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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Preparing for Camp 2017 - Part 1

Today's Earworm: Treat Me Like a Lady by Anneke van Giersberben
Today's Date: March 6, 2017

So, wow! Has it been a year since the last April Camp NaNo? Why, yes, yes it has been!

And what a year it has been. It's been up and down, left and right, and twisting all over the place.

But I'm here to start plotting for what I'm going to do with Camp this round. I am doing a mix of fanfiction and originals, but here, for this purpose, I'm going to talk about the originals I'll be touching on during this month. I'm hoping to get at least 12 or more original chapters/scenes done.

So, I'm going to break down what I'm going to focus on this round.

Bad Dog

- As of right now? I'm still rewriting chapter 1 and turning it into 2 chapters to smooth out the lovely info dumping that I did. I need to finish that off, go through the other 6 chapters to make sure that I didn't do that to much more, and then start planning on what I'm going to do next. I have a general idea and it's going to be interesting to say the least.

I still blame Ashe for this. I swear.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: Prologue plus 6
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 1

Mean Bunny (2015 NaNo Novel)

- I haven't really touched this one outside of rewriting the original chapters. I know where I want to go with this story and I know that I will write on it this month, so I'm hoping that I have a rather good sized list of stories to write come April will help in this fact.

I'm hoping. Cross your fingers with me?

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: Prologue plus 7
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 2

Follow Me Down

- Ahh, this story holds a special place in my heart. I love my little insane Oniel and his fascinating world. I'm actually going to have a friend work on some things for this world with me because she knows this world and loves it just as much as I do. And she helped create one of the more crazy characters.

I am getting back into this world this April. One way or the other.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017:  2
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 1

Untitled Prompt Horror Story

- This story was one that I started because I was bored. So I went and hunted down 25 one word prompts. And proceeded to build an outline out from around them.

I have about 25 prompts total and I'm rather fascinated by this world since it's a mix of history and present, and is focused, mostly, on the detective who is trying to figure out just what happened to our victim. It's a mix of ghostly horror and mystery so, all around, a lot of fun to work ont.

Total Written Chapters as of 3/6/2017: 2
Total Chapters Planned as of 3/6/2017: 25

So I hope this gives you an idea of what I'm working on planning next, and hope that those who are joining us at Camp Nano reach their goals!

Once more, I'm hoping to hit about 35K, if not 50K in April. Cross my fingers and pray!

How Stories Come to Be For Me

Today's Earworm: The Damaged Ones by 9ELECTRIC
Today's Date: February 27, 2017

So I was reading Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams story collection and before each story is a note about that story.

Well, in the note before the story, A Death, which is story 6, he talks about how sometimes stories come to him. He also talks about how a story comes to him in parts, a cup and a handle in the note before story 3, Batman and Robin Had an Alteration.

This...this sparked a thought in my head because he talked about how he often had visions of a kind of a character gathering. He talked about The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams which offered a metaphor, or a parable if you want to think about it, where there is a fire with a single character sitting there. And more characters would come with more fuel for the fire until they're all shown by the fire.

Well, apparently for A Death, he saw a man with a man trying to read a newspaper by a kerosene lantern.

And then of course, I'm going "How do I come up with my stories?"

Thus, this blog came to be. Because I have talked about my Plot Hike (which is how I build a story up instead of the Plot Moutain) and somewhat on how I get my stories, I wanted to actually talk with you guys on how I come up with stories.

Note: I am publishing this blog post on my livejournal fanfiction update page, so if you somehow found it there, no, I'm not stealing my own post from myself. Don't worry.

So...how do I come up with my stories?

Actually, any kind of way.

I've been known to just randomly think up an idea. Take Black Veiled Saviour for example. It's a murder mystery with undertones of homosexual romance, and it's one of my favorite stories in work. And the idea was sparked by Black Veil Brides song Saviour. It gave me Bo, who is one of my main characters as he thought about his future lover, Alexx.

It was a very interesting prospect, so I went back and relistened to the song. This time, I got an image of Alexx, in his original form since he's since changed a few times, of him sitting down and writing a letter to a fan of his musical group.

I wrote that story and if you go to my livejournal, here, you can read it.

For a few other stories, they actually started out as a role play that I was doing with friends. Take Follow Me Down. It's what I call a modern day dark fantasy kind of story. It started out as a role play with a few friends that kind of bombed because some things went down and I don't speak with one or two of the people any more.

