Antagonizing

Every time someone post a link to my blog on their blog I feel this horrible pressure to write a really great post. I know that my writing a great post isn't going to happen but that doesn't mean I don't feel the pressure.

My novel for NaNoWriMo which turned into my NaNoFiMo and well is still not quite done, is a novel about a writer. It's a novel about a writer who struggles with the pressure of writing well and about how everyday things in life inspire creative fiction. The short stories that the writer writes are all different but they all have one thing in common, human antagonist.
I've been reading about antagonist and their role in current fiction. What I've found is that most commercial fiction have human antagonist. Literary fiction can be woman vs. nature or woman vs. herself but it's not likely to sell. If you want a book that sells you better have a villain of sorts.
Does that mean the literary books aren't worth writing? I guess it depends on why you write. For me, the person I struggle with most in my life is myself so I like literary fiction. The reason I write is for me, not for money, so when it comes time to decide what to do with my novel I don't think I'll just break it into the short stories and ship them off. I know that means that the book doesn't have much of a future but oh well, for me it's been the therapy I can't afford and maybe it will mean something to someone else so I'll try my best to let others read it. Although, if I read it in a few months when I'm ready to make edits and find that the short stories can be saved but the internal battle of the writer is horrible than maybe it will see a different fate.

Anyway, this all got me thinking about my bad blog posts. I write on here about my struggle to be an okay writer. It's a battle with myself. Maybe that's why few stick around to read it. Maybe I need to come up with some crazy menacing villain who is trying to hold me back from writing.
I'm sure I could think of a few humans that could be considered my antagonist like my family and people who call themselves my friends, the publishers that won't publish me and the people that keep comic books a male dominated industry. Maybe then more people would come back to read.
The thing is that there isn't a person that keeps me from writing. I'm very fortunate to not be trapped behind the bars in the yellow wallpaper. Maybe these people keep me from being published but not from writing. I would like to get published and I do write about how I am trying to get published but it's the writing that matters. I won't get published if I don't write and if I don't do it well. So it is the blank page that is the antagonist on this blog and maybe a crazy villain will appear from time to time. Does this mean that people won't come in flocks to see my blog? Probably, but that's okay because this blog is for me.
I don't have anyone near me (oh Jenni why did you leave me?) to sit and talk to about writing. To be honest they don't really care but my blog cares. That's why it's here. Read it if you want to.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yay! It's 2007. I cleared off my dry erase board with my unaccomplished goals from last year and replaced them with new goals for this year. All these goals are things that I can accomplish personally. For instance, I would like my book to be published but time may not allow for a publisher to like it and get it on shelves by the end of the year or it could just be a really crappy book that just isn't going to happen. I'd copy the list directly on here but it would probably make no sense to anyone but me.

I am confident that Jenni and I will finish "Behind the Naugahyde"this year. I'd also like to get around to rewriting my comic book script and finding an artist for it. Of course I'd also like to finish my Nanowrimo/fimo novel. And there's a real giant size project that I kept mentioning last year but I won't be able to start it until the weather gets better.

As for the progress of that still untitled novel, I've written quite a few pieces in different places lately and now I have to find them all and put them together. Also I have a small chunk of writing that I wrote along time ago that I think would fit perfectly into the story. I didn't write it for any particular reason so I've never done anything with it. I didn't want to use it before because that would be cheating on NaNoWriMo and NaNoFiMo but since those are over and neither one completed by me, I can go ahead and throw it in. That's if I can find it.

2006 Year in review!

Well only a few hours left of 2006. It's been really tough year personally but I have had a few good things in the writing part of my life.

The year started off well when my story "Papa's Little Angel" won second place for short fiction in the LCC division of the L.A.N.D. writing contest. And after talking about it for some time Jenni and I officially began writing "Behind the Naugahyde". I was also very excited when my short-short story "Sweaty Palms" was published in the September 2006 issue of Writer's Post Journal.
Not to mention that Jenni and I received three letters from agents requesting to see more of "Behind the Naugahyde" and BehindtheNaugahyde.com was started.
I would have completed NaBloPoMo by posting everyday during the month of November but I missed one post and I also started a new, not yet titled, novel but did not finish NaNoWriMo or NaNoPloMo. And I received 89 rejection notices this year.

