Quin is the newest generation in a long, proud line of Knights, but he
less than lives up to his legacy. To earn his knighthood and escape the
looming disapproval of his father, he accepts a mission far in the
North. There he runs into Arria, an ancient dragon newly awakened, and
Keeva, a half blood dragon whose word is as dubious as her birthright.
The violent encounter with Arria and her servants leaves Quin's mentor
dead, and him stranded far from the safety of the Knight's Guild. Keeva
is his only ally, but she has a past she cannot escape. Quin finds a
kindred soul in Keeva, but their growing friendship holds danger as
well as hope.
Arria, her mate slain by Quin's ancestor, clings
to the only thing she has left: grief-stricken revenge that threatens
the survival of Knights and dragons alike. With Keeva's help, Quin must
dig up a truth long buried and secrets that were never meant to be
found. Both Knights and dragons need to fight together to defeat Arria,
but in his attempt to unite these enemies, will Quin commit the
ultimate sin for a Knight? To fall in love with a dragon.
So I have Blogger set up to notify me when someone posts a
comment on here. This was the comment that came in this morning on my post
about Note Cards:
“What concerns me is that your article here, is fraught with
spelling and grammar problems. No offence but not sure I'll be taking writing
advice from someone with less-than-average English skills. Perhaps you should
stick to stuffing dead pets?”
My first reaction was the strong desire to give a snarky and
cutting remark in return. I squelched that one quickly, it’s beneath me. My
second reaction was to delete it or ignore it, but I’ve decided not to. Instead I’m going to
give this a serious response it doesn’t deserve.
I'm not talking specifically to the writer of that comment, I'm talking to everyone else.
I grew up hearing comments like that all the time and, at
the time, I believed them. You see I’m dyslexic. That’s not an excuse, just a
fact. I don’t talk about it much because, like I said, I’m not using it as an
excuse. It’s simply something I have to deal with and will have to deal with
for the rest of my life. The only reason I’m talking about it here is because I
have a point to make at the end.
Schoolwork growing up was a nightmare. All the words just
kept flipping and jumbling in my head. I didn’t really start reading until I
was ten. I remember clearly the scoffing looks from other children when I was
still reading picture books when they were on to chapter books or adult level novels. I loved books and the
stories in them, but reading was a challenge. I had to concentrate on each and
every word to keep it from moving or flipping around.
Worse yet were the times when I had to work with other kids
on some project. Invariably I would write a “d” instead of a “b” or a “3”
instead of an “E” or some other jumbling of syllables. “What kind of idiot
makes THAT mistake?” one of my fellow children would laugh and I would have no
defense. No one figured out I had Dyslexia until my late teens. So I believed every
cutting comment. Everyone else was getting this with no problem. So
they must be right, I was stupid.
And that’s just what this blog commenter is saying: you’re
stupid, give up.
It took me years to overcome (or at least mostly overcome)
my fear and self-flagellation, to finally believe in myself enough to start
writing my stories down. Even then I only showed them to close friends and
family.
When I started sending stories out to critique partners I
was terrified that they would see through my “disguise” and realize that I was
just a stupid idiot that couldn’t spell. And when I say terrified, I mean
TERRIFIED. But I had decided that storytelling was something I loved and because
I loved it, it was worth fighting for.
You know what else? Those critique partners never did say I
was a stupid idiot. They just corrected my spelling and asked for the next
chapter, then asked if they could read my next story.
So the point of me telling you all that is this: You have to
find the courage to believe in yourself, even when no one else does. And I
don’t mean just your writing. I mean YOU. Believe that YOU are of value and
have something of value to offer the world. Even if it’s hard and you have to
fight through things that everyone else seems to get naturally. Even if no one
else understands why you love this thing or that, the very fact that YOU love
it makes it worth fighting for. Your happiness is worth fighting for.
If you struggle with something don’t give up. “Oh well, I
guess I just can’t do it, so I won’t even try.” No! Find a way to compensate
for it. There are always ways.
In the words of Terry Goodkind (another Dyslexic writer):
“Think of the solution, not the problem.”
