Inspiration

Fall Semester is finally over, and I’m already starting to dread the Spring Semester, but let’s not think about that. Now that I have the time to write, and I mean truly sit down and just do it and not thinking about anything else, or rushing so that I can get it over with and move on to some sort of assignment, self assigned or otherwise.

The subject according to the subject heading I picked is inspiration. So, I’ll start there, the inspiration for this post is that I just visited my Aunt Christine in the hospital today. Well, she’s not really my aunt, but I’ve adopted her. She's just had brain surgery to have a tumor removed. I watched her going through the past year as she prepared herself physically, mentally and spiritually for this surgery and I think I will take away from this time watching and being with her as a really inspirational rather than a scary experience (though it certainly was). After all of the stress and worry it was good to see her picking at her indigestible hospital food and great us with a tired but sweet smile.

I met my aunt not long after my family moved to California and my Mama and I were looking for a place to grow as writers. We found the Coffee House Writers Group and I was very pleased to join it. Christine was both the leader and organizer of the group and now she has definitely earned the title Fearless leader. She's officially one of the bravest people I've ever met. Forget my veteran Grandfather, cousins and Great Uncle, anyone can get drafted.

So, after I wrote my title (yes, sometimes I write a title before writing a post) I asked myself after I chose my title, (or my title chose me) what inspires me? Who inspires me? But most importantly: what does it or they inspire me to do or be?

 I thought of Christine and her poor head looking like something from a horror or graphic civil war film (which are pretty much the same thing) and Christine’s playful comment that she was going to be trying out for Frankenstein’s Monster’s Wife; although now that I think of it, one would be hard pressed to find someone casting for such a roll during Yuletide…

  She inspires me to be happy, to be brave, to write, to smile, to live, to love and above all to be me, especially during hard times.

The Writer

Standing back

Thinking, and seeing

Not speaking

Just looking.

Wandering, seeking

Both my eyes are open

Listening, hearing

Silently staring.

Sitting,

 blind to the joy

deaf to the laughter

dumb to the well-spoken

Thinking is fearing

Doing is reckless

Loving is damning

Hating is worse.

Just sit there

And finish your story.

Monday - Not So Bad?

I knew it was going to be a crappy day before I even opened my eyes. I could hear the soft pitter patter of rain that was hitting the shrubbery beneath my bedroom window, the uneven rhythm was interrupted by a sharp plunk as the occasional large drop of water fell of a tree leaf and hit a windowpane.

Rain is always good thing, that’s what my mom used to say “it makes everything green”. Yeah, too bad the good people of Southern California have no idea how to drive in the rain! I learned how to drive in the Ozark Mountains where what is called “rain” in So Cal was known as a “mist”. Buckets being poured from the sky was barely considered a storm, there had to be lightning, a gust, or hail (preferably all of the above) to be an undisputed “storm”, and we got plenty of storms all year.

The temperature must have dropped over night as well. My nose, exposed shoulders and arms felt as cold as marble while I tried to find my blankets by touch. My numb fingers fumbled as they found the edge of the comforter. Once I got a good grip, I gave it a swift pull and covered my freezing upper body only to uncover my toes. Curing up into a loose ball (and sticking my nose beneath the covers for good measure) I waited for the cool and lifeless fabric to warm up with my less than considerable body temperature.

I breathed in the familiar scent of my bed as my muscles slowly began to warm up and relax; that was when my alarm went off. I have nothing against Aerosmith, except when they are waking me up in the morning. My arm shot out and slammed on the off button. The cold surface of my radio seemed to suck the heat out of my hand and soon began to do the same to my arm. I quickly pulled it back under the covers.

I took a deep breath as I prepared myself of the shock my body would receive when I threw my covers back to sit up…and I had thought Monday was a bad day.

50 Things That Are Right About Me

50 Things that are Right About Me

Here’s a good self-esteem booster I found on the blog of a fellow writer. Here’s the link to her blog: http://coreenamcburnie.blogspot.com/2011/09/50-things-that-are-right-about-me.html

Just list 50 things that are right about you, and it will help you realize there is nothing wrong with you.

