The Damsel is a short story, 3,335 words (about 9 pages in a paperback novel, or 14 pages printed out) about Ashton Monroe, a professional Damsel in Distress, who loses her job when the #1 hero falls in love, and everyone knows that Love Interest trumps Damsel in Distress. Now she has to find a way to break back into the business.
I absolutely loved writing this story, and it was much easier than a lot of the other things I've tackled lately. I came up with the idea at the start of a 6:30a shift at work and wrote it down. My coworker liked the idea and I was excited writing about it, so I brainstormed the rest of the day and began writing last night. I just finished, putting in 2,646 words today alone, which is pretty amazing for me. Ashton has such a strong voice in this piece and she is honestly the most fun I've had writing in a long time. I even stuck out first person for her, not something I'm exactly known for.
I'm really excited for people to read it, because I think I did a really good job this time. No clue what I'm doing with this, if I want to get it published or if I can, but if anyone wants to read it, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send it to you.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Damsel in Distress: Playlist
So I have this thing for making playlists for my stories and today I had a great idea for a short story (which I am already writing) and I had to create a playlist right away. I already had songs in mind. This turned out to be a great idea because one of the songs gave me an important plot point that really improved the story. Anyway, I'll check back in when I'm done with the story, most likely, but I wanted to post the playlist here.
The story has a working title of "Damsel in Distress" but I've also considered "Damsel in Need of Distress"
You're So Damn Hot - OkGo
The Fame - Lady Gaga
Save Me - Jem
Take Me - Hawk Nelson
S.O.S. - Rihanna
Stupid Girls - Pink
Girl of the Year - FM Static
White Horse - Taylor Swift
Independent Woman - Destiny's Child
Rock Star - Miley Cyrus
One Girl Revolution (Battle Remix) - Superchic[k]
Down for the Count - Bowling for Soup
Gives You Hell - All-American Rejects
I Will Not Be Moved - Natalie Grant
Me Against the World - Superchic[k]
The story has a working title of "Damsel in Distress" but I've also considered "Damsel in Need of Distress"
You're So Damn Hot - OkGo
The Fame - Lady Gaga
Save Me - Jem
Take Me - Hawk Nelson
S.O.S. - Rihanna
Stupid Girls - Pink
Girl of the Year - FM Static
White Horse - Taylor Swift
Independent Woman - Destiny's Child
Rock Star - Miley Cyrus
One Girl Revolution (Battle Remix) - Superchic[k]
Down for the Count - Bowling for Soup
Gives You Hell - All-American Rejects
I Will Not Be Moved - Natalie Grant
Me Against the World - Superchic[k]
Thursday, April 15, 2010
School Continues to Get in the Way
I miss writing fiction. All I have done lately is write paper after paper after paper, the last one keeping me up until 5:30 this morning. I only had a short one today but I am still finding myself short on time. This weekend hopefully I will be able to return to The Conqueror or the found piece, anything but papers. Although I do have one narrative due on Tuesday that I wouldn't mind writing as it's very creative and very personal (on my medical issues).
Anyway, the reason I stopped in quickly before bed (gosh it's already past 1 AM!), is that earlier tonight when I was thinking of songs for a playlist for The Conqueror, I decided which song would be absolutely perfect for the story. I generally try to have a playlist of songs that relate to the narrative, but there is always one that stands above the others and becomes the one song I associate with the piece I'm writing. For Zenith it was The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights," and for The Conqueror I think that song will be "All These Things That I Have Done" by The Killers.
Still working on the rest of the playlist, but I have about 6 songs at the moment. One of them I think is theme song for Matt & Karina, which makes me very happy. The song is "In My Arms" by Plumb and it's sad, but sweet.
Maybe once I manage to pare the playlist for Zenith down a tiny bit more, I'll post it here. Until then, I must sleep and write reports. Hope to be able to get writing & stop back in here soon.
Anyway, the reason I stopped in quickly before bed (gosh it's already past 1 AM!), is that earlier tonight when I was thinking of songs for a playlist for The Conqueror, I decided which song would be absolutely perfect for the story. I generally try to have a playlist of songs that relate to the narrative, but there is always one that stands above the others and becomes the one song I associate with the piece I'm writing. For Zenith it was The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights," and for The Conqueror I think that song will be "All These Things That I Have Done" by The Killers.
Still working on the rest of the playlist, but I have about 6 songs at the moment. One of them I think is theme song for Matt & Karina, which makes me very happy. The song is "In My Arms" by Plumb and it's sad, but sweet.
