Monday, May 8, 2017

My 10 Commandments of Writing

Today's Earworm:
Today's Date: May 8, 2015

So I know that I kind of died there for a while and I am sorry. Life wasn't happy with me, but that's about normal for me.

I'm kind of doing a twitchtwitchdie thing over here in regards to pain but that's about normal.

But! I wanted to get back into doing something interesting and this is what I decided to do!

My 10 Commandments of Writing

Disclaimer: My commandments might not work for you. Just so you know.

1) Practice. Practice. Then Practice some more.

When people ask me how I can write so many words in a week (on average about 5K when life isn't sucking my soul) they always give me this look when I say "Practice".

I'm not joking you when I say that. It was practice that trained me into writing every day in some way. I may write only a single side of a piece of paper a day for a week, but I'm getting words down. I don't let a block on one story stop me from writing.

I simply put that story to the side for a short time and work on another story. And while I write, I talk with a friend or two about the knot that I've found in my story. I don't stop practicing.

I write, always.

2) Write. Even when you don't want to, write.

The only time that I can't write is when I'm so drugged up that my eyes are going crosseyed and I'm falling asleep at my desk. And that's pretty darn rare.

I don't let my life hold me back. I write in some way or another. Just like I have practiced since the day that I picked up a pen and started to write horrible poems.

3) Ignore those who have only seen part of the manuscript. 
They know nothing.

I can not tell you how often someone has read a chapter or two of a story and the utterly fucked it over for me by butting into what I'm writing.

"Have you done this yet?"

"Have you changed that yet?"

It really kills an idea for me. I do continue to write on that story but I tend not to show it ever again. It has taken me years to get to a point where I just kind of ignore requests to see even full manuscripts until I'm ready to show someone something.

4) Ignore those who think they know your style and what you're trying to do.

This ties in with number 3. People tend to think they know what you're writing or how you write. They think they do and most often than not, they're wrong. And it can really mess with someone when that person tries to butt in.

Especially when it's someone who is just learning what their writing style is or what they want to do with a story.

5) Ignore the urge to go back and edit before at least 10 chapters.

This is mostly because after the first 10 chapters, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do with the story and need to go back to edit some details into the story or change some around.

Or in the case of Bad Dog, rewrite a chapter into two chapters so that the information dump is more of an information stream.

But if I don't wait, I tend to have to rewrite and edit more than two or three times, which is a waste of time and space, and I don't enjoy wasting my time when I can write on things. Thus, I wait until I have a minimum of ten chapters written.

6) Write what you want to write. 

I don't write to be popular. I know that a lot of my stuff is very niche, very small in a lot of ways. But that's fine. I write what I write because I enjoy it. I write what I write because out there someone else will enjoy it. I write what I write because I want to read it myself.

And I can't find it anywhere. Thus, I write what I want to write.

7) Ignore people who say you need to write this because it's all the rage.

This is tied to number 6. I said that i don't write because I want to be popular.

And I don't. Popularity is a fickle, fickle bitch and not something I want to deal with. If I become popular...people will just have to deal with what I write because apparently I'm doing something good.

No, I will not write some bored housewife wish fulfilment that is a badly written attempt at the BDSM world without a drop of research.

Yes, I will write (or try to) write a BDSM homo-erotic story that is researched until my eyes bleed...and then researched some more. I have connections who are willing to tell me in great detail what goes on in that world.

No, I will not write about a 'vampire' that falls in love with some simpering Self-insert to cater to the masses.

Yes, I will write about a vampire who is a smug little bastard who finds a half angel and has a stalker ex who wants to bleed his half angel out just because, hey, blood. And a cold corpse to fuck. (I never said that my stories had SANE villains, people.)

Yes, I will write what I want to write, and fill my niche with fans who like my stuff and I'll let the bullshit...be far, far away from me.

8) Don't limit yourself.

I will not limit myself to one genre, type of character, or type of plot. I will explore whatever interests me and I will learn about each thing that catches my attention.

Because I apparently like to research and learn.

9) Don't stop writing damnit! 

Nope, can't stop writing. Nope.

10) Do what you need to do to get those words.

I will do whatever I can do to get my words.

I will listen to music, or a movie, or marathon something creepy on Youtube.

I will hand write, write in Google Docs, or I will babble about a story to my friend who likes to watch me write.

I will get those fucking words!

One way. Or the other.

So! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my world. I know I had fun with this one and I hope to have more fun with more posts like this as time goes along.

Monday, April 24, 2017

CampNaNoWriMo April 2017 - Week 3 End

Today's Earworm: I Am a Stone by Demon Hunter
Today's Date: April 24, 2017

What to say today?

Actually I don't have an answer to that. I've been writing so hard and fast the last few days that I've kind of lost my own thoughts.

I found myself a new story that is kind of eating my brain, based around the above song and Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers. Both songs have damn near been on repeat since I discovered them and just let the sound and the lyrics work their magic on me.