1.       I love to quilt with my Mama

2.       I love my dog

3.       I love both my brothers

4.       I love my parents

5.       I love to write

6.       I have been a storyteller since I could speak

7.       I love acting

8.       I love to listening to Skillet

9.       I love Amy Lee’s voice

10.   I think Jacoby Shaddix is a hoot

11.   I think Jerry Horton is hot

12.   I think TV is a load of crap more times than not

13.   I think Christine Bryant is a sweet heart

14.   I think people over-use and misuse the word “friend”

15.   I think my brother’s little dog is a little nuts

16.   I think Billy Joe from Green Day should never get his teeth straightened

17.   I love Three Days Grace’s last album “Life Starts Now”

18.   I love giving my family hugs

19.   I think that this year I will be able to pay for a dress that I’ve been dying to buy since I saw it.

20.   I love the color pink

21.   I think everyone looks better with long hair

22.   School comes before my job

23.   School comes after my family

24.   Nothing comes after my family

25.   Listening to music makes me happy

26.   Listening to music makes me more creative

27.   I love Chi tea

28.   I’m okay with wearing no makeup

29.   I don’t like short skirts

30.   I love wearing hats

31.   I’d rather wear glasses than contacts

32.   I am a witch

33.   I am a musician

34.   I am a natural artist

35.   I don’t care if people hate me for my hair color

36.   I am drawn toward real people

37.   I have a pretty mouth

38.   I like my hands

39.   I enjoy watching movies with my family

40.   I love sunny days

41.   I have the cutest dog in the world!

42.   I have the cutest little brother in the world

43.   I got my driver’s license on the third try

44.   I like to sleep in

45.   I like chatting with cool people on the internet

46.   I exercise everyday

47.   I always get my homework in on time

48.   I like helping people

49.   I like staying up late

50.   I love living in California

Please follow my blog and friend me on facebook where I keep an update on all of my progress with my books and my blog. Thanks for your support.

My Classes

Hi everyone I’ve missed you! I’m sorry about the long silence, thanks for sticking through it and my bad poetry. I’ve been getting into the swing of college and I think I’m going to survive this semester. I don’t have much time, I need to study, but here’s what my calendar looks like now:
Monday
9:00-10:30 Theatre Class - Heavy Study class
12:00-12:50 Piano – Time consuming.
1:00-3:30 Art – Time consuming.
Tuesday, WORK!!
Wednesday
Same as Monday
Thursday
Fundamentals to Interior Design – Medium study load & Time consuming
Illustration of Interior Design – medium work load & Tim consuming

Then once I get home I have chores and my job at Avon to work on. Suffice it to say that sometimes I hardly have time to breath. But my family insist that I have fun on Sunday or Saturday, so that cancels out which ever day that is and it’s fun, but it’s stressful too if I don’t have all my homework done.
Hopefully I’ll have more time to write. Talk to you guys later!
with my books and my blog. Thanks for your support.

New Start

Well, next week I will be in college and I have no idea when I’ll have time to blog. I’ll let you know as soon as I get used to the new schedule, if ever. I still have what seems like a lot of Avon campaign books left to get rid of before Sunday. I’ve decided to make reminder calls to my customers on Sunday, so that I won’t have to think about it on Monday. My first class on Monday is at noon, but I think my older brother has to get there some time in the morning, so I’ll be there on campus stressing until my first class begins and I don’t want to think about work on top of everything else.

 Good news, on Sunday we went to the Orange County Fairgrounds, (which was the inspiration for my last poem.) My brother’s ceramic painted lion was the ceramic and glass division winner ages 13-15. My Ariel cross stitch was the needlework division winner ages 16-18 (earlier I said my apron won, but I was mistaken, I didn’t enter my apron in this contest.) My Short story was the 15-18 class winner; I’m pleased with that still. Have a good weekend.

Writing Fight Scenes

Unlike some writers I don’t enjoy writing action or fight scenes. Not because I don’t think I can write them well, it just seems no matter what I do there will always exist a negative opinion, here are some examples of the critiques I hear most often (some of you fellow writers may have heard some of these too): “Well, that’s a good start, but it needs some work,” or “I wasn’t there with the character, make it more personal, give me more emotion, less description,” and my least favorite “Make it snappy.” It appears no matter what I do with a fight scene, someone is going to be unhappy with it. I realize that you can never please everybody, but it seems with my fight scenes, there is a definite increase of people wanting the section to be changed in some way. In trying to figure out why that is so, I have decided to pick apart my writing process and see if there is anything that should be changed.

