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a short story, that I have time to develop characters and create scenes.  Its challenging, that’s for sure.

Well, the pen and notebook call.  I have a goal of writing at least 300 more words tonight.

thanks for stopping by. Now I need to go and wash off these purple ink spots and make dinner.

NaNoWriMo Mascot for Week One

As I mentioned in a previous post, I participated in a swap for mascots for NaNo.  My partner sent me four mascots, one for each week.  I opened the week one mascot this morning and just laughed. Its a small ceramic that fits perfectly on the upper right corner of the keyboard of my laptop.  I’ll try to get a photo of it up on here later, but for now, let me describe this little guy for you.  It is a pink sheep.  It is ceramic and painted a lovely pale pink.  It has a red nose and holds a red rose.  But it gets better.  The body is covered in pink fluff (think Fun Fur).  Its adorable and whimsical and just plain funny (in a cute way).  You can’t help but smile at it.

I have decide that I have to somehow work it into my story.  Somewhere in my novel a character will make a reference to pink sheep.  I’m not sure just yet how that will happen, but I figure I’ll surprise myself with it.  I just can’t resist.

Photos coming soon!  But first, I need to go and wash this purple ink off my hands.

Day One!

I woke up this morning about 7:45am.  I hid under the covers for a bit, snuggled with the cat.  But then my story started to run through my head.  I jumped out of bed, went out to the living room and grabbed my notebook and pen.  Then I sat down for half an hour and wrote enough to cover 8 sides of composition book pages.   You could say I was inspired.

I did try to stay up last night to be online and type up my first scene at midnight, but at about 20 minutes to midnight, I just crashed and had to go to bed.  I must be getting old.

I’ll be writing some more later today and then I’ll type it up tonight to get a final word count.  I’ll post it here and on the NaNo site (if I can log in, it has been crazy busy over there).

Thanks for stopping by.  Now I need to wash off these purple ink spots and get back to work on a website.

Tomorrow is the Big Day!

Less than 12 hours to kick off of NaNoWriMo for me.   At the stroke of midnight, I can type up my first paragraph, enter my word count, and crash.  I was up at 4:30am (for me, that’s disgustingly early) so I could go in to work early today. 

So I’m exhausted already, and its only 1 o’clock.  But I have so much to do today still!  I have to run some errands after work, then I have to rush home and put out our outdoor decorations for tonight (have to have the lighted pumpkins so the kids know we’re giving out goodies), pull out the boxes of chips (we give out the vending machine sized bags of chips, bought in bulk at a club store, instead of candy) and set that up for easy hand out.  Then I have to send out the final schedule for the weekend volunteers with RESCUE.  After that, I have to finish setting up a website.  And finally I’ll get some time to do a bit more research and set up a rough outline.  I have an opening scene in my head, so I can at least type that up and say I did something.  Likely I’ll spend time on Saturday afternoon fleshing out the outline and the characters a bit more.  I’ve just been so busy this week, with work, volunteer stuff, and doing some commissioned beadwork, that research and outlining had to take a back seat. 

Let’s hope that’s not an indicator of how the writing itself will go.   Best of luck to all of you participating in NaNo this year!  And thanks for stopping by.  Now I need to go and wash this purple ink off my hands, and get back to work (lunch break is over).

Countdown to NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo starts one week from tomorrow!!!  Yes, I am participating.  I am PurpleInkSpot over there (whodathunkit).     Do I know what I’m going to write about yet?  Sort of.  But not really.  I have a general idea of my three main characters, one of which is likely more of a supporting character, but who knows, we’ll see where that goes.   I have a general idea of setting.  But until this week, I still didn’t know what the story was going to be.  I realized something while listening to some writing podcasts earlier this week (thank you Michael Stackpole).

Conflict.  I needed some sort of conflict for my characters.  Without conflict, you really don’t have much of a story or plot.   So I did some brainstorming yesterday, during my long commute (I was playing taxi to a RESCUE dog so I had a little extra time behind the wheel for deep contemplative thought).  I came up with conflict.  The two main characters each have their personal conflict to deal with, their own baggage.  Then together, they will face down the third and final conflict.   Now that I have that figured out, I can sit down this week and put together a rough outline to work from. 

I have a little bit more research to do this week still.  One of my characters is of a “supernatural” nature and I’ve realized that my knowledge of this being is really somewhat limited.  So I’m researching some of the “rules” of this type of being.  I’m hoping that will help me further develop her personal conflict.

 

I’m a member of the NaNoWriMo 2008 Swap Group over at Swap-Bot.  We just completed a swap to create/buy a NaNoWriMo Mascot for our partner. For the partner I send to, I made a black cat from polymer clay.  It sort of looks like a Maneki Neko.  In the upraised paw it holds a pencil.  Instead of holding a coin to its chest, it holds a piece of paper.  I wish I had taken a picture, it turned out quite cute.  My send partner is a cat person, so I figured she’d like that.  The partner that sent to me went above and beyond.  She sent me a pin and magnet reminding me to put my butt in a chair and my hands on the keyboard (though in my case it will be butt in chair hands on notebook first, then I’ll type it up later).  Along with that she sent me a mascot for each week!!  She wrapped them up separately, so I’m waiting for next Saturday to open the first one.

 

Still so much to do and only seven days left to do it all.  I need to get down to work.  But first, I need to go and wash this purple ink spot from my hand.  Thanks for stopping by!