Last night I switched to the blogger beta version. I'm not sure how long it will take me to tag my post but I'll try to work on it.

Hope everyone has a safe and very happy New Year!

Not quite done

Well the New Year is near here and I don't think I'll have my Nanowrimo/fimo book done. That's okay with me because the goal of Nanowrimo got me started on a project I might have put off and the same goals don't work for everyone. So I'll be okay. Sure it would have been nice to end the year with a finished book but you can't leave behind everything from the past year.
Besides just about every book I've read about writing a novel says that three months is the average time for completing a novel in which case I'm doing okay.

I hope to post a year-in-review kind of thing tomorrow but I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to. Once I'm done with this post I'm going to switch to the new and improved blogger version. Wish me luck!

It was a dark and stormy night

A while ago I got a book with advice from writers for writers. The main writer giving advice is a writer that has faced more rejection than I can count and has done it all with people reading about it daily. That writer is Snoopy. Often people read the Peanuts comic strips and read how he got yet another rejection notice or just watched as he sat atop his dog house typing away.
The book itself doesn't have anything about techniques or what to do or not to do. It's a just a book full of inspirational stories and a few words of advice that writers picked up on their long struggles through publication.
I love this book and I skim through it quite often when I feel like giving up. I try to use what ever piece of knowledge my random gaze happens upon to get through whatever writing problem I have at the time.
Sure it doesn't tell me how to write a best-selling novel but it's the best writing book I've read. It's stuff most writer's know, they just need to be reminded of now and again.

"Some nights were dark. Some nights were stormy. Some shots rang out. Some maids screamed. Some more editors sent rejection slips."
-Snoopy (from Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life)

Nanofimo: 18770 +29438= 48208

Christmas Vacation!

Today was the first day of my five-day holiday vacation. Yet somehow I ended up back at work to get my boss a Christmas gift and explain the inventory procedure. How does this happen?
I know that the next few days are going to be filled with holiday extravaganzas but I plan to get a lot of writing done. I think I'm already off to a good start having already done more writing today than I have the four previous days combined, maybe more.

I work in the field of shoes so I already think about them a lot and you can imagine how many characters I can come up with at work when I put the shoe project into affect. I also find myself thinking about other people's shoes. I saw a crossing guard helping children across the street in shoes that were nearly falling apart and I started thinking about how they got that way and why the man was wearing those particular shoes. Are his shoes worn out just from helping children across the street or does he have to walk everywhere? Are those just the pair of shoes he wears for the job because there really is no reason to wear nice shoes, did he step in a puddle with his good shoes and have to wear his old pair for the day or can he just not afford shoes and if so why not? It really gets the mind thinking.

I also had some really odd thought provoking questions about shoes and death but maybe I'll save that for another post.

I'm trying to get a Christmas present ready for my blog readers but no promises. And I'm also of thinking about finally switching over to blogger beta for the New Year. Is there really a better time for change?

Nanofimo:12570+ 29438=42008

The name game

Today was my day off and I probably should have written a whole section of my book today if I had stuck to my pace. I didn't though. If only I had nothing to do but write. I only wonder how much I would have written by now.

I did start my writer on another short story today but I came to a halt early on. When I was trying to name the characters I realized that I was naming one of them something I had already named a similar character. It occurred to me that I had started and written a lot of stories, which means I had used a lot of names. So I decided to make a list of character names. I'm not sure I got all of them though. Sure I could use the same name twice in an entirely different story but that might get boring. And if I have fear of being boring why don't I just make up crazy names for everyone? The answer to that is that some characters just need to have boring, plain names.

I will admit that I occasionally think of people I know when writing characters and sometimes it's the same person for more than one character. I often try to give the character a name that is similar to the person. I don't mean that Jenni is Jenna or Penny. What I mean is Meg isn't Esmeralda. I'm not sure if that made sense to anyone other than me but it sounded good in my head.

Eventually I did get over my name problem and write some of my novel. Not really impressive but there's always hope for tomorrow.