The Process

First with an action scene, I find grounds for the confrontation; I don’t write fight scenes just for the sake of having them, there has to be a reason. Once I know the reason and have made sure that I have or will make the reason clear in my story, I proceed on to mapping out the fight itself.

How many people are involved? What weapons or potential weapons are in the room? Will the character resort to these make shift weapons, or do they have the skill or resources to fight without resorting to them. Who is in the immediate area? Are there people in the other room who might over hear this fight and come to see what is going on, or call for help? Will the fight be quick in decisive, or will it be drawn out? Will one of the characters run? Where will they run to? Etcetera. So once I have mapped out, either in my head or on a piece of paper where everyone who will be involved in this scene is and who it will affect, I start writing. It usually starts out very basic: “he hit, she kicked” kind of thing. Then I go back and add details such as pain for the characters and how it effects their movements, sounds, the character’s thoughts if applicable, I flesh it out a little bit you might say. Then I reread and edit, reread and edit, read it aloud, and edit until I’m sure all the holes are filled in and I’m satisfied with it. Then it’s time to read it to someone, or give it to them to read. I’m always filled with apprehension when I reach this stage, because I’ve always been told to change it up, and at this point, I think it’s done. It’s true I want feedback and I want to hear what other people think and if there are any holes that I missed; and I do get this feedback…more or less. Advice with action portions of my books always seems so unhelpful. “In needs to be changed”, “Shorten it”, “Lengthen it” but no one ever tells me how or where it needs to change. “Well, you’re the writer, so you need to make the changes” yes, but some suggestion would be nice, or better yet, why don’t you tell me why it isn’t good? Why does it not reach you expectations, take a small excerpt of the scene and write out and show me how it needs to be changed, and I will reformate the rest of the scene. It doesn’t seem that much to ask if you really want to help me out, but you can’t find the words to describe what needs to be done.

  I guess it boils down to the only thing I dislike about fight and action scenes is the repetitive and unhelpful critique that is bound to come with them; which is why I prefer to have my characters use stealth and cunning to get what they want, rather than brute force.

Another Writing Prompt

Here’s another writing prompt I got in High School “Right in the middle, the phone rang….” I remember that I was pressed for time, and this is what I came up with:

Frank and Jessica were having an argument when the phone rang. Neither wanted to answer it, they each had more that they wanted to say. The phone kept ringing until finally, Frank stepped up to the kitchen counter and picked up the receiver. It wasn’t for him thought, it wasn’t for Jessica either, it was a wrong number.

  Frank hang up even more frustrated than before, so they resumed their argument with a new vigor.

Cutting Back

I’m seriously considering cutting back in my blog. Writing everyday was fun, but now as I’m starting to do more things for my job and school, I’ve had less time to dedicate to my blog, and my quality of writing has really taken a hit. So, I’m prioritizing, it’s more important to do the things I’m doing for my job and school, in fact, I should actually be spending more time with those things than I currently am.

  Since, I’m more pressed for time, I’ll soon be posting less on my blog, when and on what subjects I will be posting I have yet to determine, but sometime this week I’ll make my decision and I’ll let you know.

Query Letters (Part 2)

So last week I wrote about how I go about finding agents, but mostly about how I keep records on how I keep track of which manuscript I sent to which agent. Once that is done, I put together my query letters. Drum roll.
There is a basic query frame that I put together. There are certain things in all query letters that are required no matter who you send it to, such as your name, address, and/or email, the agency’s name and info, a salutation,  a catchy beginning, you get the idea. (Again, I’m not saying this is the best way to do things, or that this query letter writing technique will be workable for you at the time you read this, the business is constantly changing, and so are the query letter rules of form. I am just sharing the way that I do it now.) So what I create will look something like this:

Samantha Blackwell

Ifyouwantmyrealemailyoumayask.com

Date:
Agent:
Agency:
Email:

Dear (agent name),
 A plot to murder the queen has just been uncovered and her lead sorceress is dying in a cabin belonging to White, a little dwarf. Leaving it up to him and his seven cousins to find away to save the kingdom without alerting the Ordinaries to their predicament. But what do they, humble dwarfs, know about magic? Nothing! and that’s the problem. My book Understandable is full of plot twists and lovable characters that keep the pages turning. All 45,000 words are tightly packed with information, keeping the adventure fast paced, sure to excite a wide age range not just the middle graders as I originally I intended. 

