WP Platinum Blog
Hello? Is anybody out there? Really? After this long I had sorta thought that nobody but the spammers were visiting anymore (and before I get too far off topic, let me say that the spammers have really been active. 2 days generating over 300 spam posts? Either my site has just gotten a lot more hits from regular people and the spam bots are following or somebody is sending them my way because I don’t have a bot detector set up yet). In that case, accept my apology and my most heartfelt thanks. Much like a dog grabbing a toy and shaking the stuffing out of it, Life has been grabbing me and shaking the stuffing out of me. While I can’t point at just one thing, I can say that life simply conspired to make the month of February a really busy month.
As a quick update, I’m still writing and most days I have written, even if I haven’t been making my 750 words a day (and for that matter, being able to get onto their site each day). I have found a way of guilting me into doing a bit more writing each day though… I programed my phone to remind me each day at quarter to 8 pm “Have you written your 750 Words yet today”. Its good because it gets me writing again, even if I have to admit that I’ve been tempted to write excuses and reasons why I haven’t as a response to the question.
I have been writing, both writing in my novel (which I finally have figured out what my “plot point not making sense” was. Knowing a scene is wrong, but not knowing why blocks me horribly) and in new projects that I started off with my friends. We bought copies of 2YN by Lazette Gifford and have been running ourselves through that for the last 3 weeks. 2YN stands for “Two Year Novel” and her book helps take you from base idea/cool scene to a finished novel and sending out queries in two years. I’ve been through the course before and would suggest it to anyone thinking of writing a novel. Even if you’re not a meticulous planner (I wasn’t when I started and though I’m a planner now, I’m still not very meticulous about it), I found it very useful to learn how people plan and what sort of questions to ask. Due in part to my experience in the class, I was able to make the world my characters were living in much more believable.
Anyways, I started doing this with a few friends of mine and have new novel ideas brewing up because of it. One of them is Dual Melodies and I think that I’m going to start posting up my writings on this. Between the 40k words written on it previously and another idea I had messing around in my head I suddenly realized that the story just needed some basic tweaking before I could start re-writing it again. So, I’m starting over from scratch on it… which means an all new story for you guys! The other story is a silly idea that I’ve had brewing in my head about a year now. I’m tentatively calling the project “Erotic Angel” since it’s about a winged woman who is a professional courtesan and bard. It includes a lot of sex (note the Erotic in the title”) and while I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sell this little mini novella/novel thing, it is helping me to step out of my box and understand not only the act of sex more but also the feelings, emotions and behaviors surrounding it.
Something that I had to stop doing during February was reading. Now this was painful to me, mainly because the book was not a good book. Trying to slog through it was like trying to wade through 4 feet of snow… it can be done, just not easily or happily. Now, I will admit that had I been handed this book 2 years ago, I probably would have just said it annoyed me, but not that it was actively bad. However, since I’ve started studying the art of writing, my bar for books has gone way up. Mediocre or not actively bad isn’t a good enough reason for me to read anymore. However, this book did help me to identify two main rules of writing that I now consider to be my two major sins of writing.
1. Never assume that I am familiar with your world or your characters.
What I mean by this is don’t start a book and forget to mention whether your main character is male or female. Don’t assume that because you said, “He’s a monk that was trained to kill people in war” (for instance) that your reader is going to automatically understand that later on when your monk-killer starts emo’ing out and saying people “treat him differently because of what he is” that we aren’t going to immediately think that its because he fought and killed people in the war(Yes, this is has happened before… we were told the main characters profession and emo-tendencies before we found out his race).
2. Don’t make your secondary characters stupid just to make the main character look smarter.
This should be quick because this rule is quite solid. If you want your main character to come across as smart, make him smart. Don’t make the other characters stupid. In the book I was reading, a 40 year old general sent his squad in unprepared to fight mercenaries/bandits who had holed up in a cave that they had prepared in case they needed someplace to fall back to. The war mage (normally the smartest character since that sort of magic is based off how intelligent you are) admitted to not learning battle spells on a day when he should have known he was getting into combat. But the 18 year old Monk could have told him what he needed to know.)
