Thursday, March 29, 2012

Astounding

Today i wrote a record breaking 16 pages. That is most likely because i have come to the point labeled in my outline as "The Plot Thickens" and when a plot gets thicker there's more to say and the storytelling is even more fun. And i feel i am spreading information more evenly around the story. that's one of the problems i think i had the first time around; wanting to tell everything RIGHT NOW! but i don't have to do that. and i've found a balanced way to proceed.

In other news i have finally finished Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys and i loved it. i'd been inching along the last end bit for days and i finally stopped writing, after 16 crazy pages, and finished my damn book. And i got to the end and read the last words which were, of course, the cadence, the chorus of the book "...when we were the Mulvaneys." and my heart did a nauseous left-handed jump and i felt the tears in my throat.

i need another JoyceCO book. like now.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Distractions and Puke

I got distracted from the post i wanted to write last night by Facebook insanity and horrifying a non-mother with stories of puke and poo that mothers laugh in the face of. Ha Ha.

I've been averaging about 10 pages a day on the third rewrite of the monstroscity (TWM, i guess). that's good considering how many dumb ass old people are using the phones these days. learn to dial a phone already, i'm sick of saying "your call cannot be completed as dialed..." and listening to those tones. we-ooh we-ooh we-ooh.

and the story itself is cracking me up. I brought in Loki's brothers who were not mentioned in it the first time around and were basically only in the prequel. but they're so important as family and Anka's need to protect them that why not bring them in? they're hilarious. i love them so much.

And right now what i'm basically doing is that reminder stuff. going over the things you may have forgotten since reading the first and catching you up on what's happened in the interim. it's one of the things i hate the most becuase i tend to read a series of books back to back; i don't need ot be reminded. so it must be done, but i'm doing it as non-obnoxiously and un-repetatively as possible.

maybe today, maybe the start of next week i'll get into the plot of the monstroscity. i'm not hurrying though. remember? i'm trying to do it perfect the first time around... third time. whatever.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Moving Side to Side

Because, as i've said, the story is over and there is no forward. there is only side to side within the confines of what's been written.

the third rewrite of the monstroscity is moving slowly. the prologue took forever... even though it's only like four pages long. In the past two days i've done a bit more and more quickly at that. I'm trying to do it perfectly first time around. there's already lots of edits and notes in the sides. there's post it's all over the timeline so i remember to put things in that i dream up that is fantastic.

and once again, i'm wishing there was a machine i could hook up to my brain and it would read it all out of my head and i wouldn't have to do all the work of writing it down.

and since i've already written this thing twice before it becomes even more true. But there's also something new and exciting about it. because i know everything. because there is only side to side. because i know more motives. because i know the end that they are moving towards.

Friday, March 16, 2012

I Create My Own Hilarity

I'm constantly doing things within my stories that are purely for my own amusement. like how when someone in the Connector says they've been 'nowhere special' it means that they were in the potty. but i never say that "out loud" in the story. it's a secret... well, not anymore i suppose.
Speaking of the connecter i've brought it home and put it back on the desk shelf with the rest of them. For the past few days i've opened up the binder and been like meh... and instead have been thinking about the monstroscity. so i whipped it out and cut it into pieces and saved some of it and wrote a new outline and bought a new notebook and here's where my own hilarity comes in:
i always write on the front of them what they are so, you know, i know what they are... and on the front of the new one i wrote:
The third rewrite of the Nameless Monstroscity that now has a name. and how fitting that it's a yellow notebook because the first attempt was yellow too.
haha.
Other things that make me laugh. The new outline is titled "Events of Goings On" and one of the headers is a reference to Futurama and i giggled over it as i wrote it:
War Were Declared.
now i'm gonna go work on my string timeline cuz i bought one of those folding display boards that you use in school for projects

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Every Woman With a Six Month Old Cuts Her Hair

but i wonder, does every woman with a six month old and two jobs besides have this much energy and ambition for the writing (or other such crafty, personal pursuits)? maybe even more so than before there was the thought of a six or any other month old to factor into things...?

i wanna build a string timeline. Vincent built one in A Novel Idea (nano from 2011) but he did his out of some sort of desperation to change a story that was horrible and turned down by publishers over and over into something that they may like. i'm not so desperate to have publishers like my work, but the only timeline i have is skewed and wrong because it was done back in '07 when characters like Nesris, Solomon, Vietta and Dartia never existed. where do they fit in? things were happening all at once in some points and i'd love to see the visual that goes with that.

plus a string timeline could include political and bigger changes, not just the character events. not only will it be fun to make, but it's also less permanent. i make a mistake? i unclip and retie and boom, timeline's fixed. my old one is covered in scribbles and i can hardly read it.

everything i write is covered in scribbles and i can hardly read it.

makes me think of this: http://skylarkarts.com/2010/11/26/jane-austen%E2%80%99s-novels-were-written-by-a-man/

there's one article with the actual images of her work but i'm too lazy to find it right now and i'm supposed to be working... i looked at them and they're messy and crazy, but i find myself not sure how much i believe about what someone else had to do. because where are the second drafts?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Pinterest

how i love thee.

i read something, somewhere about as a writer using pinterest as a place to garner interest in stories. most of their suggestions for doing so were stupid, so i didn't. and then i saw this image of a woman wearing sparkly leggings and boots and big clunky socks or leg warmers. i knew they were Jo's legs (though much skinnier!) so i started a pinterest board with images from stories. All the images say what i see and in what story they appear, and i'm sticking to my chosen names. have i put them all down in one place yet?


The Guide
The Prophet
The Medium
The Pilot
The Child


I'm not positive of the order because the medium and the pilot are pretty interchangeable. but whatever, it doesn't matter yet. they're pretty there where they are.


anyway, here's the pinterest board which also includes Petra from an unrelated (though subtly connected but you'll never notice it) story that i call Running Parallel and mention from time to time. http://pinterest.com/vodkavases/stories/

also, there's a button over there on the right side so you can follow me if you like. i'll probably follow you back.

and how about the makeover? pretty cool, right. i was thinking about it all day at work and it's the first thing i did when i got home.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

On and On

i don't know what the hell i was so worried about. i've already rewritten the first chapter and started on the second of the connector using the rearranged old stuff. not much of what was originally written actually made it into the rewrite, just the essence. and i really love it.

i'm so close to finishing typing up the original. i'm not even going to use what i wrote originally for the ending, but instead use the rewrites i already have done that i created at the beginning of this editing process. less typing i have to do. and when i do typing for both of my jobs the less typing i have to do the better.

which is why i bought dragon, which i never use cuz my computer runs a little too slowly. oh well, it wasn't expensive and i'm sure one day i'll have a better computer.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Terrified

I know why i'm working on the connector right now. it's because in writing the sequel i returned to the story of jo and sol where i've been yearning towards for quite some time. returing to them in their end made me want to revisit their beginnings finally, so i did. and it's been a great experience, even though yesterdays cut and reorder still has me a little freaked out.

i also really wanna go back to the spaceship becasue of the sequel which brought those characters into play again too.

the thing is i do not want to go anywhere near the prequel or the monstroscity. the prequel becuase i spent so much time trying to fix it that i just feel worn out and i need to give it a damn rest. but the monstroscity because i don't know what it even looks like anymore. it's been so long and so much has changed in my head about what needs to happen there that i don't even know where to start.

really, what did i get myself into? how old and decrepit will i be when i finish this?