  The adventure is split into three parts, “How it Began”, “What Now?”, and “Is it over Yet?”; White’s journey takes you through a wonderful fairytale land that lies just beyond our front doors, filled with perils like dragons, assassins, gremlins, and the unknowing Ordinaries (us).

  I’ve never been published, but I have been a writer all of my life. I believe Understandable is more than ready to be read. (How I found your agency), and I’m sending query letters to other agents too.

(Say what I’ve pasted to the email). Please let me know if you would like to read more about my book.

  Thanks for your consideration,
 Samantha Blackwell

As you can see, I make my query letter not unlike a movie commercial, it’s exciting and hooks you right in, telling you just enough for you to get excited about the story, but not enough for you to know what actually happens in the book, which leaves you wanting more.

Once this draft is written out, I then copy and paste it to another document on my laptop, and save the original for later. With the copy, I fill in the blanks and boom, it’s ready to send to an agent or publisher of my choice, and because I saved the original with all the blanks in it, when I’m ready to send another query, all I have to do is copy it again and fill in the blanks. It’s easy and it’s fast. Every once in a while I’ll make minor changes to make the letter better, but mostly it remains the same. Here’s an example of that same query, except filled out.

Samantha Blackwell

Ifyouwantmyrealemailyoumayask.com

Date:  1/16/2010
Agent: Aurora Kingly
Agency: Fantasy Agency
Email: aurorafantasy@imadeitup.com

Dear Aurora Kingly,
 A plot to murder the queen has just been uncovered and her lead sorceress is dying in a cabin belonging to White, a little dwarf. Leaving it up to him and his seven cousins to find away to save the kingdom without alerting the Ordinaries to their predicament. But what do they, humble dwarfs, know about magic? Nothing! and that’s the problem. My book Understandable is full of plot twists and lovable characters that keep the pages turning. All 45,000 words are tightly packed with information, keeping the adventure fast paced, sure to excite a wide age range not just the middle graders as I originally I intended. 

  The adventure is split into three parts, “How it Began”, “What Now?”, and “Is it over Yet?”; White’s journey takes you through a wonderful fairytale land that lies just beyond our front doors, filled with perils like dragons, assassins, gremlins, and the unknowing Ordinaries (us).

  I’ve never been published, but I have been a writer all of my life. I believe Understandable is more than ready to be read. You’re agency was recommended to me by a fellow writer, and client of yours, Phyllis McNotReal, the author of “I’m Bored” and I thought my book would be a good fit with your agency, I’m also sending query letters to other agents too.

I have pasted the first five pages of Understandable and a synopsis to the bottom of this email. Please let me know if you would like to read more about my book.

  Thanks for your consideration,

 Samantha Blackwell

So you see, after you learn the language, and develop your own system, sending out the dreaded query letter gets to be as easy as fill in the blank.

Meet the Writer

This week was very busy, which seems to be becoming my normal week, that’s fine with me, ever the shying violet, I realize that I need to develop social skills, including: small talk, introducing myself and the like.
So, on with my report, yesterday I somehow got the bright idea to bring one of my blog poems to my writers group last night. I thought it would be fun, after all I was growing confident in my poetic abilities, and the next step in my mind is to read it aloud. After some thought I decided to pick one of my favorites, I thought picking a poem that I’m confident in might make the new experience easier when the nervousness of doing something new brings. Then the moment came and I thought I had lost my sanity. The writer group is comprised of people who would never do something to hurt me, not terribly anyways, so it was not really the fear of the people saying something, just what they would think. Oh, my gosh: that was a terrible poem! She needs to stick with fiction, and thoughts along those lines were my fear, which might seem silly to you, dear reader, but what made it so terrible, would be that I would agree with them, I don’t consider myself a poet: so what am I doing bringing my therapeutic scribbling to them? I got through it though, and they enjoyed it. I actually read it twice because some of the people were not at the table and because it was so short no one minded me reading it again. So, it was scary, but I got it done!
The other thing that happened this week that I want to mention to the five people who read my blog (thank you for reading it by the way,) my Mama and I went to Starbucks to meet with a writer, not to read our work or anything, just a social thing, and it was very nice. We got to know each other a little better and it was great. During our writing group meetings we don’t really have time to talk, and even during the “socializing time” there are certain voices that tend to dominate over the others. It was a refreshing change and it’s just nice to know that I have a friend in a fellow writer.