It was based off a darker version of the Alice in Wonderland world, but has since changed to a point where it's not based off of anything but itself and history for a few of the character types. I'm still world building and figuring out characters, but I have a good base for the story itself, which is nice.

I also just...daydream them into existence. I'll be listening to music and playing solitaire or I'll be watching something mindless (or anime, one of the two), and suddenly I'll get a scene in my head that I'll play out. It gives me a jump point to create a story from since it's usually the first chapter and/or scene in the story.

From there, I build the world accordingly and figure out the characters by writing small bits and pieces here and there.

It's all about what I'm doing at the time. Stories do tend to just pop up in my head and then disappear if I don't write them down. But if I'm meant to write or I write it down, I'll poke at it and figure out what I want to do it.

After all, I'm not Stephen King. I can't wait for the cup to my handle when it comes to my stories and novels guys. It just doesn't work well for me to just wait.

To note: Next monday I'll be starting my Camp Nano prepping for April! Yay! Fun times to come. I hope you take a few minutes and check out that blog post and join me in the fun of writing.

My question for you guys is: how does your stories come to you?

"Write ONLY What You Know!"...Err, no

Today's Earworm: Dream On (cover) by Blacktop Mojo
Today's Date: February 20, 2017

So, I'm sure most writers when they've started out has heard the whole "Write what you know" line right? Well, it's not inherently wrong. It's really not! I promise. It's actually good advice. You should write what you know.

What I'm not fond of is the fact that a lot of people, such as teachers, fellow writers, and just those who are in our lives, all seem to use this saying in the wrong way. You can usually hear it. They say "write what you know" but you can still hear that "ONLY" in there, can't you?

It's grating. Cause you may not know something but you still want to write it, don't you? Well then, write it.

And here is where there's going to be a bit of well meaning sarcasm. You do know...that there is a service online called Google right? You can open a new tab and type in google.com, which will take you to a search page. From there, you can type in what you want to learn about and find hundreds of pages of sites that can tell you all about that subject.

Or you know those buildings with all those books? Where you can get a card and borrow those books for a couple of weeks? There are a lot of books about all sorts of subjects in that building. It's called a Library.

And you know, learning about something new? That's called...research.

Okay, I'm done being rather sarcastic. Something about people not remembering that we never stop learning. Even as adults. If you're not learning something, it can get really, really boring in life.

What I'm saying is that even if you don't know a subject, you have a wide variety of ways to learn about that subject.

You want to learn about the paranormal? Go to google, go to Bing, go to the library. Lookup 'paranormal', 'ghosts', 'supernatural'. I'll bet you ten to one that you'll find more than a few options.

You want to learn about fairies? Again, go to google, bing, library, where ever and look up 'fairies'. You'll find a lot of options again.

You have a lot of options at your finger tips guys. It's not that hard to find that information. Even before the internet, I was able to discover so much about my favorite subjects. Books were my best friends. Book stores, libraries, yard sales, what have you.

I researched.

And I learned.

What? Did you think Tolkien know everything about the beings that he wrote? No. He used his life to build the world that he created in his stories, and memories of the books that he enjoyed through his life to create the beings within.

He learned about that world as he built it.

Do you think your favorite author knows everything about their story when they first start building?

No. They to learned, researched, what they are writing. They build and grow. They don't say "Oh, I don't know this so I can't write this".

So when I hear "Write only what you know!", I have to say "No". I'm going to write what I want to write and I don't know anything about that, I'll research.

It's the 21st century, guys. Ignore the idiots who try to stunt you and learn what you want to know.

Let's Talk...Info Dumping

Today's Earworm:
Today's Date: February 13, 2017

Yes, I know, I'm doing quite a bit of the Let's Talk Series, right? Well, the reason why is because I'm rewriting the Settling Down to Write Series and I want to get most of them done before moving on to something else.

But why am I here to talk about information dumping and just what the hell is it?

Well, it's what it sounds like. It's when you dump a lot of information into a short space of time. Or in a piece of writing, when you put all of your information into only 2 to 10 paragraphs. When you write a story, you want to tell the story, but that includes building up the setting, the characters, the plot, and kick starting it all.

But you want to spread the information out. You don't want to just go "here, have all this information about the main character and the setting that you're going to forget because there is just to much".

Look, we retain information a lot better when it's introduced slowly and it's woven in around the story itself, which we're enjoying.

So when a sudden flood of information happens, it throws off a reader and makes it hard to remember those details. Which doesn't exactly make a reader want to read the book after that.

Which is a bad thing since as writers, we want them to read the book. And then, hopefully, tell their friends to buy and read the book so that we can make more money to continue to write amazing books that will have them coming back for more.