Maybe once I manage to pare the playlist for Zenith down a tiny bit more, I'll post it here. Until then, I must sleep and write reports. Hope to be able to get writing & stop back in here soon.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Conqueror, Chapter 12; Writing Out of Order
Total word count: 16,113
Words written today: 1,030
Chapter(s): 12 (written out of order)
That's my count so far today, but I'm going to try to write more later, I just have other things to work on before I move on to chapter 14. Writing out of order can work well, like it did in this situation, but I'm not so keen on it these days. I used to always write out of order, skipping around to write whatever scene interested me that day. At the end of it all, I had these loosely associated points like a scatter plot and I had a hard time trying to find the connections between them and turn it all into a story. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why I never completely finished any novels before Zenith (which I wrote chronologically). With The Conqueror there's more leeway, because the chapters are chronologic, but told from many different perspectives. Chapters 12 and 13 begin a few minutes apart and have some overlap, so writing them in reverse order wasn't such a big deal. Still, when I finished chapter 12 I realized I needed to change something in chapter 13 so that things would make sense, because I had changed the plan as I wrote, something that always happens in my writing. So I try not to do this so often, though there are some days when I really cannot write the chapter I need to and I will jump ahead slightly just to get some words out for the day. I took a chance with it this time, banking on the fact that I could find a solution for chapter 12 later rather than sooner.
And for the record I have absolutely no idea what's happening in chapter 14 and not much else for the rest of the book, either. I really need to sit down and actually plan some of these things out. I haven't needed to do much of that before, so this is pretty rough. I am still mapless in the unknown forest.
Words written today: 1,030
Chapter(s): 12 (written out of order)
That's my count so far today, but I'm going to try to write more later, I just have other things to work on before I move on to chapter 14. Writing out of order can work well, like it did in this situation, but I'm not so keen on it these days. I used to always write out of order, skipping around to write whatever scene interested me that day. At the end of it all, I had these loosely associated points like a scatter plot and I had a hard time trying to find the connections between them and turn it all into a story. This is probably one of the biggest reasons why I never completely finished any novels before Zenith (which I wrote chronologically). With The Conqueror there's more leeway, because the chapters are chronologic, but told from many different perspectives. Chapters 12 and 13 begin a few minutes apart and have some overlap, so writing them in reverse order wasn't such a big deal. Still, when I finished chapter 12 I realized I needed to change something in chapter 13 so that things would make sense, because I had changed the plan as I wrote, something that always happens in my writing. So I try not to do this so often, though there are some days when I really cannot write the chapter I need to and I will jump ahead slightly just to get some words out for the day. I took a chance with it this time, banking on the fact that I could find a solution for chapter 12 later rather than sooner.
And for the record I have absolutely no idea what's happening in chapter 14 and not much else for the rest of the book, either. I really need to sit down and actually plan some of these things out. I haven't needed to do much of that before, so this is pretty rough. I am still mapless in the unknown forest.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Conqueror; Creating Good Characters
Total word count: 15,079
Words written today: 1,005
Chapter(s): 12 & 13 (written in reverse order)
Last night I went to an event with John Green & David Leviathan for the release of their new book Will Grayson, Will Grayson and it was a great experience. I got to hang out with a lot of great people, discuss books and writing, and I got plenty of advice and got to hear from two experienced professional writers. One question that a fan asked was "how do you come up with such great characters, are they people you know or people you wished you knew?" John's answer was that it was a little of both, that when he was younger he would imagine conversations with people in real life that he never had the courage or opportunity to speak to. Sitting there in the audience I had this moment of connection, because I do that too.
I imagine every day "what would have happened if I said this?" or "If they were still here, what would we talk about?" I spend a large portion of my life imagining conversations and not actually having them. That's what I do with my writing, it's a very good way to do the same thing without sounding like a crazy person. And in addition to reimagining people in new ways, we authors put a little of ourselves in each of our characters.
Matt, one of my characters in The Conqueror isn't much like me, he's a detective and thinks everything through and I'm a lunatic writer who does things on impulse, but there is this one little part of me that became a part of him. Matt, like myself, is the farthest thing from a morning person. There is a section in chapter 13 where I bring this up and I think it's a part that makes him more real for the reader. Being bleary-eyed in the morning is not a tragic flaw, but it is a flaw, and it makes him more believable and relatable and I like that.
Words written today: 1,005
Chapter(s): 12 & 13 (written in reverse order)
Last night I went to an event with John Green & David Leviathan for the release of their new book Will Grayson, Will Grayson and it was a great experience. I got to hang out with a lot of great people, discuss books and writing, and I got plenty of advice and got to hear from two experienced professional writers. One question that a fan asked was "how do you come up with such great characters, are they people you know or people you wished you knew?" John's answer was that it was a little of both, that when he was younger he would imagine conversations with people in real life that he never had the courage or opportunity to speak to. Sitting there in the audience I had this moment of connection, because I do that too.