Poetry Fuming

I didn’t realize until a little while ago that I vent when I write poetry. I know, I always vent when I write, but it seems to be especially so when I am attempting to be a poet, and it’s not an intentional fume, I just…fume. I let out whatever has been bothering me, or making me happy, or sad, or at peace. Whatever it is, I tend to keep true to what I’m truly feeling when I’m writing a poem. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I’m so unoriginal all I can write about are my emotions in some form, even “Hostage” my last poem was addressing my feelings of being trapped and vulnerable.

  On the other hand, somewhere I heard that poets only write about their feelings in some form, well, if that’s true, I guess that I am a poet. I have always flirted with the art of poetry, but never have I ever pictured myself as welding the pen of poetry as an expert, I still don’t. I am first and foremost a writer, but I know that even ahead of that, I am a storyteller and I suppose if I think of being a poet as another way of telling a story, I guess I can accept the title of poet…nah.

The Party

Betty-sue ran up the front steps to her cousin’s house, she was half an hour late. Her cousin Bill was turning twenty today, while he might forgive Betty-sue for her tardiness, his girlfriend never would. Betty-sues’ five dollar clearance high heeled shoes clicked on the brick steps as she scampered up to the porch. Hurrying up to the door, she used the reflection the ornamental glass the door afforded her, though the oak of the door was so polished she probably could have used that too, she hurriedly fixed her hair and straightened out her dress and fake pearl necklace, they had been a gift from her mother a few years back and they were precious to her for that reason, however she didn’t feel that her cousin’s significant other and the crowd they tended to associate with would understand. This thought struck her just after she had rung the doorbell, she considered taking the necklace off and stuffing it in her purse, but it crossed her mind that a bare neck might actually be worse than one with costume jewelry.
Slapping on a smile, she clasped her purse containing the twenty dollar gift for her cousin with clammy hands and nervous heart as the maid came to open the door.
Here we go…

{The main purpose of this story is for me to practice writing a piece that can get you into the character’s head, and feel what she’s feeling on that doorway in less than three hundred words. Did I succeed, let me know, just leave a comment!}

Query Letters (Part 1)

I received a question from a fellow aspiring writer, it was about query letters. As you may know I hardly consider myself an expert on the subject, but as I began to think about it I realized that I know a whole lot more now than I did when I first began. My nature of over-studying and trying to ask more questions than I think I need to ask has taught me a lot about writing a query letter, and the delivery of that query letter.

  First off my advice to newer writers is study!! Read books on how to write query letters, on what to do and what not to do. Then find your prospect agents or publishers and then you need to study more!! I know right about now you would say that being told to study is not what you want to hear, you want me to tell you exactly what you need to do, well unfortunately every genre requires a different approach, fiction, non-fiction; what level you’re writing, child, middle school, young adult, adult and it’s sub category, college level, average intelligence, or a specific field. Which is why there are so many reference books on the subject, and the rules keep changing every year. What I tell you now may be different by the time you read this. So what am I blogging about? Well, I’m going to tell you how I get ready to write a query letter, I am not saying this is the only way to go about it, or even if this is the best way to do it, this is just what I do.

  Let me set up the situation. Let’s say that I have a story called “Understandable” (I have no such book, this is just for an example) it’s an urban fantasy (aka. a fantasy story that takes place in our world as to opposed a fantasy that take place in its own world, like Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”) The main character is…a dwarf named…White, (hey, I’m making this up as I go, so stop snickering.) White works in the mines when he returns home to see a lovely lady dressed as a traveling apple sales woman, (wait for it) she’s a powerful sorceress in disguise, and she has come to the dwarf for shelter. This is an unusual occurrence as you may expect, but White lets her in, and that night she explains that she just caught wind of a plot to kill the queen, so she was on her way to stop them, hence the disguise. White offers his help as a….guide (I guess), she says thanks but no thanks, the sorceress refuses the food White offers her, saying she can only eat the apples she has with her, for they are the key to her strength. The next morning however, White and the sorceress find the basket with the fruit has been stolen, and the sorceress will die if they are not found, and the day for the planned murder of the queen is drawing near, and they need to do all of this while keeping themselves hidden from the other people of this world: the Ordinaries (that’s us)….White goes to his seven cousins for help and together they save the sorceress.