Anyways, I’ll stop on my rants and let you guys go. Keep an eye open, I’ll be posting up two songs I wrote during FAWM(I wasn’t really participating, but I thought I’d give song writing in general a try) and I’ll see you all next time.
Posted in Blogs on February 27th, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | Comments Off
Happy 2011!
That’s right, 2010 has passed and 2011 is here! This year is going to be a good one, if only because I make it so. I think today we need to talk about a few things… loosely connected with the new year. First off, looking back. How/Where have I improved in the past year, any truly intelligent lasting wisdom I’ve gained, that sort of stuff. I feel that before I can truly make any lasting resolutions for the coming year, I first need to understand where I’ve been. So, what has happened in the last year?
Well, on the topic of writing, I started up my website earlier this year. In fact my first blog post was on May 29th. I defined myself as a Dark Fantasy Writer, which was a very large step for me. While most of my writing is Dark Fantasy, I’m still working at understanding myself as a writer and I’m certainly not above trying my hand at other genres. So I’ve learned that I am still finding myself as a writer and that it’s okay to still be settling into my place.
I’ve learned that while I may call myself a writer, I cannot do it, unless I write. A writer is someone who writes, payment or not. This year, I have allowed too many excuses to stop me from writing. My lesson from this? That my most dangerous enemy to my dream of being a writer is me. It’s a harsh lesson, to realize that you could be so much further ahead in your dream, if only you would stop fighting yourself at every turn.
I’ve learned that I am truly self conscious about my work. Yes, I post short stories and chapters up on my site, but you should see the amount of editing I do to those. I don’t even like my husband reading my work until I’ve done what I like to call a “First Edit” where I go through my work, edit and then let him read it. Then I’ll do more editing as it comes up. I need to get over some of my fear of showing my work to other people. I’m always saying I have self confidence… Maybe I should start proving it.
I’ve learned that I really need help with editing. As a child, I learned to edit as I write, correcting things as I go. Usually, I would have a sheet of schoolwork, with 2 -3 words crossed out here, two sentences changed and otherwise my writing was the same. Line editing is less of an issue for me, but editing for content is. I have to learn more about editing and how to do it without destroying my work or my voice in the work.
I’ve learned that I enjoy the challenge of working with/against other people. To clarify, the idea that I’m competing makes me push that little bit harder to make sure I write every day and write more. I also work very well with rewards that I can’t control. The website 750 words for example. I can’t cheat my way to 200 days on it… or rather I could, but I’d know that I had cheated and that out there, people were doing it without cheating. So, I should be signing up for writing groups, so that I always have to have something to turn in. There is something terrifying to me about the line “We’re not angry, we’re just disappointed” (Thank you, Ivan Coyote). Don’t you agree?
I can be healthy even if it is really hard and that doing so actually helps me to feel better and more confident about myself. I must admit, I still look at my weight for the real prize, but I am learning that being healthy is something different than denying myself anything I want.
So, now that I’ve looked at what I’ve learned, I need to discuss what I want to do to continue to grow this year.
1. I know that if I want to call myself a writer then I must write. So, I am setting myself a word goal this year. 750 words a day, except in November when 50,000 for the month is in effect. The total comes out to 301,250 words. I think I’m going to cut that down to 300,000 words for the year, because it makes for easier math. However, it’s not just a yearly goal. What is important is that I write every day, instead of just waiting for the weekends or for when I have “time” to do so.
2. I know that I eventually want to be a published author. So, my plan to help me achieve this goal is to finish my novel and start sending it out to publishers by the end of the year. Which does mean that I need to start reading and writing on it again. I will take 2-3 days and figure out where I was and where I was going and then I will move on to writing the story again. My goal is to finish writing the story before the end of January, so that I can let it sit and then I can start doing general line edits in February. After I have finished with just line edits, then I’ll take a look at content and ways to fix it.
