Monday, January 10, 2011

How much stuff could a stuffed girl stuff...?

How does so much…stuff end up crammed in the last days of vacation? It’s nice that it gets me out of the house, but I always feel so rushed all of a sudden. (Then when I try to recall why I feel so rushed, it all happened so fast that I can’t remember.) I’ve been writing, reading, seeing movies, going to parties, getting my hair done, writing more, chatting with friends, sleeping, sleeping, blogging, etc. And I’ll be seeing more friends over this week.

I know homework isn’t on the list! It’s happening today. Sheesh!

Today is my break from outdoor activity (unless I decide to see Black Swan on a whim) so that means I’ll finally be getting to a few things:

Homework will get done, or at least get started. It will be finished before next Wednesday. Thankfully it’s the only piece of homework I have over the break.

I also have more research to do for EPICDS. I found a neat website that breaks down fantasy world building. Now I need to combine that with steampunk and make this world work. XD If I could get a website detailing steampunk universes, details about clothing (with names of each article), transportation, cities, etc, I’d be majorly souped. If anyone could help me with that, I’d be forever grateful whether I keep the idea or not.

I’ll also be dancing in circles to get rid of this tension while waiting to hear if I got a callback for The Dark At the Top of the Stairs. I think the audition went well, but the girls auditioning for the same roles as me were really good! And really adorable, which seems to fit the role I really want. I mean, of course congratulations to them for great auditions! I’m just uber nervous. Plus, I don’t know who’ll be there today. Uuuuuggggghhhhhh! Auditions! I hate you!

Nah. It’s a love-hate thing.

There you go. Winter break in a nutshell. Bring it on, Monday!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Today for show and tell:

Finally finished Fortune’s Fool (say that three times fast) and I’m really hoping the next one is better. It picked up towards the end, but…*shrug* They can’t all be gems. More harlequin romance though. :P

Worked my way through some little details of EPICDS with help from Step Five of the Snowflake Method, which I’m not done with and I’m dreading working on the major protagonists. But now I know what happened to the woman’s baby! Wait, it’s not totally cause to celebrate…hmm… Anyway—

Helped a buddy edit her story. I love being in the know. :) And she got my chapter 5 for U:RS. I love her praise and CC!

Started reading Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen. That’s right, folks. This fantasy nut is reading Fred Saberhagen. Put that in your pipe and shut up!

Not much snow fell so I don’t really need to shovel. Just had to brush it off of my car.

I have a hair appointment so my hair can look nice for my audition tomorrow, which I’m totally souped for! Not that I enjoy auditioning, but I enjoy seeing friends and I enjoy being cast. :P

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Yeah, that’s about it. Unless you want to know that I may move straight to like, Step Eight of the Snowflake Method because I think my Step Two ended up being Step Seven or something, and anything with the characterization I’ll figure out as needed. I need to sort it out into scenes and chapters and maybe start writing. I think I should take some time before diving into the actual draft though.

Do you see a motif with these entries? But yeah. Good day. :)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Skipping Around the Snowflake Method (*first two posts in tumblr*)

As it snows outside my window! *queue rim shot*

So I came to the quick conclusion that there’s a reason I haven’t used the Snowflake Method of Writing before. It’s kind of tedious. Actually, not kind of. It’s pretty darn tedious. I wrote out the opening of this story at least three times. Maybe I need to just space it out, but I’m latching to every moment I have of my vacation to catch up with my MSWord futon.

I love how helpful steps one and two were. Step three, however, is characterization, and that’s something I have to develop on my own. I can’t have that kind of structure hampering my characters. They like what they like and they do what they do. If I overthink it, I’ll try to put somewhere in the narrative what item they would pull from their burning house when it’s entirely unnecessary.

Actually, there is a scene with…well, never mind. I moved on to what’s proving to be incredibly helpful as well.

Step Four: Expand each sentence of your summary paragraph from step two into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.

I read this again after doing step two and I laughed out loud. (Oh. Sorry, young people. I meant to say I lol’d.)

Turning each sentence into its own paragraph would give me my full draft right there! Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it’s proving to be quite lengthy. The LTWF blogger said it would be a one page synopsis. Yeah, no. This will be three pages minimum.

However, a concise and well structured plot is the hardest part, but the most obvious. You have to know where you and your characters are heading even if you don’t plot it out entirely before writing. Me? I need to know almost exactly where I’m going. Things will change throughout, of course, but I need a basic guideline. Usually this is in the form of bulleted typed notes under chapter heads. Now it’s a Word document with full sentences…and I’m kind of liking that better. Actually, not kind of. It looks so pretty with its punctuation marks and proper grammar.

Next is…

Step Five: Write a one-page synopsis of the story from the point of view of each major character.

Um…we’ll see.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Writing Challenge Contest January 2011

Dare I give it a…third chance? Fourth?

Whatever number it is, the answer is no. However, I check out the prompts from time to time to see if I might get inspiration. I did this time! *pompoms* It’s unfortunate for my characters that this is going to turn into something dark. A black cat with clovers? C’mon. It screams oxymoron that must be toyed with!

Now the question is: should I try to keep it in the 2K word limit as if it was an entry or should I write and see where it takes me? I kinda like the limit. Gives my writing some structure (which it so badly needs) and my thoughts don’t go flying like they did for my Christmas story last year. Well, more than just last year; I wrote it my senior year of high school. For Mr. Tuers. *sigh* He was so rockin’ awesome.

So this may be done in place of homework again. Whoops. It’s not like I was seriously getting to the homework right after New Years. I needed these few days just for me after an awesome and oddly high-action weekend observing shabbat with my best friend and her friends from school. (Playing Settlers of Catan gets pretty intense though.)

This is my way of winding down. Writing stories involving children and murder…right. But it’s not all bad. Another entry I wrote involved college students like me…and suicide…right. Oh! Another WIP is about waiting for love…and death…right.

Aaaand scene!

January 2011 WCC prompt:

Monday, January 3, 2011

My Fairy Neighbors Are Tired of My Company

Whenever I decide I want to touch on a new genre for my writing, I come to realize a less than shocking fact: I don't know many other genres well apart from fantasy and urban fantasy. I don't even know epic fantasies like Lord of the Rings or...

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You see?? So I think it's about time I got to some horizon broadening.

I should read Lord of the Rings trilogy to get a sense of what it is to write about a traveling adventure and multiple protagonists. That's what I'd like to write about for one of my WIPs that is way early in development. Another very early WIP involves understanding the growth of economy and the division of economic classes. I thought I could totally wing it, but my brother told me a few things that put me in my place. Yet another seems to be leaning towards a religious edge, of which, I have limited affiliation right now.

I've been told time and time again: write what you know. It's an irritating but pleasant wake up call that I need to expand what I know. I only wish I had such a compulsion to read books from every genre. I tried a mystery. Failed. Tried science fiction. Failed. Jumped straight back to my roots in fantasy.

But I'm hoping that my sudden onslaught of ADHD will subside and let me sit for more than three minutes at a time and read some new works. Heinlein's Empire of the East and someone else's novel The Incomplete Enchanter were suggested to me. They touch on fantasy, but in a perspective that my science grounded brother and father can tolerate, which means it has a strong enough hold in the sciences still. I'll give them a shot after my current read and hope for the best. Then maybe I can figure out how to properly work a few more plots.

Cheers to broader horizons! Any recommendations are welcome. But for now: to the MSWord futon!