My solution is multiple critique partners that have eagle
eyes for spelling and grammar. They see what I can’t. Do I bother them with
every blog post? No. I value my critique partners and I’m not going to bog them
down with simple blog posts.
So, yes, my posts will have errors. I spell check them as
best I can, but I simply can’t see the errors most of the time. It’s not from laziness
or lack of intellect. If one is bothering you, point it out in the comments and
I will fix it. And if a handful of errors disqualifies for you the information
and ideas I’m trying to present then… well, that’s too bad.
It’s not my job to be perfect. All I can do is be the best I
can.
I'm not a high energy zooming around town kind of person. I'm also not a social go out to coffee shops and swap ideas with my critique group kind of writer. In fact people don't normally know when I'm working on a new story. At the most, if someone asks, I'll give them a word count. I just don't like talking about my writing until I'm ready for people to see it.
Recently I've been thinking about trying to get out and do more. Send stuff to my critique partners before it's completely finished (they seem comfortable sending that kind of stuff to me). But every time I try to do that it makes my skin crawl and I'm afraid I'll break out in hives next.
Is some of that fear?
Probably.
I get the same fears even after I've cleaned and polished my MS before sending it out. The difference is, after I send out the finished MS I feel better. It's done. It's out there. I have presented the best face I could.
When I send out unfinished work I feel exposed and vulnerable. That puts me on edge and makes me much less likely to take criticism well (constructive or other wise).
So what do I need to do about this? Keep pushing and exposing myself until I get used to it? Pretend I like doing this? Fake it?
No.
I need to respect my self and my proses.
Does that mean be lazy and never push myself? No. That's not it either. Each of us has a comfort zone. A way we like to do things. A way we are good at doing things. We need to test the limits of that zone. Push them, expand them. But that doesn't mean leap out of them and force ourselves to fit into someone else's mold.
Everyone has to work to find their own proses. That alone is hard. Then you face pressure from others to fit into their mold. Most times it isn't even hostile pressure, just well meaning friends who are just trying to help. It's hard to stick to your guns and respect yourself, but in the end it pays off. You end up knowing yourself. Your strengths and weaknesses. You will know what you can do and how to do it. That alone can be half the battle.
So a writer friend of mine was asking me about decapitation the other day. As a taxidermist that's not really that unusual of a subject for me. She had a character that needed to decapitate someone. I've removed the heads from quite a few critters* in my day, so I was happy to explain it to her.
Then I realized we were standing in a room of people, the majority of whom didn't know me or that I was a taxidermist and not some ax killer (side note: while you can remove a head with an ax, I prefer surgical scalpels). Not wanting to be a total coward I just lowered my voice a little bit and kept going, but I can only imagine what we would have sounded like to some random stranger.
I get the same feeling when I'm checking out books at the library when I'm researching mental illness and insane asylums.
I just hope our muses appreciate the socially embarrassing sacrifices we make for them.
* Just for the record, no, I have never cut off a human head. Wanted to a couple times, but...
Here goes. This is from my WIP "Beneath a Broken Sky"
“Well, I just offered you a sack full of gold and you barely blinked. A week ago you would have jumped at the chance and grabbed it with both hands.”
“No. I definitely want the Lakinas. I’m just tired. I’ve been going all through the night to catch up with you.”
“You can track me at night?” Quin asked. He didn’t think he left that obvious a trail.
She chuckled and he saw a bit of her old humor returning. “Just because your human eyes can’t see at night doesn’t mean I can’t. That and I knew about where you were going.”
And that's it. Not a real exciting part :-/ Oh well.
So Kayla Beck ( @kaylabeck ) challenged me on Twitter to write a 200 word flash fiction piece. Here it is in all its hastily written glory. Length: Exactly 200 words ^_^
______________________
There. The dress was done. I sat back from the hunched position I had held as I sewed. The embroidered stitches laid out before me perfectly. They ran along the hem of the gown, more then just a trim. It was a masterpiece: the Queen’s Castle perched atop the rolling green hills of the up land in spring, banners flapping in the breeze. I ran my fingers over the tiny white sheep grazing in the meadow. Once Master Seamstress Ora saw how well I had done, how tight and skill my work, she would promote me to journeyman. Then from there I would work for the finest lords and ladies. I would be called into court. I would ware a gown of silk, embroidered by my own hand. “Are you all done?” Mistress Ora said coming to look at my work. “Yes.” I said, triumphant. Ora pressed her lips together. How could she frown at my work like that? “What’s wrong?” I demanded. She lifted the gown from my lap and the long folds twisted and fell as she held up the shoulders. To my horror, my embroidery disappeared, flipping to the underside. “You sewed it on the wrong side.”