But how do you stop just dumping the information out?

It's actually very easy to dump the info so you might not notice it...until you go back to reread it. So, as to stopping it while writing it, you need to keep a note on what you've introduced during that chapter and what you need to yet introduce. And then keep an eye out just chunks of text filled with thoughts and ideas.

It's all about keeping introductory points down in each chapter. For me, as a rule of thumb, I tend to keep it to one to two interconnected introductory points.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in the prologue of Bad Dog, I introduce my Idiot Villain and what he is doing. Pretty much I have him sitting in his 'home' and going over a list of herbs and ritual items that he needs. That's an interconnected introductory point. It's introducing my character and introducing what he is doing at the moment.

Another chapter has him burying a body and meeting a werewolf after he has done so. Again, these are interconnected introductory points. Even if they don't look like it at first glance, they are.

Unfortunately, I have something like 10 introductory points that all branch off of one point in the first official chapter. I need to figure out what points I want to go over in that first chapter and go through the other points later on in the story, spread out.

Dialogue is your friend for a lot of things, but you also need to weave in the details that make up the world into the story itself.

It's kind of annoying trying to remember to weave instead of just going "here, have at it". As easy as it may be to just give a reader all of the details, again, it turns them off. So, remember to edit. Spread out your points. And keep an eye out for an information dump.

I'm still fixing my own dump. A week after I found it.

Bouncy Brain and Writing

Today's EarWorm: We Have It All by Pim Stones
Today's Date: February 6, 2017

So the last couple of weeks I have a bad case of what I call "Bouncy Brain". It pretty much boils down to when you can't really focus on anything much less a single story that you're supposed to be writing.

Yeah. Doesn't always happen, but when it does happen, hooo boy does it hit and hit hard. As it has in the last week. I have actually cleaned my room (and mind you, I shifted rooms in December okay?) up some more. My shelves are now pretty much organized and covered in books, knick knacks, and clothes that I wear since I don't have a working dresser any more.

But that's fine.

What's not fine is the fact that I can't focus on anything. Seriously. It took me like an hour of going between files to find something to write on the 28th of January okay? It was that bad. It gets kind of ridiculous really. I currently have three different tabs open to various files and my fellow Writing Groove chatters are all highly amused by the fact that I'm complaining about my bouncy brain.

...Okay, it's closer to bitching, but I try to toe that line. I'm not that mean.

Hell, if I could focus, I would be reading something from Necia that she sent me to get my opinion on. As I told her, if I felt I could focus on her story for longer than ten seconds I would be all over that. I would have shut my computer down, I would have phone in hand and I would be buried under my blankets are I read.

Yeah, the Bouncy Brain is strong with me now.

But...where does my bouncy brain come from?

Well, it comes from the fact that I have, as I've spoken about before, Adult Attention Deficit  Disorder, or AADD. Mind you, I'm used to ADD but I forget that I am an adult and that I do have AADD instead of just straight up ADD. It all comes out to the same thing but my version is less ruled by hormones and is, most of the time, controllable. And if I was on medication, I wouldn't be taking what most teens and pre-teens take.

Or at least their strengths and amounts.

For me though, as I've told a few people, when I get a bouncy brain, it's like my ADD (Yes, I'm pretty much dropping the Adult A from that because it's easier for me) and my OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) are duking it out in my head. On one side, I want to write. On the other I want to clean and write and read and plan...well, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with that.

It is also compounded by the fact that I have hypergraphia which is rooted in my OCD.

If you don't remember what hypergraphia is, it is the compulsive need to write. It can have its origins in Bi-polar, OCD (as is with my case) and other mental issues. It's pretty much an outlet for our brains.

For me it's connected to my OCD and it's something that I've had since I was a teen and starting high school. What started out as English assignments and badly written poetry turned into a real love of writing and an unfortunate need to do it.

Often.

Every day if possible and for hours on end.

So when I get bouncy brain it drives me insane. Well, more insane than what this world is doing to my white-knuckle hold on that thread.

Of course, I suddenly have a new dystopian novel running around in my head. Not like I don't already have a duology sitting around in my head.

Okay, to move on from my complaining, right now I'm in the "ooh! Shiny!" phase of my bouncy brain. Which means that it took me two hours to write this short little piece while watching one of SHN Horror Networks Resident Evil playthroughs (Resident Evil 6 pt 1 to be precise), rereading through "Bad Dog" and writing down the information on there, and moaning about bouncing brain.