NaNoFiMo: 8053 + 29438 = 37491

A new goal

Well as my word totals show, NaNoFiMo is going as well as NaNoWriMo and by well I mean not well at all. I'm thinking that I need to just sit down and write an entire section at a time, since each section is a short story that my main character is writing and her thoughts about writing it. I know I can write a whole short story in a day because that use to be the result of my procrastination during my creative writing classes. The writing 1,000 words a day system isn't working for me. My former creative writing teachers tried to encourage me to set similar daily goals for myself but they just never worked for me. Probably because I have no self discipline but I'm just going to say it's because I like to break the rules and be different.

And you can now find me at www.comicspace.com/ashley .Although I haven't really put much more than my name on their yet. I usually add to these things a little at a time.
Thanks to Ragnell for the name suggestion!

NaNoFiMo: 6760 + 29438 = 36198

What did I write?

I know I didn't post yesterday but you couldn't expect that habit to last forever.

I was trying to work on Behind the Naugahyde but my scribbled notes were unclear to me. Also I remember stuff that isn't written in my notes which means I didn't write it down because I figured I'd remember or I didn't write it down because we had decided not to put it in the novel. So now I'm waiting for Jenni to clarify. As if she needed more to do.

Since today was pay day I ordered a few books that I hadn't been able to find. They are books I am hoping will help inspire my writing. One of them is related to the novel I'm currently working on and the other is for the novel I hope to work on after I finish my NaNo novel.

Yesterday I managed to get a little work done on my non-fiction articles. I also managed to fill quite a few pages of my personal journal with a detailed description of all the things going on in my life.

Cover shot

When I had blog writer's block last month, I was given a few lists of suggestions for blog post. One of those suggestions that I was too lazy to get to right away was pictures of my writing. I had my camera out today and tried to take pictures of my writing. Obviously pictures of a computer screen don't really work so well. And my writing on paper just turned out looking like blank paper. So I decided to try something else, a picture of me writing. However, since I usually look not so great while writing, well I usually look that way all the time, it's just a picture of my Beauty and the Beast pen doing all the work.

It's not too exciting but I try to keep Jenni happy and it was her request. Not that Jenni's request was boring, it's just my picture taking ability that lacks excitement.

And yes, I do know I hold my pen funny. I don't know why that's just how I've always held it.

What else did I do with my day? I didn't waste it. Check out the word count below.

NaNoFiMo: 5731 + 29438 = 35169

Getting into writing

Stranger Than Fiction was a $3.50 movie today and so I decided to splurge. I love Emma Thompson and Will Ferrell and it's about writing so I was very excited.
It was funny but also sad and insightful. I won't give anything away but I never really thought about writing the way that Emma Thompson's character is forced to. What if your character was a real person and you decided their fate? Would you just write happy stuff all the time or would you sacrifice real people's happiness, health and lives for the sake of great literature.
Also the writer in the movie really gets into visualizing and feeling the things she's writing. Her ways of doing so were intriguing and almost had me wanting to try it by locking myself in my trunk.
I didn't lock myself in my trunk because there was no one to let me out but the writer in my NaNo novel was able to finish her short story that being locked in a trunk would have helped. And who knows maybe I will jump in the trunk before editing that part. I know the writer in my Nano novel will.

Just saw: Stranger Than Fiction

NaNoFiMo: 3099+29438=32537

Not just NaNoWriMo

I participated in NaNoWriMo last year and I thought about doing NaNoEdMo, which is in March, this year but didn't get around to it. I did NaNoWriMo again and added NaBloPoMo and have now carried on with NaNoFiMo. Then I got to thinking how many more of these goal oriented months are there? Quite a few.
This is what I got in order of month.

January:
JaNoWriMo- writing a novel in the month of January since November can be a little hectic for some.
NaNoArtMo- has a goal of ten art projects in a month for artist. It can be any kind of art from sculpting to cooking, it just has to be creative.
NaNoWriYe- write an entire novel, set your goal between 50,000 to 3,000,000 words and finish it in a year.

March:
NaNoEdMo- editing your NaNoWriMo novel (I'm sure you could do any novel).

June:
Script Frenzy- (odd name, huh?) and it's for writing a screenplay in a month.