I've started writing my first story of the year. This is a story that I started last year and stopped when I got stuck. Now I've come back to it, but I've had to make some hard choices to make it work.
This is the tricky part about rewriting a broken story. You really have to let everything be on the chopping block. Even things you love or things that you always thought were going to be in the story. To make it work, everything has to be able to be changed.
And I have changed just about everything. I kept my magic system, my hero and a couple locations, that's about it. Just about everything else had to change in one way or another. Now I'm hoping that those changes will make everything flow better.
I say "hoping" because I'm doing some twisted version of pantsing and plotting at the same time. The beginning is a bit fuzzy (though it's getting better because that's what I'm working on writing right now), some stuff in the middle is plotted out, as is the very end, but there's a huge gap towards the end where I have no idea what is going to happen. Hopefully it will come to me as I get to it.
And speaking of getting to it, I've decided to try a new plan for my writing time. I just finished listening to an RWA Conference lecture called "Fast Draft" (Candace Havens was the speaker). The idea is to do 20 pages a day for two weeks and you'll have a rough first draft. I do like the idea, but I've found using page numbers or word count as goals intimidates me and I freeze up and get nothing done.
So my plan is to do two solid hours of writing every day. One in the morning and one in the evening, or both in the morning, I don't care. I will get those hours in. No excuses. No whining.
Before I gave myself three months to finish this manuscript, but hopefully with this new plan I can fly through this draft and get it done a lot faster... Hopefully.
I'll be posting hours/word counts on Twitter and do a weekly update here (if I remember :-P).
That's right, I'm going to be teaching another of my Swordsmanship for Writers classes for the Idaho Writer's League in a couple weeks.
The class will be on the 19th (Thursday) 6:30 to 9:30 at the Lutheran Church of the Master. Directions can be found on their web site here.
I think it's going to be a great group and I'm excited to do another of these classes. I might even have the new cutlass that I ordered in by then. Shiny :-D
So the Mayans say we're all going to die this year, but for tradition sake I decided to write up goals just in case the Mayans were wrong.
So I present my goals for 2012:
1) Read. A lot. I was able to get 57 read this year and I hope to come close to that again in '12. I don't think I'm going to try and top 57 though. If I do, fine, but I'm not going to kill myself (see goal #8). I just want to try and read some every day.
2) Finish edits for Beneath a Broken Sky.
This one is actually very achievable, because I'm almost done. I just wasn't able to get it done in December. This makes a nice easy thing for my list too :-) I like easy.
3) Edit Dagen's story and get it out to beta readers
I really need to come up with a title for this story. The first draft of it is done. Hopefully in the revisions I can find the perfect title.
4) Finish writing 1 1/2 - 2 more novels
I've already got an idea for a sequel to Dagen's story and I possibly have another I can finish. I don't want to commit to getting 2 novel length stories done because I always seem to run into NaNoWriMo and it breaks my stride.
5) Survive NaNoWriMo
And speaking of NaNoWriMo, unless thing's change, 2012 will be my last NaNoWriMo. Both as an ML and as a participant. I love NaNo. I think it's a wonderful idea and it attracts lovely people, but to tell you the truth I think I've out grown it. I've written a couple novels outside of November, I know I have the discipline to write everyday on my own. I don't need the pressure of NaNo to get me to the finish. I also like my pattern of writing/editing. I write book B while book A is sitting cooling. Then when book B is done, I go back and edit book A. Then I write a new book and the cycle starts all over again. In the last two years NaNo has fallen out of step with my cycle. I really don't like writing two books back to back. I find it draining. I like going back and forth between editing and writing. To do that I need to be on my own schedule, and November just doesn't fit.