So I think I found what I wanted to discuss beyond my current word count (just over 20K actually).

Inspiration.

I know I've touched on this on my twitter (@SLStrailo) and sometimes here, but I don't think I've done a full on blog about it.

Inspiration can come from anywhere and right now I'm not looking a gifthorse in the mouth. So to say, I'm not complaining.

Really. I want the inspiration to hit. I want those words to come to me and to work with me instead of giving me issues with trying to get them down and out. Let me tell you, fighting the words is a bitch. I don't think that there is a writer's block, there's just an inability to want to get those words down and issues mentally that stops the connection between word and writer's mind.

Which can suck. But still not writer's block.

So I've been getting words but they have been hard fought for words, which tend to read better than an easy flowing words but hey that shit happens.

Inspiration helps me get the words. And I love it. I love the fact that I can put the music on and get the words out and then...then I can go back with a sickle in hand and cut them down or fix them up. Whatever I need to make them look polished and pretty.

As for words...I'm currently at 2,0633 words and I need to cram so many words in yet.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

April 2017 and What Has Been Going On

Today's Earworm: Narcissistic Cannibal (cover) by Earlyrise
Today's Date: April 18, 2017

So I'm pretty sure that you've noticed that I haven't posted a new blog for two weeks in a row right?

Eh, I'm sorry that I didn't but I kind of needed to just stop and get away from things. I needed to relax and focus on my writing and not my blog as I've been doing for most Sunday's since I started a long term Monday Blog Series.

I had to stop and focus on...me.

I've spoken about my mental issues, including ADD and OCD, but I don't think that I've talked about the issues that I have with Depression, Anxiety and panic attacks. At least not in detail.

No, I'm not going to talk about those in detail this post so don't worry.

I am going to talk about what has been going on in my writing life and what I'm shifting around, fixing up and thinking about in regards to it.

After my lovely friend left last Sunday, I kind of crashed. And hard. I didn't write all that much during the first week of Camp and the second week kind of was meh, but this week so far has been good. I haven't actually worked on either Black Veiled Saviour or Bad Dog. At least not in getting words so far.

I've been working on other things that need to be focused on. But I have, surprisingly, gotten over 16 thousand words. I have dropped my word counts down to 30K because of the rocky start to my writing, but shit happens.

I'm also doing a lot of rewriting and going over information with various stories. It's seemed to be working well enough for me, so I'm happy with that.

I just need to finish off a few things. Get them off of my long, long list. Which is driving me up a wall. A big, craggly wall.

But I'm doing it.

So thank you for understanding. Tune in next week for the update on the stories and after that I'll be talking about what I'm thinking of doing for the next few posts.

Monday, April 3, 2017

April Camp Nano 2017 - Part 1

Today's Earworm: Heart Heart Head by Meg Myers
Today's Date: April 3, 2017

I have made a decision. A very serious decision to.

It's about Black Veiled Saviour, which is one of two books that I'm working on.

I have decided to just scrap the original story and start it anew. I have plans on using bits and pieces of the current chapters that I have, but I'm not going to continue the current story line.

I still need to work a few things out but to note I am keeping the characters used so far, and keeping their personalities. It's going to be interesting to rewrite this world.

But that'll wait for a bit of time. I'll survive. Really.

Now, something I wanted to talk about: Genres. I've noticed that there have been threads about Happily Ever After's (HEA) in romance and why it's a part of romance.

If you don't have a HEA it's not a romance damnit! We read romance for that. That is what makes romance romance.

People are trying to get rid of the need for HEA's and a few other things that make the romance genre what it is. Which is kind of stupid actually because then it's not romance.

Now mind you, romance has so many sub-genres that the sub-genres need sub-genres. It's that damn vast of a genre.

I personally write horror, comedy-horror, mystery, and sometimes Sci-fi, but I still work within the rules that sell those genres. Why?

Because that's what sells. It's been changed and perfected and honed over the years. A genre is set up a certain way because it works and yes, I'm playing with some cliches and some not so cliches and changing up my characters and introducing some new ideas...but...

I am still playing by the damn rules.

I write according to the beats that were set by authors that were around long before I was. I write my villains and I write my heros and I write my victims according to what sells.

And I do the same for my romances, rare as they are.

Stop trying to be edgy. Even the author of Twilight played by the rules set in her genre, as distasteful as I find the book. I grew up on Dracula, and Anne Rice okay.  Vampires do not sparkle and those wolves aren't werewolves. They're shifters.

But still, genre 'rules' are there for a reason. And that is because...

They fucking well sell! Learn what the guidelines are and figure out how to put your own damn spin on them. That's the idea behind writing. I swear.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 4

Today's Earworm:
Today's date: March 27, 2014

So...I was going to focus on Bad Dog, Mean Bunny, Follow Me Down, and my Untitled Prompt Story...