So for now, I'm simply going to ask: Have you ever gotten bouncy brain? And if so, how did you deal with it? Tell me. I'm curious. :D

Monthly Writing Update - January 2017

Today's EarWorm:
Today's Date: January 31, 2017
Next Update: February 28, 2017

This is the first round of my Monthly Writing Up. This will happen on the last day of every month. That means if there is 28 days in a month, it will be on the 28th. If there are 30 days in a month, it will be on the 30th. If there is 31 days in a month, it will be on the 31st.

I'm sure that you get the idea yes?

Anyways, this is the first round and I'm still figuring out how I'm doing this, so work with me and comment if you find this easy to read.

Thank you.

I'm not really sure on how I will end up with the lay out but this is the first try. I'm pretty much going to do a day by day hit of what words I got.

So, let's start this round.

January 1: 1,579
January 2 to 5: No words. Busy
January 6: 250
January 7: 1,679
January 8 to January 11: No words
January 12: 1,868
January 13: 1,404, Edited
January 14 to January 16: No words
January 17: Edited, 203
January 18: No words
January 19: 1,596
January 20: 2.030
January 21:
January 22
January 23
January 24
January 25
January 26
January 27
January 28
January 29
January 30
January 31

Let's Talk...Image and your Writing

Today's EarWorm:
Today's Date: January 30, 2017

First and foremost I must apologize for language but there isn't really many ways of saying some of what I have to say guys. There isn't enough OOMPH in them. 

My my, has it come to the end of the month? Yes, yes it has. While you're reading this, I am most likely at my doctors, talking to her and doing my thing. That is, as long as you're reading this the day that it goes up.

To move away from my doctors appointment, let's talk about the image that a writer projects and how they can differentiate from what a reader may think they are.

Okay, say you find a writer who writes the creepiest, spookiest, mind bending horror that you've ever seen. Your first thought, most likely, will be of a person who is Gothic. They must wear all black, forsake the sun, and live in a world of darkness and horror. They're sarcastic and have the driest, darkest humor in the world and hate everyone who doesn't share their thoughts and opinions.

Right?

Wrong.

They don't?

Not to toot my own horn, but no. Okay, yes, I'm Gothic, but I can't really do the whole Gothic look since my skin hates daily makeup. But I try whenever I can really. I am actually a very nice person. Yes, I can have biting humor but that comes more from the way that I was raised and the fact that I have a bunch of male cousins who hated the fact that I could insult them in all sorts of ways without them realizing that I was.

I have so many cousins. Like...2 first cousins are girls okay? I had to learn how to smack down egos after all. But my family is also full of sarcastic, and you'll have to excuse my language here, assholes, so it's also a kind of learned behavior.

But outside of family and close friends, I'm really rather nice. Or I can fake nice if I don't like them for whatever reason. It's called "Social Politeness" and "Manners".

See what I mean about me having a sarcastic streak running through me?

But truthfully, thinking something of a writer is kind of a stereotyping.

Another example: a fantasy writer. Your first thought is D and D, Magic the Gathering, and a house filled with fairies, dragons, and wizards in books, statues, and clothes.

A mystery writer tends to be someone who is forever reading case files and talking to cops about how their jobs work.

A sci-fi writer must be a massive geek writing in their basement rooms while their mom's make them dinner, right?!

Nope. All of that is wrong. On so many levels.

I actually don't just write either blood filled horror stories, or mind-fucks that can leave you shuddering for days (and I have done that before), but I also write Dystopia Post- and Pre-Apocaylptic, Erotica, Paranormal Romance, and, for shits and giggles, mystery with a splash of romance.

I'm not a one-trick pony and most writers aren't. Not fully. Yes, they stick mostly to their chosen genre, but other genre's slink into their stories or occasionally

So how do writers work against stereotyping?

We network. We socialize. We utilize all of the possible platforms available to us. At least when we have time and we're not slaving away for your enjoyment.

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, Youtube...the list goes on and on and on! We have so many options of interacting with our fans in a fast way outside of e-mails, blogs and websites.

But we also go to writing conventions, various other kinds of conventions where our writings would be welcomed (genre conventions like YaoiCon for those who write homosexual based stories, Sci-fi and horror conventions, and others). It's a matter of what we write and what we do.

What we, as writers, do have to project is an image of professionalism. Our writing, our novels, our works are our business after all. We have to be professional. We have to have a certain attitude that we show to the rest of the world, especially if we're just starting out and don't have many readers.

After all, honey draws more than vinegar. And I'm not talking bees.