6) Stop fussing over the &@^! blog I like this blog, but it's driving me a little crazy. Sometimes I just can't come up with two or three posts a week to put up here. And I refuse to put up "filler" stuff. I'm sick of fretting over that. It's just not with the time I spend fussing over it (see goal #8). Especially when I could be spending that creative energy working on my next story. So I'll be putting up posts when I feel like it. My tentative goal is two or three times a month. I might do more. I might do less.
7) Clean the house more then once every three months Actually my house isn't quite that bad (mostly). This is more of a balance related goal. I tend to get so focused on one thing that I totally forget everything else. So this year I want to try and keep my life more balanced. I've already started doing this, but I want to continue it through the next year.
8) No Stress (This should really be #1) This is my over all goal. If a certain activity/person stresses me out, I really need to evaluate if it/they are worth my time and mental energy. The answer will probably be no. Life is just too short to put up with people and things that stress me out and drain my energy.
And I think that's about it. I'm sure I'll come up with something else later, but this is enough for now.
Yes, there is such a thing as a "good" kind of tired. There's something about being tired after a good workout, or after scrubbing the bathtub or weeding the garden (I'll have to wait for spring for that one, sadly). You get to the end of your work and you've accomplished something. This is the time that I love to work on my writing.
I've recently started revving up to write another story. Yes, another *rolls eyes*. I'm plotting this one out like I did the last and it seems to be going well, but I find that my best writing comes right after a good workout (now a days that means yoga or a nice long treadmill walk). I finish and have that "ah, I'm done I can sit down now" moment.
As soon as I do sit, all those thoughts that had been churning around in my head start to spill out. This is especially true after a couple miles of walking on the treadmill. Seriously, there nothing to do when you're walking on a treadmill but stare at the wall in front of you. I love walking outside (when it isn't 10 °F) and I find it relaxing and generally inspiring. It's also too interesting and distracting to work on a specific idea. Normally my thoughts follow this kind of pattern:
"Hmm, should I make the heroine stronger in the second act or- Ooo! Look! Was that a bird? Wait. What was I thinking about?"
But inside, that's a different story. Even if I don't feel like working on that particular story, I will, sooner or later, just to relieve the boredom. I do keep a note book next to the treadmill, but I find it's better to hold in the ideas. Then when I'm done walking I'm almost ready to burst.
Then in that wonderful state when your body is tired and your mind is itching to go, I can settle down with my note book and scribble everything I thought of while I was walking. Once you get the flow going, everything else will fall into place.
Yesterday the internet at my house went out. Not just slow or off and on. Completely and utterly off. For the ENTIRE day. You don’t realize how often you check your email until all of a sudden you can’t.
My thought process went like this:
“Well, all right, I can’t check the email. This is so annoying. I should tweet about it. Damn can’t do that either. *sigh* maybe I can get those long blog articles read… Can’t do that either. Fine. I’ll just download a new book onto my Kindle… Ahhh! Can’t do that either! Nooooo.”
It got more and more desperate and incoherent after that.
Several weeks ago I slashed the number of TV shows I watch, so all I had recorded on my DVR was the nightly news. I finished watching that, turned off the TV and sat there for a long time. Now what? (I believe my eye was twitching spasmodically at this point).
There was nothing better to do, so I decided to get some extra word count down on my story. I had already gotten my quota for the day, but without the distractions and time sucks of the internet and all its shinyness, I found myself drawn to my writing again.
So what’s the moral of this story? That the internet is evil? Maybe Not really. We all have different distractions. I’m not talking about family or friends (though both of those are very distracting). I’m talking about that fluff stuff that we spend so much time in. Watching reruns on TV (hint: the story hasn’t changed, it’s the same as it was last time you watched it), playing addictive games online (angry birds, bubble shooter, [insert game of choice here]) or checking our email every five minutes.
Whenever I chose to indulge in one of theses I say to myself “just for a minute here then I’ll get back to writing.” … Three hours later, I’m still messing with whatever I was trying to do.
