Saturday, October 31, 2009

NOVEMBER!

It's November and I'm insane. There is so much going on with writing this month. And I can't make any excuses to not get it done because I've committed to a lot of people.

First off, I committed to NaNoWriMo. I'm doing this along with my writing group so I can't let them down.

Second off, I committed to NaBloPoMo. I'm doing this with my Ms. Jenni so I can't let her or my blog/livejournal readers down. (Especially D.B. Echo who has probably given up on my ever posting.)

Then there's my writing group. Aside from NaNoWriMo, I probably need to work on another section of my current story that I've been taking.

And there's this new thing I've got going on. I've met with a friend and we came up with a plan for actually submitting writing. But first, we must write a story. It's a great plan that I will explain much more thoroughly in a post coming soon!

Oh and did I mention that Jenni and I have actually been working on Behind the Naugahyde. She sent me a big section last month. I sent notes back. And now it's up to me to write the next part.



That's all the projects I've gotten on the burners. (I need two stoves!) But I've been making excuses for too long and I've got a lot of wasted time to make up for.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Two Become One

Yesterday, I met with a friend of mine, who also happens to be a writer. We talked about many things such as finishing what we started, finding time to write and the list goes on. It was a really good conversation and we're going to try to meet more often either to talk about writing, submitting and our work. I think it will be very productive.

One of the other things we talked about was this blog and my livejournal. I have both and I have always kept them separate. I started this blog first about my writing and later started the livejournal so that I could friend my friends. The livejournal has always just been personal posts. Occasionally, I have posted the same stuff both places. I've often wondered what would be the easiest way to get people who read the livejournal to read blogger and people who read blogger to read my livejournal. And not everyone has both so if they follow me on blogspot or livejournal they may never get the other one. I've tried links but that's still a hassle. I thought about giving one up but either way it would be inconvenient for one set of "friends."
After talking about it I'll keep them both but start posting the same thing on each. I mostly post about writing anyway and have seriously neglected the livejournal. I think there was a whole year on livejournal where I posted maybe five times so I'm clearly not writing many personal things that don't link to writing somehow. So now Ink On Paper and Babbling On are the same. I might change them to the same name. I haven't decided which one or maybe just a new name altogether. I also have to decide whether or not to transfer posts from one to the other. Lots to think about but for now I post the same thing on both. So no need to click the link anymore. I'll try it for awhile and we'll see how it goes.

Also, our conversation also came around to Castle the awesome TV show I recently posted about (ABC Monday nights @ 10pm). The book that the character wrote is a real book on the New York Times Bestseller List. I saw the advertisement for it and thought it was a fake to promote the show but it's a real book. How cool is that?

Monday, October 19, 2009

It sounds good in theory

I must be crazy. Our writing group finally met yesterday. We're suppose to meet the first Sunday every month but we kept putting off this month because it's been super busy for all of us. We got around to yesterday and we had a discussion about NaNoWriMo. Yep, I said it.
These two insanely busy people are going to do it. Naturally I started thinking that I should do it.
At first I thought it would be nuts to do it. I've been so busy I've barely been able to write a scene once a month for writing group. But have I really been that busy? I can think of lots of things, like T.V. and Internet, that I have constantly wasted my time on. Maybe I need NaNoWriMo to force me to write. Of course, it can't force me. I have to do that myself but maybe this commitment to my writing group and myself, is exactly what I need.
So I'm doing it. I signed up this morning. I'm doing NaNoWriMo.
I'll try to put the link to my profile in the sidebar but for now check it out here. And if anyone reading this is daring to do NaNoWriMo be sure to friend me.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Making it "fair"

I'm converting my old comic book story, Incognito, into prose and have been giving it to my writing group for suggestions. I just finished rewriting the last scene of what would have been issue one and now I'm onto issue two. And I have to say that I absolutely hate what I wrote. There is one scene that makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm not even sure how to fill the void. Maybe I need to read further on to get an idea of what I can do to fix it but I feel like I put my character into a dangerous situation and got them out too easily.
It's kind of like in Stephen King's Misery, when Annie says the way he brings Misery back to life isn't realistic or fair. It's kind of like that, except not as extreme. I'm not trying to bring some back to life or rescue someone from going over a cliff in car. I'm really just trying to get someone, undercover as a prostitute, out of a room before they actually have to get to work. Right now, she sneaks into the bathroom and calls in a bomb threat but realistically how long would it take the cops to get there? And everyone still sees her leaving the building, which I want people to see her but I don't want it be that obvious. I'm just not sure it's the best way to get what I want in the story. But on the other hand I do want her to seem like an amateur at crime fighting so maybe that is why originally wrote such a sloppy and poorly planned escape?

Thank goodness writing group decided to postpone a week other wise I'd only have two pages to take. And if I can't break through this funk I will only have two pages to take on Sunday.
I'll work on it for a few more minutes tonight but then I must be off. Pam and Jim are getting married on the Office tonight. I can't miss it!