But if a writer has a shit attitude, then it's going to come out in a variety of ways. A tweet that shouldn't have been tweeted. A facebook rant that is just the wrong idea to put up. A bad timed social hissy fit.

In this day and age? This follows a person around and for a writer, who needs to be able to interact with their readers on, at the very least, a polite level, it hurts their business, new or old.

Cause really? No one wants to deal with a writer who is an asshole of the highest caliber okay?

I know I certainly don't, and I have dropped writers like a fresh out of the oven and still in the aluminum foil hot potato for their bad attitudes. There are somethings that I can forgive. Liking a bad candidate for the current political season, liking a horrible book, having a bad opinion, that's all fine.

The moment you treat a fellow human being like shit? Or you do some mud-slinging? We have issues. And I'm less likely to read you.

Doing anything that's just wrong? And I ditch you without saying goodbye. Your books are gone from all of my platforms. Your twitter/facebook/whathaveyou are unfollowed/unliked and blocked. Your name becomes a fuzzy memory for the rest of my life: It's there, but only enough to remember that no, I don't want to spend my good money on your stuff.

And that's the same thing with a lot of readers.

So a writer needs to project a face of being polite and, if at all possible, and of being well educated. Especially in this day and age.

Because it's the writers who see the way things are and we're the ones to offer an escape to those who need it by offering worlds in their chosen genres.

So, writers, Image is everything to your readers. And remember that your opinions are just that: yours. Don't fall into the "my opinion is right and you should all agree with me" kind of image. That will just be screwing yourself after all.

Readers, you can disagree with a writers opinions. That's fine. And if you don't agree with them but you still enjoy their reading, feel free to stop following them on social media but keep up with their writers facebook pages (which are usually free of anything but writing related things, or at least I hope so) and their websites.

Just remember: Image. Is. Everything. To both the writer and to the reader.

Let's Talk...Free Writing

Today's Earworm: Picture Me Rollin' by 2Pac
Today's Date: January 23, 2017

So today, we're gonna talk about free writing. And I'm not talking about what writers do when they have no idea what they want to write, and just open a new file and let the words go.

No, I'm talking about all the little goodies that you get randomly from some authors on their blogs, or on their sites.

I'm talking about flash stories, drabbles, and bits that you get for free to entice you into buying their books from them.

For that matter, I have some free writing that I'm working on creating for all of you, but it's taking me a bit of time. Mostly because I lost my little booklet with the drabble ideas in it for a while there. I have it again, and I'm back at writing the darn things. And editing them to death.

To move on, why do writers have free writing on their blogs or sites?

Well, now days, sites like Amazon have a nice little feature where you can get a sample of a book. But really? That's not a firm way of knowing the writer's style and ability. That's a good way of seeing if the book interests you and is what you want, but does the style of the writer make you want to come back for more? Who knows.

So most writers have started to create free bits on their sites and blogs, allowing the reader, you, to check things out. To read and see if their style is something that you would be interested in.

Most free writings that I've seen usually range from just under a thousand words (for a flash fiction) up to nearly 2 thousand (for shorter pieces). And they may even be a part of an interconnected story line which can show you just how they can weave a tale.

We do this to draw in new readers in the hope that they'll buy our books. That they'll tell their friend about this great new writer that they just found and want to share! That our blogs and sites will be shared all over the place and introduced to new people. We put things out there like that to help grow our small corner of the community.

It's a way to show off our skills. It's like we're saying "Hey! Look! I can write really good! Check out this story that I wrote and tell me what you think". Even these short pieces of fiction take time. Not as much as novels or novelettes or novella's take. Or even a short piece for an anthology. Because yes, those take time to write and edit and the such.

The free writings, we're usually writing, editing, letting sit, editing again and posting within a week's time since most of us do post such things weekly. It doesn't truly take much time for most of us to have a nice polished short bit. Longer pieces, yes, it takes time. A lot of time. But not so much the shorter pieces.

And again, we do this to show off our writing skills, as a way of thanking those who have taken the time to buy our stories, our books, and to draw in new readers.

Free writing is another way for us to draw attention to ourselves. Simple as that.

Let's Talk...Hate Sex!

Today's Earworm: I Cry by Flo Rida
Today's Date: January 16, 2017

I bet you're sitting there and going "Hate sex? The fuck?". Yeah, because I haven't touched on sex in books yet, in any form.

Okay, look, this came about from a DM (direct message) on Twitter about the fact that I was thinking about writing a scene where the two characters are having hate sex.

