It's kind of funny what a writer will do to get out of writing.
I've been working all month long on trying to get a story pounded out. I started the month planning on working on a project I had more than 30,000 words in. Then the more I wrote, the more I hated it. That made me decide to put it on the shelf for a while and get back to a project I'd shelved earlier that I've had in the back of my mind. I worked on it for awhile, but I still wasn't loving it.
In the mean time, I had an idea for a story come to mind as I was driving down the road to visit my sister. I plotted it out as I drove, and when I got home I was so excited to get started on it. But I didn't want to drop a second story that same month to begin this new one. (Plus when I began telling my husband the idea he kind of shot it down) He was washing dishes at the time--I know, lucky huh-- and didn't really focus all his attention on my words. ((He's since heard it again and has told me it actually sounds kind of cool, once he let me explain the whole thing.))
Now that I finally decided to give this story it's turn, I find myself getting distracted by other things. A writer friend of mine posted a funny comment on facebook, and how he and I are chatting about how that would be the funniest premise for a story. Who know's maybe we'll collaborate on it and sell it as an ebook.
There are so many ideas out there and so few writing moments that we could never write them all. But we can sure have fun brainstorming and daydreaming.
What would you like to write about if you had the chance?
Friday, March 30, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
What have you been reading lately?
I've been trying to read and write during my free time. Though I've found I'm spending more time reading than writing. And that's ok, but today I started on my writing again after a few days off and realized I'm influenced by what I just read.
Let's see if I can explain this better. On my first story, I had been reading the Twilight series most recently before I began writing my book. After finishing it and sending it to some readers, many of them said, "you know, even though this isn't a story about Vampires or anything, it reminded me a lot of Twilight."
Then in my next story, I tried to be more careful about what I was reading and how I was writing so it didn't sound like I was trying to write in the same style as the author I was reading. I've heard many authors say they have discovered the same thing in their experience.
Lately I've been re-reading a couple of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan to get ready to read the final book being finished by Brandon Sanderson. Now my story is nothing like the WOT, (It's more of a dystopian at the moment) but I find myself thinking of the way the story is done in his world. I have to conciously stop myself from using some of Jordan's terminology.
It's a fine line to walk. You want to read other books, see how authors did it right, but you also have to make sure you keep your own voice. I guess it helps to take a break from writing for a little to do some reading. You just have to make sure when you get back into your writing you can keep the little voices in your head separate.
So what have you been reading lately?
Let's see if I can explain this better. On my first story, I had been reading the Twilight series most recently before I began writing my book. After finishing it and sending it to some readers, many of them said, "you know, even though this isn't a story about Vampires or anything, it reminded me a lot of Twilight."
Then in my next story, I tried to be more careful about what I was reading and how I was writing so it didn't sound like I was trying to write in the same style as the author I was reading. I've heard many authors say they have discovered the same thing in their experience.
Lately I've been re-reading a couple of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan to get ready to read the final book being finished by Brandon Sanderson. Now my story is nothing like the WOT, (It's more of a dystopian at the moment) but I find myself thinking of the way the story is done in his world. I have to conciously stop myself from using some of Jordan's terminology.
It's a fine line to walk. You want to read other books, see how authors did it right, but you also have to make sure you keep your own voice. I guess it helps to take a break from writing for a little to do some reading. You just have to make sure when you get back into your writing you can keep the little voices in your head separate.
So what have you been reading lately?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
We can learn from our mistakes. (I mean experiences)
I have been writing furiously on a few different projects lately and have come to discover that sometimes I don't like what I'm writing. I'm not saying that my story is junk, I'm just saying I'm not feeling the love for it right now.
I've been forcing myself to finish a story thinking the only way I could get better at writing was to finish it and learn from the experience. While I believe that is true, it is also true if you don't write what you love and love what you're writing then no one else will.
I had a partial request that just came back as a "no thank you". And while it was dissapointing that they didn't want it, I also discovered that I feel relief knowing the next project I work on doesn't have to be the follow up that would go with that story. This is the thing I've been working on recently and what I did my NaNoWriMo project on.
So in my last post I made myself a challenge to do a mini writing month and get 30,000 words written. I am still going to do that, but as a writer/creator I can decide what project it will be on. I have another story that's been percolating in the back of my mind that I'll be jumping into. I'm excited to see where it goes.
There are also a few blogs and things I've read recently that I thought I'd share so you can benefit too. I hope they are as helpful to you as they've been for me.
Reading this blog post from Natalie Whipple gave me some much needed reminders and lessons I can learn through her experience. Check it out HERE
Betsy Love, a friend of mine online, though I feel like I know her in real life though I've never met her had this on her blog.It's some great information about what agents and editors really care about. Check it out HERE
Also a couple of agents or blogs or podcasts about writing I think are great
Writing Excuses
Nathan Bransford
Rachelle Gardner
Please share in the comments some blogs or websites I should look into. Thanks
Laura
I've been forcing myself to finish a story thinking the only way I could get better at writing was to finish it and learn from the experience. While I believe that is true, it is also true if you don't write what you love and love what you're writing then no one else will.
I had a partial request that just came back as a "no thank you". And while it was dissapointing that they didn't want it, I also discovered that I feel relief knowing the next project I work on doesn't have to be the follow up that would go with that story. This is the thing I've been working on recently and what I did my NaNoWriMo project on.
So in my last post I made myself a challenge to do a mini writing month and get 30,000 words written. I am still going to do that, but as a writer/creator I can decide what project it will be on. I have another story that's been percolating in the back of my mind that I'll be jumping into. I'm excited to see where it goes.
There are also a few blogs and things I've read recently that I thought I'd share so you can benefit too. I hope they are as helpful to you as they've been for me.
Reading this blog post from Natalie Whipple gave me some much needed reminders and lessons I can learn through her experience. Check it out HERE
Betsy Love, a friend of mine online, though I feel like I know her in real life though I've never met her had this on her blog.It's some great information about what agents and editors really care about. Check it out HERE
Also a couple of agents or blogs or podcasts about writing I think are great
Writing Excuses
Nathan Bransford
Rachelle Gardner
Please share in the comments some blogs or websites I should look into. Thanks
Laura
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Another month filled with words.
I enjoyed the writing abandon of NaNoWriMo so much that I'm going to do my own month of writing here in March.
I managed to churn out the 50,000 words in November, though some of them were repeats and do overs, and begin agains, I was able to keep at least 30,000 of those after doing an edit to get the story straight in my mind again. So my goal for this month is to write 30,000 new words.
I plan to write them on the same story I did in November, which happens to be a follow up story of my most recent completed novel. I figure doing 30K is a realistic goal and I have a group on FB I'll be reporting to so I'll have incentive to keep going. Plus, getting this story closer to completion is always a reward in itself.
So you fun readers who see my blog. What other kind of reward should I give myself if I accomplish my goal. (Can't cost more than $10, but free or low-low cost would be even better) And what should be my consequence if I don't complete it? I need your suggestions.
Laura
I managed to churn out the 50,000 words in November, though some of them were repeats and do overs, and begin agains, I was able to keep at least 30,000 of those after doing an edit to get the story straight in my mind again. So my goal for this month is to write 30,000 new words.
I plan to write them on the same story I did in November, which happens to be a follow up story of my most recent completed novel. I figure doing 30K is a realistic goal and I have a group on FB I'll be reporting to so I'll have incentive to keep going. Plus, getting this story closer to completion is always a reward in itself.
So you fun readers who see my blog. What other kind of reward should I give myself if I accomplish my goal. (Can't cost more than $10, but free or low-low cost would be even better) And what should be my consequence if I don't complete it? I need your suggestions.
Laura
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