July:
JulNoWriMo- write a novel in July in place or in addition to November or January.
NaNoMango- is for artist to draw any kind of sequential art ( not just manga) and occurs again in November as well.

November:
NaNoWriMo- write a 50,000 word novel.
NaBloPoMo- post on your blog everyday for a month
NaPlWriMo- write a play in a month
NaGraNoWriMo- write a 175 page graphic novel in a month
NaNoPubYe- start with your NaNoWriMo novel and then try to get it published with in a year.
NaNoMang- Draw sequential art, also takes place in July

December:
NaNoFiMo-write 30,000 words to finish an unfinished novel, usually from NaNoWriMo

Various start dates:
Book in a week-starts every Monday of the first full week of the month, set your own goal the beginning of the week.
Mad Challenge-is every other month, starting February and they post a different challenge each time.

So there are a ton of good challenges. Many I would participate in if they didn't all seem to fall in the same few months. Of course it might just be more beneficial for me to take the goals of these groups but put them in realistic months for me. Maybe I'll have to make a schedule for myself.

Just watched: Heroes
Just read: Every issue of 52 for the last five weeks (I'm catching up slowly)

On my mind

It's after midnight so technically I missed a day of posting. I don't care all that much since NaBloPoMo is over and my faithful readers still get their daily dose of bad writing.

I've been thinking about a novel lately. No it's not Behind the Naugahyde or my NaNo novel, although I do think about these but that's not what I was thinking about today.
Anyway, I think I've mentioned a few things about this novel before. I've had the idea for a while but I never tried writing it because I'm scared to write it.
The subject matter is a serious issue and I think if done well this book could make a difference. Like with most of my writing, I try to have a message, something I hope that the reader takes with them and thinks about. It's the power of the message that has me scared. I think it's very important. I really do think it could make people think if it was written well, I'm just scared I can't write it well. But I've been thinking about it more and more lately. I can't stop thinking about it sometimes. Bits and pieces that I couldn't figure out before are starting to fly together and I'm starting to think that it may be time.
Obviously, I'd wait until I'm done with my NaNo novel and hopefully have a good chunk of Behind the Naugahyde done. Then I'd have two completed(but not so good) novels and a half a novel's worth of experience to put toward this book and time to write it.
Or maybe I'll just keep putting it off.

Since NaNoFiMo doesn't have a grand website like NaNoWriMo, I'll post my word count here which is actually better. Now no one has to go to another website just to find out I didn't write anything today.

NaNoFiMo: 1499 + 29348= 30847
(Today)+(NaNoWriMo)=(total)

World AIDS Day

December 1st is here. I know I'm posting a little late in the day but you can always make a difference so be sure to check out 5 things you can do for World AIDS Day.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over I'm attempting NaNoFiMo. It's the goal of writing 30,000 words in the month of December. Most people join because novels are generally longer than 50,000 words so some times you complete NaNoWriMo but you have an unfinished story. I, however, am using it in to finish my story and hopefully add 30,000 words to my 29,438. And yes I realize I am an idiot and said yesterday I needed to write 800 words to get to half way when I meant I needed to type the 800 words to get to 30,000 which is more than half way.
NaBloPoMo is over as well. I did miss a day due to a technical mishap but I posted twice the next day. I also posted the day before and now, the day after so I think I did pretty well.

I feel uck!

I woke up today feeling horrible. I stayed in bed all day because I could barely move and I missed work. I'm feeling a little better now but it's very uncomfortable to sit in my computer chair. I guess there's no need to point out that I got much of nothing done today which sucks because including writing I had a ton to do.
I'm not really sure what's got me feeling not well. The past few weeks have been stressful and my eating habits have been horrible. Who knows?
Tomorrow's the last day of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. Since I'm hoping to go to the world's largest Christmas store as well as the decorating, shopping, mailing, donating and other running around I had planned for today, I don't think I'll find time to write over 20,000 words.
While I am bummed that I didn't finish or even do better than last year, I did find out that there is NaNoFiMo, National Novel Finishing Month, which is December. That's my new goal and I accomplished that one last year without even knowing about NaNoFiMo.
I'm going back to bed and hoping to feel better tomorrow.