Right. So what did the DM say?

It called hate sex "rape".

It's not?

No. For f's sake...

To all those who don't know what hate sex is, it is not rape. Yes, it can come across as rapey depending on how it is written, but it's not that hard to move away from that.

But we'll get to that in a moment.

What is hate sex though?

Ah, it's a bit of an interesting thing to define really.

Let's talk about what it's not real fast first.

It is not rape. Rape is defined by Merriam-Webster (for this purpose) as:

unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent.

And:

archaic : to seize and take away by force.

What does this mean? It means that it's about power on one persons part. There is no consent wanted, nor needed for it to happen.

I don't like rape but I do use it in various stories for various reasons, and I'm always respectful to the victims and survivors of rape.

So hate sex is not rape.

Hate sex is also not makeup sex, or even sex that one has within a loving relationship. Rough sex happens in a loving relationship, but not hate sex.

Okay, so hate sex isn't rape, makeup sex or just even rough sex. What is it?

Well, hate sex is just that.

Sex that happens between two people who hate or intensely dislike each other. For them, the heat of their hate takes a turn into lust and they have sex. It's not about a relationship, love, or even respect.

Let me state something: When hate sex happens, the two (or more) involved have given consent in some form or another. As long as they are not drunk (I've written characters with alcohol in their system having hate sex but not drunk enough to not know what they're doing, let's be clear on this), they can consent.

Consent is key.

 Hell consent is key in any sex scene, be it for fanfiction or original stories. Especially in this day and age.

For example: In the story that I was planning on writing, the two characters hate each other. Absolutely despise each other.

That doesn't mean that they don't want to screw each other silly. For them, there is a fine line between absolute hatred and lust, but it's a very interesting line that is defined by the state of their relationship.

To break it down:

• Person A hates Person B for a specific reason. 
• Person B hates Person A just because of circumstances. 
• Person A and Person B have a mutual hate on for each other.
• There is no real way for them to act on that hate because they share a life and Person C would kick both of their asses. 
• Then one day are snarling and the anger is growing and growing and growing. 
• In a fit of trying to get rid of the anger, they somehow find themselves pulling at clothes, pouring all of it into kissing and pushing and shoving. 
• They screw and find it's a great way to let loose and relax before the next time.

That's their relationship. They play nice in public, and to each other, they screw when it's just to much, and then they move on.

That is hate sex. It's a release for these two characters. For other it's just sex with an ex that they hate, a rival, or someone that they hate. 

Okay, so hate sex is just sex between two people who hate each other, right?

Bingo.

Then how does one stop it from coming across as rapey?

Ah, now that's a bit of a hard one isn't it? 

Remember when I said that consent is key? Yeah, it's key in real life and in a story. Consent is sexy, even in hate sex. 

If they participate and the know just what is going on and what is to happen, and they don't stop it from happening, that's consent. They may hate what they did, but it still happened and some walk away from hate sex with a sore body and content with what happened.

You need to, somehow, work that consent in without disrupting the flow of the scene. It's not that hard to if you're good enough, and if your not...

That's what editing is for after all. And editors. And readers. Seriously. You don't need to do a whole lot.

Me? I'm planning on having Person A go "wait...do I want this?" and decide that yes, yes he does. For his own reasons and he has no doubt that the other is interested in doing it to since Person B was the one who jumped him.

So, let's go over the points.

1) Hate sex is not rape.

2) Consent is sexy, even when it's between two enemies.

3) Consent is even more sexy when it's done right.

4) You need that consent to not come off rapey with a story or chapter.

5) Editing will be your friend. If it seems off, it's off. Edit it again. Let it sit. Re-read a month later.

I think that's all I have to say. 

If you have questions or comments or suggestions on what I should talk about next, leave me a comment. 

The Holidays and The Writer

Today's EarWorm: This is Gonna Hurt by Sixx A.M.
Today's Date: January 9, 2017

So I'm sure that you noticed that there was no blog for the day of December 26, 2016. The reason for that is...

Well, I forgot.

I have a rather interesting list of reasons why I forgot, but some of them might come off as excuses.

1) Christmas. Yes, I was busy ALL day on December 25th. I was cooking a ham, fighting off a cold, teaching a dog with terrier and chihuahua blood not to go to the bathroom on my brand new carpeting (we're getting there), and my friend who spends Christmas with us was dealing with her jaw.

She went to the ER by the way. She's fine, just sore and grumpy.