  So what do I do first after the story is written and edited?

I go and find agents and publishers that might be interested in this kind of thing. I write out an index card for each company or agent with all their important information.

Side One:

                (1)White (2)great    other project okay                         

       

        (3) 1.16.10                 11.12.07 (4) NO

(5) Fantasy Agency

(6)Aurora Kingly

(7)Fantasy@Imadeitup.com

or Aurorafantasy@Imadeitup.com  

(8) Fantasy Agency

212 I Make It Up St.

New York, MY 99999

Explanation

(1)    I list the books I am currently searching for agent for; usually I am looking for more than one book at a time.

(2)    I make a note at how well I think my project fits the agency or publishing house in question.

(3)    I note the date that I sent the agency the query letter.

(4)    I write down “NO” when I get a refusal or no response so that I can avoid sending a query to the same place twice.

(5)    Next I list the agency name.

(6)    I list the name of the person I wish to contact; there may be more than one noted person in the company, if possible I narrow it down so that I send it directly to my desired agent or publisher.

(7)    I write down the company email and/or the specific email of the person I wish to contact.

(8)    The final thing on this page is usually the physical address of the agency or publishing house.

Side 2

(1)    Picture books, fantasy, Short Stories

(2)    Q letter Snail Mail with 1^st 5 pages & synopsis along with SASE.

(3)    Q letter with QUERY & work title in email subject with 1^st 5 pgs and synopsis of work NO attachments. WILL REPLY, if none, email again.

Explanation:

(1)    I list the preferred genres of the company, or specific person I’m going to be sending the query to, in some cases, they list only what they don’t want sent to them in which case I list those instead with NO at the beginning of the list.

(2)     I note how they wish the query letter to be sent by mail. Since I am pressed for space I use a mix of my own shorthand, and the generally accepted slang of the writing world. Q letter, meaning they want a standard query letter, which is only one page long. Snail mail, which is regular mail; a lot of agencies will not accept UPS, or other deliveries and will not even let it in through the door. Some will ask for the first few pages from your work, it can be anywhere from the first five to the first fifty pages of the work, depending on the genre. They could also ask for a synopsis, which is basically a summary of the entire book condensed to around three pages for a “Short Synopsis” or around ten pages a “Long Synopsis” they may or may not specify what kind of synopsis they want and you’re left to guess. A SASE is a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, a lot of companies will not pay for postage to send you a rejection or an acceptance, so you need to send an envelope addressed to yourself with a stamp, even then some do not guarantee a response.

(3)    This is where I note the recommended mode of sending the query by email. Most agencies and publishing companies get a lot of spam, so even if they don’t require it, it’s best to put QUERY in the subject line of your email, with your book title. Most of them are paranoid of viruses, and do not open attachments, so anything that they ask you to send along with the query you should paste to the email, they will most often request it but even if they don’t, you should do it anyways. Some will guarantee a response and will ask you to email another query after a given period of time, because if you didn’t get a response, they accidentally deleted it, or it got lost. Most are not so kind. Most of them will give you a time span of days to expect a reply, and then if they exceed it, you are to assume it to be a refusal.

So, this is how I start my query letter adventure, I think this post is long enough for one day, I’ll be posting more on this subject another time.

Well, It's Friday...

I have nothing to write about really, I haven’t had much time to do much in the writing world this week. In fact it’s been all that I can do just to blog. I’ve been busy trying to get my Avon business going and tie the last few things with 4-H (God am I glad that this is my last year dealing with that crap. Don’t get me wrong, 4-H is a great concept, but there are some things about my group and county that need of some serious overhauling. It makes it difficult to be active, but I try anyway, ‘cause that’s who I am. So, next year, I won’t have to think about it anymore, because I’m done, that’s it, finito! Au revoir! Adieu! Their incompetence has finally driven me out. It’s over.) Wow, I guess my feelings are still potent when it comes to that particular issue. Anyways, I spent some time with that this week instead of writing. Yesterday I did go to a writer group meeting. I need to find a new one; this one just isn’t helpful anymore.