3. I need to stop being afraid to show people my work. I will overcome that fear by posting shorter stories more often, even if they don’t actually connect to any of my other writing. Expect a lot of 750 – 1000 word short stories on a variety of topics here folks, as well as my other writings.
4. I want to lose weight, get into exercising more regularly and start eating healthier. To do this, my husband and I have invested in a personal gym. We now have an elliptical, an Olympic grade weight set, various free weights, a toning machine (think BowFlex type of machine).
5. I will continue to network and try to meet other writers. I will do this by continuing to attend writers conferences and making friends within the writing community.
6. I will continue to improve on my craft of writing. I will do this with my writing more often, by listening to podcasts like Writing Excuses, by attending writing conferences like SiWC and by taking some university courses on writing.
So, there you have it, my list of what I learned in 2010 and what I hope to learn and how I’ll learn it in 2011. What do you think of my resolutions and even more importantly, what are yours?
Posted in Blogs on January 3rd, 2011 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
So, today I have a bit good news to put out. I am officially writing again… Or at least, I’m back to writing stories and such. Since the beginning of December, I’ve had trouble trying to write fiction. Mainly it was a a minor issue with me being brain-frazzled at the end of Nanowrimo. It happens to me at the end of every nano and as I somewhat expected, it took me a few weeks to return back to actually having the drive to write fiction again. I think it comes from me not doing enough writing during the year. I don’t write like that quite as often as I should, especially not in the summer months and so it’s like a muscle that I only use intermittently. I can push it to the brink and force it to produce for me, but afterward I have to rest it. It’s a pain, but I think I’ve finally figured out a way to fix it.
See, now that I’m actually thinking again (and by the Gods it’s good to be back and thinking again) I’m able to look at this problem and see why it happens. What I have been doing up to now is simply accepting the problem. I had decided that it happened and that was all that I could really do about it. Wait out the mind numbing wearyness and then return to writing. What I forgot, though, was that the mind is a muscle like any other. And if you use and abuse a muscle, it will give out on you.
Lets take a look at the following example. You decide that you are putting on a bit too much weight and start looking for ways to fix the problem. Loving food and hating diets, you decide to try exercising instead. So, you head out to the gym, but find out that you can only use the equipment for about 5 minutes before you are wheezing and sweating up a storm. You continue for another 10 minutes, determined to not embarrass yourself that badly. After you’ve gotten your breath back and can breath again, you get dressed and head home thinking, “Well that was depressing but I’ll do better tomorrow.” Unfortunately, you’ve over used the muscle now, pushing it harder than you should have. The next day you wake up, unable to move without pain.
What the pain is telling you is that you should have stopped after 5 minutes and tried to do more the next day, instead of pushing your muscles to that point of exhastion. The brain is a muscle too, but since it is only with mental pursuits that you can exercise it (and it doesn’t hurt if you push it) you still need to do it regularly or you’re going to suffer a backlash, requiring overly long breaks before you can write again. How am I going to fix this? Well, I’m not going to stop doing nanowrimo… that would be unthinkable. Instead, what I am going to do is try to write every day this year. And I’m going to keep the daily writings nice and short.
I recently found a website called 750 words, which challenges you to go 750 words a day. Now, it will let you write anything, in any genre or style. I’ve been using it as a mix between word program and writing challenge. Out of the 7 days I’ve been on it now, I have used it as both a place to write “my day was _____” type of journal entries, as well as more fantasy oriented super short stories. I am on a 7 day streak now, and for the first time in what feels like forever (even though it’s only been a month), I feel like I am not only writing again (even if it wasn’t on my novel yet) but that I can do this and survive.
So, I am ready to state now, one of my goals for 2011 is to take the WriYe/750 words a day challenge this year. I will try to write 300K this year, which translates to 50,000 words in November plus 750 a day otherwise… with an additional 6K floating in from the ether to make it a nice even 300,000. This will be a really good challenge, especially since the real challenge is not to write 300K, but to write every day. All of my writing, except for pure journal posts and blog posts will count.