If you want to carve out time for yourself and your writing, computers and the internet are two really good places to start chipping at first. Everyone always wants to be so “connected” with Facebook or Twitter or email, but in truth they can all wait a while. None of them are THAT important that you can’t put it off for a while to write. The trick is getting your priorities straight. Do you want to finish your novel, or do you want to watch Dancing with the Stars?
Do you want to finish your novel, or do you want to get to that next level on your video game?
Do you want to finish your novel, or do you want to Tweet about how hard it is to find time to write?
If your answer is yes to Dancing with the Stars or video games or Twitter, that’s fine. Just don’t lie to yourself and say that your writing is everything. That you just don’t have the time. You do. You just chose to do something else. This is the ultimate choice that makes or breaks a writer.
I’m not going to tell you what to do about this. You have to make up your own mind. But my plan for the future is to time my internet hours. Only x amount of time in the morning or in the evening and that’s it. Anything I don’t get done can wait another day. My writing is what comes first.
Truth be told, I know nothing about this guy's book, but his trailer is hilarious!
I don't look around at all that many book trailers. Or the ones I look at are for books I already want to buy. So I'm wondering how effective they really are.
Have any of you ever decide to pick up a book after watching the trailer?
I found this quote by George R.R. Martin the other day and really loved it:
"The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real … for a moment at least … that long magic moment before we wake.
Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?
We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La. They can keep their heaven. When I die, I’d sooner go to middle Earth. "
— George R.R. Martin
This expresses well why I love Fantasy so much and (I believe) the thing that non-fantasy readers don't understand. The biggest thing I hear them say is that "Fantasy is just a bunch of make believe. It's not real."
No. It's not real. And that's why I love it. It's not how the world is, it's how it should be. How it could be. Not necessarily the dragons and elves (though that would be cool). It's the courage and the love and the chance for anyone to make a difference. Those are the things that should be. Just because theses stories have wizards and magic doesn't make their meaning any less important.
Like G.K. Chesterton said:
“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
Hope you all have a happy Friday and a great weekend!
We've all seen or read the stories. An unskilled Hero must learn how to fight. So he seeks out the master swordsman/Kung fu/Jedi/whatever and finds him cloistered away in the mountains/remote temple/far off planet. Once the Hero finds them and proves that he would make a worthy student, the master teaches him and he return to kick the antagonist’s butt. I can't say about the Jedi, but I know for swordsmanship (and just about any martial art) it isn't as simple as that.
Yes, training directly with a master is one of the best ways to learn, but it's only part of the equation. Someone who trains only with his master would be better then an untrained opponent, but he wouldn't be as good as you would think.
Just because you can spar with and perhaps even beat one master doesn't mean you can beat everyone who isn't as skilled as that master. Real fighting isn't like levels in a video game. There are hundreds of fighting styles and ways people use them. That is why it is important, even necessary, to spar with as many opponents as possible.
If you're opponent knows one trick that you don't then that could give them the upper hand. There's no way for any one person to know all the different forms of fencing. That is why a fencer’s best tool is adaptability. If you can read your opponent and adapt to them, you have a huge advantage.
Back when I was still sport fencing I started going to a saber class. Our club was small and before I started coming there had only been one gal in the class. She had been fencing for a while and could go toe to toe with our coach and, if not beat him, at least make him work for his win.
Then I come along. I've never done saber before. At the time I only had limited experience with foil. Since I had such limited experience my body signals were all over the place. She thought I was feinting an attack when I was just shifting my grip on this new, unfamiliar weapon. One of the first times she came in for an attack I parried and thwak got her right in the side of the head. We were both surprised I got that shot in. She came in for another attack in the same spot, parry, thwak again. It took her several more tries before she found the right counter to my attack.
But why did my attack land in the first place? She was better then me. Much better. But she had only sparred with our coach. She was trying to fence me like she fenced him, expecting me to make a cretin counter attack or fall for a cretin feint. If I had been a better fencer, I might have, she was very skilled in that, but since I wasn't good, I didn't know exactly what to do, so I just did whatever. I was random. That is very hard to fight unless you can quickly adapt.
You can't learn to adapt without having a wide range of opponents to practice on. You can't learn that alone.