2) Christmas Baking. Yes, I was baking for the rest of the month. I had most of the month's blogs all written out but wasn't sure as to what to write for that blog post. I was baking further into the month. And this leads us to reason number 3.

3) Flooring. We FINALLY got our flooring in. We got our carpet done on December 19th, two rooms, my bedroom and my mom's bedroom. And then they came in on the 23ed to do the rest of the flooring.

No. I will not deal with the company that made us wait 3 months to get our new flooring down. Yes, 3 months. Not cool and it stressed out both myself and my mom.

So we got it down, finally.

4) Just plain feeling like hell. Excuse the language but it's true. Between trying to get the flooring done so we could unpack our home and get it back to normal, and trying to cook, and write, and do all sorts of other things, life was not happy making.

I'm actually recovering still from all of that and drinking a lot of hot tea and eat good soup to help beat off the last of the ick.

It doesn't help that it has been scarily cold lately.

So what does this have to do with the holidays?

Well a lot. Especially if you're a writer who has a busy life going on. Or when life decides to smack you up side the head. Which kind of sucks really because it can kill your want to write.

Which isn't fun.

Yes, I hit my goal of an average of 5K a week for the 2016 year and I got things done, but I should have gotten more done. But life kind of sucks somedays.

And the holidays are a busy, busy time.

A New Year and a New List

Today's Earworm: Fear Not This Night by Freya Catherine
Today's Date: January 2, 2017

If you want to compare this list with the last list (2/1/2016) go here. There really isn't much change outside of me going more into details as to what the stories/series are going into and the state of each book.

Now that I've said that, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that you are warm and cozy at this time and that life is treating you semi-well.

And that you're staying safe. Seriously you guys.

Me, I'm trying to get something done this year. I have a list, which will be at the end, of the  books I'm hoping to work on right now.

So let's go over what I have going on shall we?

And once again, the setup is this:

Title:
Genre:
Pairing styles: (M/M, Poly, F/F, M/F, none)
Books in the series (if a series):

Status

Minimum words planned for:
Notes on the story:

Rewriting/Editing/Note Taking

Title: Untitled
Genre: Romance
Pairing styles: Male/Male (M/M)
Books in the series (if a series): 1

Status: Rewriting

Minimum words planned for: 24,000 (1,100 words per chapter)
Notes on the story: This is still my Lex/Rose story and no I don't have any kind of title for it. But I have gotten through the note taking and have written out a new outline for it. It's somewhere around 24 chapters planned out. 

This story was originally 11 chapters in length and when I'm done with this first rewrite, I plan on printing it out to go through it and tear it apart. I do this because it allows me to get away from the computer to edit it without worry. So it's going to be very interesting.

Title: All You Need
Genre: Romance
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): None

Status: Note taking/Outlining

Minimum words planned for: 11,000 to 22,000 (1,100 words per)
Notes on the story: In the current version of this story, there is 5 chapters. I want to expand it into something like 10 to 20 chapters in length.

I want to expand on the world and change the names of the characters and build up the history for a few chapters before I introduce the main characters. I have 5 chapters planned out already but I don't know if I'm going to keep them or replot those first chapters out. But I do know that I'll be rewriting and writing quite a bit when it comes to this story.

Title: Untitled
Genre: Romance
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): None

Status: Noting

Minimum words planned for: No idea.
Notes on the story: This one I'm still making notes on because it's so old. I think I might have to print this one out and work from there. It's going to drive me up a wall, I can tell you that. 

Cause it's doing that to me now.

Series Already in the Works

Title: Shades of Red series
Genre: Horror/Paranormal Horror
Pairing styles: M/M, F/M,
Books in the series (if a series): Planned so far is 3

Status: Book 1 in rewrite/writing

Minimum words planned for: 50K (1,100 words min per chapter)

Notes on the story: Yes this series is still in the works, but I'm having quite a bit of fun with this story since my original story is printed out and I'm working from that along with the original file that I did find after the great Flashdrive Reformat. 

I am working on what book 2 is doing but outside of that, this particular story is coming along rather nicely.

Book 1: Crimson Shadows - WIP

Book 2: Drips of ?

Book 3: ?? 

Title: Honey Drops Series
Genre: Romance/Sci-fi/Fantasy
Pairing styles: M/M, F/M, Poly, F/F
Books in the series (if a series): 6 books planned plus a book filled with bits and stories that didn't make it into the main story line
Status: Book 1 - WIP
Notes on the story: This series is being a pain in the ass but I'm working on planning it out. It is still a total of six books plus another book that fills in stories that didn't make it into the main book series for whatever reason. Mostly stories that came to me as I wrote the story that fill in some history. Or gives you interesting bits of interactions between characters.