I imagine every day "what would have happened if I said this?" or "If they were still here, what would we talk about?" I spend a large portion of my life imagining conversations and not actually having them. That's what I do with my writing, it's a very good way to do the same thing without sounding like a crazy person. And in addition to reimagining people in new ways, we authors put a little of ourselves in each of our characters.
Matt, one of my characters in The Conqueror isn't much like me, he's a detective and thinks everything through and I'm a lunatic writer who does things on impulse, but there is this one little part of me that became a part of him. Matt, like myself, is the farthest thing from a morning person. There is a section in chapter 13 where I bring this up and I think it's a part that makes him more real for the reader. Being bleary-eyed in the morning is not a tragic flaw, but it is a flaw, and it makes him more believable and relatable and I like that.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Real Life: Fears
This blog is for my writing, but it's also my personal blog for anything to do with my writing. This doesn't apply to most writers, but for me, my writing has a lot to do with my health. I have a lot of medical issues and sometimes those affect my ability to write. I can't concentrate, or I can't give up the time, or I can't type. Today I have trouble typing, but I'm here, pushing through because I feel like I need to.
Something personal about me: this is one of my biggest fears. I am not afraid of heights or flying or even dying. I have two fears: needles and not being able to write. It scares the hell out of me, so I'll push through, because I'm stubborn like that. It's a very real fear for me.
Something personal about me: this is one of my biggest fears. I am not afraid of heights or flying or even dying. I have two fears: needles and not being able to write. It scares the hell out of me, so I'll push through, because I'm stubborn like that. It's a very real fear for me.
Found; General; Inspiration
Sorry I haven't been around much, I've been positively swamped with homework as of late. I spent the entire day on Friday reading and researching and reporting, it was torture, but I got my assignment in with 2 minutes to spare. Saturday & Sunday I was out of town, away from my computer.
Last night and today? Writing and being inspired. That's part of it, this writer thing, being inspired. It's a huge part, about 50/50. You cannot write without inspiration first, it just won't work, at least not well. How do you find inspiration? You just keep your eyes open, it's all around you. My first suggestion is to read, similar to what you want to write. Books are a writer's greatest tool. Find out what makes another book great, why you love it, then use that to your advantage. And watch movies, listen to music, look at art. Whatever worked for them, can work for you.
Find things that inspire you: things you see, things you hear, things you feel. For me my tumblr dashboard is a huge inspiration, some of the time, at least. Yesterday when I was lacking inspiration and direction for The Conqueror, I turned to tumblr. I had 79 pages of backlog from one day's worth of being gone (kind of insane, a new record!) and as I went through, looking at everything, I "liked" the posts that inspired me and decided to write a story about them. Find a way to connect these very different pictures and quotes and ideas, so that's what I'm doing. 79 pages of backlog later and I have a love story about an introverted photographer and a fun-loving indie rock boy and the summer they spent together, meeting up in a forest. It's this girl with this guy, a little bit of this, and a whole lot of these, in a place I once visited that mystified me. That's the thing about inspiration: it can only take you so far, the rest lies inside of you. Do something with it.
Last night and today? Writing and being inspired. That's part of it, this writer thing, being inspired. It's a huge part, about 50/50. You cannot write without inspiration first, it just won't work, at least not well. How do you find inspiration? You just keep your eyes open, it's all around you. My first suggestion is to read, similar to what you want to write. Books are a writer's greatest tool. Find out what makes another book great, why you love it, then use that to your advantage. And watch movies, listen to music, look at art. Whatever worked for them, can work for you.
Find things that inspire you: things you see, things you hear, things you feel. For me my tumblr dashboard is a huge inspiration, some of the time, at least. Yesterday when I was lacking inspiration and direction for The Conqueror, I turned to tumblr. I had 79 pages of backlog from one day's worth of being gone (kind of insane, a new record!) and as I went through, looking at everything, I "liked" the posts that inspired me and decided to write a story about them. Find a way to connect these very different pictures and quotes and ideas, so that's what I'm doing. 79 pages of backlog later and I have a love story about an introverted photographer and a fun-loving indie rock boy and the summer they spent together, meeting up in a forest. It's this girl with this guy, a little bit of this, and a whole lot of these, in a place I once visited that mystified me. That's the thing about inspiration: it can only take you so far, the rest lies inside of you. Do something with it.
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