Last Friday I ran across a post by Ava Jae "Can you lose the ability to write?" I like what she says and to a point I do agree with her solution of pushing through and just do it. She writes:
"If you really want to write, if you really want to see your dreams come true, you have to go out there and do it yourself. Fulfilled dreams don’t just land on some lucky person’s lap—they’re chased down and snatched up by the ones who aren’t afraid to put in the extra work and won’t stop until they see them realized."
I agree that you need to go out and chase down your dreams. If I waited for inspiration to strike me before I started, my writing sessions would be few and far between. You have to have the self control and dedication to sit down and write.
That said, when I get stuck in a rut, or am having difficulties with a story, I find there are some things I need to do that don't necessarily involve pushing through with the writing.
Without fail, every time I come to a dry spot it's because my creative well is empty. I've been working on this novel so long I haven't had time to read a book just for enjoyment or watch my favorite movie again (I've already seen it before, why do I need to watch it again?). The only books I do read are on the craft of writing, or something about the publishing industry (there's a cheery read for you). I don't have time to have fun. I need to write, but nothing is coming.
Is writing always fun?
No.
But when I hit the point where none of what I was writing was fun, I realized that I had lost sight of why I really wanted to be a writer in the first place (Hint: it wasn't for the tweed suit, smoldering cigarette and half drunk bottle of wine... well, maybe the wine ;) ). I started writing because there was something about it that I love. Something that caught my eye and drew me in. I started writing for the magic. That part of the writing that resonates deep within your soul. That connects with you. I see this in my favorite books and movies. The part that makes me cry. Makes me believe in true love. Opens my eyes to the world around me. Shows me the darkest parts of my own soul. Those are stories that I come back to and watch again and again. Because, even after seeing them a hundred times, I still feel that connection.
So what does this have to do with "writers block" (or whatever you want to call it)? The only way I've been able to break out of that staleness is to reconnect with things that inspire me. Not just stories. I love working in my garden. Watching my finches flutter and squabble over the bath when I put it in. Walking the dog on the back roads where there's nothing but bushes and squirrels to bother me. All theses things are important to filling that well. All of them. And sometimes we have to allow ourselves to indulge in them. That why I love Lani Diane Rich's classes and podcast so much. Those are the things she talks about and teaches. How to love the magic of your story.
Now here's the hard part. Having the self-knowledge to know when you've filled your well and should get back to work. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you need just a little more time or if you've moved on to stalling or have some kind of fear of finishing. Only you can decide that. You have to know yourself. Know what you love. Know what you fear. Know what you are and what you want to be.
It's hard. But no one ever said it would be easy.
So to come full circle, once your well is full you need to push and force yourself to find the time and write. I love how Ava put it:
"Don’t have the time? Make time. No one else is going to do it for you."
And at the same time, force yourself to make time to do things that you enjoy. Writers have a tendency to feel guilty if they spend three hours looking for just the right songs for the soundtrack of your story or gluing little pictures onto a piece of mat board to make a collage. It's not waisted time. You're thinking about your story. You really are working. Then when you go to write, that creativity that you have been 'indulging' in will feed the creativity of your writing.
One thing flows into the other, we just have to keep the current moving.
I'd heard about Scrivener from other writing friends before, but since I don't have a Mac (and don't plan on getting one) I didn't bother looking at it. Then I heard that they were making a version for Windows. I was still sceptical. I haven't been all that into writing programs. I've been using a plane old Word doc for years. But last month a new story idea hit me, one that will need more organization then others I've done. So I decided to check out this new Scrivener thingy.
OMG. It is so cool.
Not only does it have all the standard scene and chapter file organization (nothing particularly special there), but it has a way to split the screen so you can view two files at the same time (actually you can split it in a number of different ways). My favorite use for this feature is to have the top part the text I'm working on and the bottom to show pictures of the place holders I have chosen for each character (if you don't know what I'm talking about check out this post). So I'm essentially looking at the characters as I'm writing about them. Very cool feature that I didn't expect, but am really enjoying.
Another thing I like is the ability to see the manuscript in broken up scenes or as one long document. This is reminiscent of my single Word doc days, but it's much easier to rearrange scenes (drag and drop).