I don't think I'm really going to be able to do that juggling act this round. Not because I don't want to, but because I want to focus this round. That means that I'm going to actually probably focus on Black Veiled Saviour and Bad Dog at the most. I'm not going to do a lot of plotting for the stories either.

Now, hold on, don't go complaining and pouting at me for focusing on two of my stories instead of bouncing around between stories. I decided to focus on the two stories instead of just bouncing around because that's how my mind is working this round.

It just means that I want to work on a certain amount of stories instead of having a wide variety of stories to play with.

This does not mean that I'm going to not work on other stories. I'm just more likely to not work on them actually work on them.

But since I'm less than a week away from April starting (4 days and counting actually), I will be setting up the two stories because I do have ideas for them and getting ready for things to come.

So, what's the stats on the stories as it is right now?

Black Veiled Saviour
Words Currently Written: 11,047
Chapters Currently Written: 8

Mean Bunny
Words Currently Written: 14,876
Chapters Currently Written: 7

I will try to keep you updated on word count and how much I've added to eat story as April goes along.

Right now, I'm going to get ready for today's writing marathon. Here's hoping to fun.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 3

Today's Earworm: Snuff by Slipknot
Today's Date: March 20, 2017

Okay, so this was supposed to go up yesterday but due to a long day going with my friend to a pain treatment and then a pill review (which isn't happening next month hopefully!).

So this is a day late but hey! I have gotten it out and up which is nice.

To tell you what I've been up to...not much actually. Why? Because I've been working up to a cold and damn it, it hit and hit hard yesterday. So I crashed out yesterday about 9:30PM and didn't crawl out of bed until about 1:30PM today. So yeah.

I'm catching up on things though and I really don't think that this blog is going to be very long since I don't have much to talk about this round since I was sleeping or dealing with the cold building up.

But! I do have a new book that I'm currently called my "Househunting turned into a murder mystery" kind of thing. Not sure as to what I'm going to do but it's probably going to be a rather interesting and long story. I'm already having fun with it so far and I might let it be a stand alone because I have no idea if I do want to use it as a second book to a main story line or not.

We'll have to see.

For now I'm going to go write and read and drink tea so I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 2

Today's Earworm: RESIDENT EVIL 7 Biohazard Full HD 1080p/60fps Longplay Walkthrough Gameplay No Commentary
Today's Date: March 13, 2017


Bad Dog

Total Chapters Planned: 1
Total Chapters Written: Prologue plus 6

Mean Bunny (2015 NaNo Novel)

Total Chapters Planned: 2
Total Chapters Written: Prologue plus 7

Follow Me Down

Total Chapters Planned: 1
Total Chapters Written: 2

Untitled Prompt Horror Story

Total Chapters Planned: 25
Total Chapters Written: 2

So as you can see, didn't do much this week. Life has been a tad on the busy side of things. So I haven't had much of a chance to really plan anything. But I have been doing things, including catching up on things that my friend has been posting over on AO3.

Now, when I read, I don't read like a writer, I read like a reader. I don't let my knowledge of the writing process color my reactions and enjoyment of a story. I don't go into a story expecting to have it cater to my exact tastes.

But I go into a story with an open mind. And sometimes that knowledge of the writing process, tenses, and POV's, and all the other little goodies come in handy.

Now, my friend got a comment. The short and dirty of it, this person was trying to say it was a "This character can do no wrong so this character left all that they loved". I can tell you that no, this story was not that. For that matter, it was more of a "Character leaves behind what is tearing them apart to find a little happiness in their life" story.

Just because the character compares themselves to another character is just the character focus coloring the POV.

I'm sure you did come here to listen to me babble about POV's and character's and how they tend to dictate what you say in a story, but I think this is kind of important and something that I have to remind myself about occasionally.

When you write in First Person, you are getting all of their observations and all of their thoughts. From the characters Point of View. You don't get a full range of details but you get more insight into the person themselves.

When you write in Third Person, you are seeing the full picture. You are seeing the details that the characters miss. You are seeing all of the reactions of the characters, the setting, all the little things that help build things up.

I used to write in First person and let me tell you that was hard to do because if the character didn't observe it, it didn't exist. I now write in Third person with a past tense.

Anyways, when writing in Third person, as my friend was doing and I tend to do, if you're writing with a focus on a single character, their personality and opinions are going to color the words that you write. Their personality dictates how the words talk about other characters, and their opinions tell the tale.

For example: If one character hates another, a focused chapter or scene in Third person will talk very little about that person unless it's a needed chapter/scene. Then the scene will show how character A hates character B.

When it comes to writing, reminding yourself that you're not writing yourself, you are writing a character with a mind, a personality, and opinions. And when writing a focused chapter, all of that will bleed onto the page in a wider range. Third person is just First person through the reader's eyes and mind after all.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to watching today's earworm nnd writing. I have much to do and little time to do it.