  Lots of love to all of you who read through this, I realize it resembles more of a temper tantrum than an end of the week report.

So here’s a music video called “Stranger than Fiction” by Five Finger Death Punch, I hope you enjoy it.

Storytelling

The more I think about it the more I realize that everything that I enjoy doing involves storytelling. Think about it: acting and watching others act is a way to physically show and recite a story; writing is of course storytelling in its roughest form, no colors, no pretty decorations, it’s just wholly dependent upon the writer’s ability to portray an idea, and the readers ability to process and envision that idea and understand it; music is an emotional story whether it is wordless, in a foreign tongue or otherwise, whether you are the composer of the story or the listener, you are portraying an idea or tale through sounds; dancing is another way of acting out a story; so is a painting and drawing, these pieces of art each tell its own tale in a still form. In this respect, the arts themselves are just a way to communicate ideas, feelings and stories to those who have the ability to understand them.

Working on Enthusiasm

Sometimes writing on a particular project is not unlike pulling out your own teeth. One of my newer projects “Chloe’s Diary” has been on chapter two for entirely too long now. Spitting out the prologue and first chapter was relatively painless. I don’t know what happened, after the first scene in chapter two was typed out, all my drive and enthusiasm evaporated and I have been unable to sit down and get on a roll for a while now. When I first began to have trouble writing things down, I thought I would set it aside and I would pick it up when it was ready. So I waited…then I waited some more, then I forgot about it for about a month. When I came across the file on my computer, I remembered that it existed and I opened it up. I read and edited the prologue and first chapter, by the time I reached the second chapter I was getting excited about where it was going and as I began to recall some of the ideas that I had about what was going to happen next, then something interrupted me, I don’t recall what it was, and I was forced to leave the story, when I returned and finished editing, all my prior excitement was gone. Not about to let it sit going nowhere all over again, I decided to try a different tactic and keep it where I would see it and I would make myself open it up and write something, even if it was only a sentence every time I had a moment to spare and maybe, just maybe I would get on a roll and I might get the second chapter done. So far it hasn’t worked, but at least I’m working on it while I’m waiting for the writing adrenaline to come along. It makes me feel like I’m not an utter failure as a writer.

Writing Parasites

There are real writers, and then…there are phonies. I came to realize that real writers all admit to being a little kooky, and usually we don’t fight it. If we can find a group of us, unless you have an exclusive membership you will enviably get some wannabe writers. There are far too many of those carbon copies out here, all they do is take a popular story and change a few things so that they can’t get sued. Their excuse being that every idea has been already thought of by somebody else, that no one can write a new idea, because everything has already be thought of already in some form, and I don’t really buy that, but okay, I’m not going to argue with it either. Supposing that is true, there people are taking ideas deliberately, and that’s far from writing something then realizing that some parts of your sci-fi story has remarkable similarities to this older fantasy story which you only read after you had written your story. These people are plagiarizers and rip-offs, going to writer’s groups stealing the other writer’s time and ideas when they chose to suggest or help them out. I don’t know if you can pick up on the agitation in my tone of my writing, but it’s because I have had the misfortune of having such a parasite in a writing group I participated in once, and it bothers me.

A Picture Book

I am currently working on a story about a goat, who does not want to be named Billy. It is so simplistic I am seriously considering modifying it into a picture book. Since I’m not sure what the word count is for a picture book I’m going to need to do a little bit of research on the subject. I’m sorry this blog came so late and that it is so short, the entire day was dedicated to getting ready for a friend’s wedding…and then getting there…and then getting back home. It was cute though, I’m glad I went, though I am tired now. Night, night.

A Collection of Death Stories

I think I’m finally ready to write then send out some query letters for “A Slice of Life Death”. I’m usually nervous at this point in the process, but after receiving so many “no” and non-replies from other agencies on my other books that were, in my opinion, so much better than this book, that I can’t even work up the energy to get nervous. I’ve decided it’s just not worth it. That’s not to say, I’m not going to give writing my query my best shot or anything like that. I’m just not nervous anymore; I’m not giving up either, so that’s got to be a good thing, right?
If anybody knows any name for agent or publishing houses that publish collections of short stories, let me know with a comment on my blog and that’d be great! Thanks!