The cork board feature is cool, seeing the scene descriptions on little cards on the screen. I doubt I will use it that much. If I do write out scene cards I like to feel them and touch them and pin them on a board by hand. That's just me. If I weren't so neurotic about it, the ones on the screen would probably work just fine.
Scrivener also has a full screen mode with all kinds of adjustments (width of the typing space, opacity of the background, size of the text, etc.) That's nice when I want to block everything else out and type. There's also a setting that keeps the text your typing in the middle of the page so you're not looking at the bottom. I like that for typing new stuff, but not for editing because as soon as you type something it snaps it to the middle of the page. The text moving around like that I find a little disorienting, but it's not the big of an issue because I can just exit full screen and it doesn't do that.
Over all, really cool program and I'm still playing with all the buttons to see what else it can do. This is just the beta version that I have, but I haven't run into any problems with it yet. They are going to have the beta version up until September 30th. So if you want to try it out you better get over there.
I don't know when I will be for sale, but as soon as it is, I'm buying it! And as an added bonus they're giving a 50% discount to those who won NaNoWriMo last year (which I did ^_^).
I love Brandon Sanderson. I really do. But a scene in Warbreaker where one of the characters sheathes a bloody sword seriously made me twitch. All though I may give him the benefit of the doubt, because it was a bad guy who did it. Maybe Sanderson did it on purpose, because only a really bad guy would treat their sword like that....
Or maybe I'm the only one who noticed.
I have scene the same sort of thing from other books as well (but of course none of those books were as awesome as Sanderson's). The victorious hero will be standing above the bad guy's slain minions, bloody sword in hand. The battle is over so the hero takes his bloody sword and sheathes it. Now, before I start screaming and ranting, lets think about this. You have a sword that is covered in blood. A piece of metal covered in a liquid. Moisture is the enemy of metal. Dirt and debris on the blade will scratch it. Getting a scratch on your blade in the middle of battle is one thing, marking up your blade because you're too lazy to take proper care of it is another. Something as small as the oil from a finger print can leave rust marks.
If you want to take good and proper care of your sword (The sword that, by the way, your life will depend on in the middle of a battle) clean it off! My sword master wipes down his blades with 3 in 1, but the first step is to get all the blood and dirt off.
Keep my eye from twitching, have your characters clean their blades!
If people start to find out that you are a writer, sooner or later you will be asked the big question: Where do you get your ideas?
(by the way, my standard response to that is "Wal-mart".)
You can be as snarky or as in depth as you would like with answering that question. This post isn't about what non-writers think or want to know about our proses. Let's face it, even if we do try to explain it to them they probably won't get it.
How I see it, inspiration is all about paying attention. When I go for a walk, sometimes I'll notice how the wind feels as it blows by. The sound of it as it sweeps through the dried skeletons of grass along side the road. Another day I'll notice deer hoof prints along side the road and follow them until they disappear back into the bushes. Or when I blow out a candle, I love watching the smoke twist and curl in the air before disappearing into nothing.
It's not big things that feed my creative soul, it the little things. Not the rolling field, but the line of ants on the path in front of me.
Sometimes I find my creative well is getting low and I'm feeling drained. I find it helps me to fill it by looking for some of these little things. I surround myself and my writing space with things that inspire me. Three of my favorite things are smoke, water and fire. So on my desk I have several candles and an incense stick holders. As of yet I don't have a water element, but I'm still looking for just the right thing (probably going to be a fountain of some sort).
When I sit down to write and I feel like I need something to focus on and draw from I lite those candles and incense. It brings my mind back to where I need to be to write.
Everyone is different and each of us will have something different that inspires. Look for those things and try to bring at least some part of that into your writing space. And never stop looking for those little things that bring joy or make you think. You never know what will inspire.
Journals. Those wonderful bundles of beautiful pages wrapped in leather, moleskin, plastic or cardboard (depending on how cheep you are).
I love journals. Particularly those fabulous leather bound ones with textured natural paper. I love them. LOVE. The problem... I just can't bring myself to use them.