Now I did have one odd question for you guys out there reading this. I have a friend (Hello Samantha!) who recently said that she was going to try blogging a tiny bit each day, including the number of words she wrote each day almost as a tag on the bottom. Now I was wondering, would you all be interested in having me do something similar? So that whenever I write, I try to update my blog, even if it’s just to say “I worked on my novel and got 700 words today” or would you rather I only do that on Twitter?
Let me know and I’ll try to keep you updated as to changes in the New Year!
Posted in Blogs on December 29th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
Happy Holidays Everyone. I’m certain with the holidays approaching all of you are just as busy as I am. Still, I had to take my time to say hello to all of you out there in between all the holiday hustle and bustle. I know most of you celebrate Christmas and that you’ve yet to have your holiday so I’ll send out a ‘Merry Christmas’ to all of you first. As for myself, I’m Pagan and so I am also going to have to wish everyone out there a Blessed Yule. And this year definitely was a blessed Yule. The morning of the Winter Solstice we had an event happen that hasn’t happened in the last 496 years. Our Winter Solstice was accompanied on high by a once in the last 5 centuries event… a full Lunar Eclipse. This is one of the few solar events so rare that there aren’t any myths of it happening… at least certainly not of it happening on the day of Solstice. Anyways, needless to say, I was ecstatic. I get excited when there is a full moon on Solstice, let alone a rare event like a Full Lunar Eclipse. My ritual on Solstice was beautiful by the way… I hope that whatever you celebrate this season, it brings you the same sense of peace that my ritual brought me.
My birthday was earlier this week as well. Yep, your resident Writer is now officially feeling old at the age of 31. Which was all right. I’ve always said that Silver hair means that you’ve been blessed by the Moon. My party was pretty good as well. Me and a few of my friends all went out to dinner at a local pub and then we went to go and see Tron: Legacy. It was pretty good, but I’ll do a full discussion on the movie another time. My prize gift this year came from my Father. He got me Dan Well’s, Mr. Monster! The second book in the “I am Not a Serial Killer” series, I have been waiting eagerly to read it since it came out. However, I was asked by family not to buy myself gifts within two months of Christmas so I haven’t been able to pick it up.
I got a few other gifts as well, but the fact that almost everyone was able to make it was the real awesome gift. I have always said that I require Presence, not Presents. The rest of this week will be a little less busy for me. It’s a lot of visiting with family, since they all celebrate Christmas and I must admit, it will be good to see my nieces and nephew again.
What’s that? What about my writing?
Oh, that’s right… most of you come here to hear what I’ve been thinking about while I learn my way through the writing process. I don’t suppose mentioning pretty bunnies behind you will help, will it?
**sigh**
I’ve been distracted lately, so while I’ve been writing almost every day, I haven’t worked on my novel at all lately. I’ve had a couple of fun ideas (who wants a full novel written about “The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus” novelette done in a more dark fantasy/no holds barred way), but mostly I’ve just been procrastinating and trying to get caught up on writing that I was behind on (like my letter to my cousin… It’s on the way, I promise!).
I do promise that I will have more coming your way in the New Year… Perhaps even a podcast of some of my writings, although I think my blog posts are way too short to try and podcast them. I will be doing more of my writing and working towards finishing my Nano novel starting the 27th. I have a post planned on New Year’s Resolutions and a couple of short stories that I think I may write in the meantime. Basically keep updated and checking the site/checking your RSS feeds for new stuff. I’m not taking a hiatus this year… although I certainly hope that all of you will be enjoying your well earned rest.
I would like to hear how all of you have been and what holiday you celebrate. Have you been writing? Did you get anything awesome this year?
On a final note, I will leave you with this link to one of my favourite Yule songs of all time. It’s called “Santa Clause is Pagan Too” and it’s sung by Emerald Rose. Enjoy.
Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule and Happy Holidays!
Posted in Blogs, Pagan on December 25th, 2010 by B.A. Matthews | | 2 Comments »