It's the same every time. I go to the store, ogle and fondle each book. My fingers caress that one special journal and I clutch it to my chest as I make my way to the cash register. Then I get home, sit down ready to put my brilliant words onto theses beautiful pages. My pen hovers over the paper and... and... all those brilliant words suddenly seem dull and stupid. I can't put THAT on the first page! I need something poignant. Something inspirational. Something... better then what I can come up with.
Defeated, I put the journal on the shelf to wait for that striking bolt of inspiration. After a year or two I began to realize that I would never be able to use them. I was just too scared to make a 'mistake'. Of course the whole point of a idea notebook or journal is to jot down silly weird ideas that maybe you can use later. It's not supposed to be perfect, but I could never get over the fact that I paid $10, $15 or more for this @#&%! journal and I better damn well put something good in it to justify spending that much.
Soon I realized that all my best (and worst) ideas were written on the back of napkins, junk mail envelopes and wrinkled scraps of paper. Why was it so easy for me to write on those and not my fancy journal? Because they were cheep. I didn't feel pressured to write anything good, so I just wrote what I felt like. I let my creative juices flow because it's just a piece of junk mail, it's not like I can make it worse.
The next time I went to the store, instead of picking up a shiny leather bound beauty, I found the cheapest 5" x 8" notebook I could get. I got a three pack and brought it home. That was a couple years ago and as you can see from the picture, it's worked quite well for me. Each of those notebooks is filled with scribbles (and I mean FILLED). Some brilliant. Some, well, less so. But you can't get to the good stuff until you get the bad stuff out of your head. If you feel the pressure to put only good stuff in your beautiful journal, then maybe going simpler (and cheaper, I'm always for the cheep) will work better for you. I carry one with me everywhere now.
It's only a few dollars to give it a try (that's the beauty of it).
I love trying new things. Kissing the frog and finding a prince... or just another slimy amphibian. Trying and trying and trying. It's an adventure each time, but sometimes you need to go back to those first princes you found and smooch them again.
This past week or two I've been having trouble focusing on my writing. I sit down to write and I know the story is there, but my mind is a jumble. It takes me a few moments just to remember what I was doing with this scene, then I start and after just a few paragraphs I've forgotten again what I was doing. Distractions abound. Did I change the laundry? Damn, I forgot to wash the dishes yesterday. Did I answer that email? It's hot again today, I really need to water the garden. And on and on and on.
This isn't the first time I've had trouble like this. It's a fairly common problem for me. In the past I've used music to tune everything out, but it wasn't working this time. So now what? Look for another way to focus? What can I try that I haven't done already?
Then I realized that I don't have to find something new. I needed to go back to something old.
When I first started looking for ways to focus myself during my writing time I would light a candle (actually I would light nearly a dozen candles) and pull out an incense stick with one of my favorite scents. I haven't lit a candle while writing for... oh dear, over a year now. I only seem to need them when I'm having trouble, so one I get into the flow of a story I fall out of the habit of using them. I was starting to think that I had "out grown" them entirely.
Then last night, on a whim, I pulled out an incense stick and lit it. As soon as I stuck the stick in the little holder and watched the first curls of smoke twist and drift in the air I remembered why I love watching incense sticks burn. Smoke is to fluid and ethereal. It moves and turns and dances, but you can never actually touch it. All the little voices in the back of my mind quieted and I just sat for a moment watching the smoke drift, familiar scents bringing me back to the joy I had writing in those early years. It was exactly what I needed.
So next I pulled out the box of candles that I had packed into the closet, set up all my little dancing flames around the computer, just like I used to years ago. Then I started to write. Almost immediately I fell into "the Zone". There’s something relaxing about telling time by how short your incense stick has become. When the stick was all burnt up (that's about an hour) I found that I had finished my day with 2k new words and some really good scenes. I felt refreshed, revived. I had accomplished more then I had meant to and I went to bed happy.
So if you try something and it works for one story then stops working for the next, don't throw that idea away. Keep a box of ideas (or at least a mental list) and periodically go back and try things again. Who knows, something that didn't work for you before might just be the very thing you need now.
Never stop trying. Never stop experimenting. You might be surprised at the results.