Bk 1: Nix's Story - In progress
Bk ?: Cho's Story
Bk ?: Kain's Story
Bk ?: ?? Story
Bk ?: ?? Story
Bk 6: Final Book

Title: A Living Zombie series
Genre: Dark Comedy/horror
Pairing styles: various
Books in the series (if a series): 2
Status: WIP
Minimum Words Planned For: 50K
Notes on the story: Big Bertha Rides Again!

Okay, inside joke if you don't hang out with us in the Forward Motion chat room or the Writing Groove chat room and J.A. Marlow is around.

But I have reintroduced myself to this story and I am going to work on this story. It's a lot of fun considering that this is pretty much "A zombie keeps his mind" kind of story. Which I've seen a few times out there (but I've never actually watched/read any of them seeing as I'm picky about my zombie movies/shows/stories).

I'm going to have fun with this though.

Book 1: WIP
Book 2: Planning

Title: Don't Look Series
Genre: Paranormal Horror
Pairing styles: Various (but not really a focus)
Books in the series (if a series): 4+ books
Status: Writing
Notes on the story: I actually started a new first book for this series called "Thread the Needle" which builds up the world into what it is in the main story. It will be going into the family's history and the cities history and all of the good things. So that's going to be a lot of fun to do because it's...going to get kind of sexual for this first book since a lot of the magic in the first book is sex magic.

But there will be other types so don't go thinking that this is a poor excuse to write smut you guys.

Bk 1: Thread the Needle - WIP
Bk 2: A Delicate Thread - WIP - On hold
Bk 3: Twine the Soul
Bk 4: Spin a Yarn

Title: The Ages Series
Genre: ...superheros?
Pairing styles: various
Books in the series (if a series): 8 books
Status: Writing
Minimum words planned for: 50K Per book
Notes on the story: I'm actually on chapter 32 of book 1. I have 36 chapters planned for this story and once it is done I'll be putting it to the side to let it sit and gather some dust before I work on getting it edited and rewritten.

Because this needs a lot of work.

So very much. But it's going to be worth it.

Bk 1: WIP
Bk 2: Planning
Bk 3:
Bk 4
Bk 5
Bk 6
Bk 7 - Final

Title: Untitled Story
Genre: Horror/Paranormal/Supernatural
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): 2
Status: Writing
Minimum words planned for: 50K
Notes on the story: I'm quite a bit into the first book and I still don't have a good name for it, but that's about normal for me. I have an idea of what it's going to do and I'm still calling it my Mean Bunny story.

Go figure.

Bk 1: WIP
Bk 2: Bellamy's Story - Planning

Title: (Working title) Retail and Supernatural
Genre: Comedy-Horror
Pairing styles: M/M, M/F (not really focused on them though)
Books in the series: 4 planned for, more on the way
Status: Bk 1 WIP
Minimum words planned for: 35K per
Note: This is my brand new baby and I started it for NaNo 2016 but other stories came to be the focus of my month. Such as my Ages bk 1. I have no idea just how long it's going to be but I know just what I want to do with the series and how it will go.

I can tell you right now it starts pretty light hearted, but as the series goes along, things get really dark.

I love it.

Bk 1: Bad Dog - WIP
Bk 2:
Bk 3:
Bk ??
Final Book

Title: Untitled
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): 2

Status: WIP

Minimum words planned for: No idea

Notes on the story: This one was dumped on me by the beautiful and lovely Jennifer Amriss while we were chatting in her Facebook fan page. And of course she knows that I have this thing for writing naughty things going on, so she handed it to me.

And then ran away. 

Claiming she didn't need another damn PNR on her plate. So there's that.

It's going to be a Vampire/Half-Angel pairing and despite how much I've talked about the first sex scene, it's not going to turn into an erotica. Why? Because there will be, I'm thinking, one or two actual on-screen sex scenes. And those are kind of needed due to plans and plots.

Now if I could choose which starting scene I'm going with, I would be happy. 

Stories That I'm Not Working on Actively Right Now

Title: "Magical Girl" Series
Genre: Fantasy/
Pairing styles: F/F, M/F
Books in the series (if a series): 2 books
Status: World Building
Minimum Words Planned for: 40K
Notes on the story: Yes, I am still working on this world. It's taking me time because I want to have something of a world going for this.

Bk 1: Planning
Bk 2: Planning

Title: A Magical Taste Series
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Pairing styles: Various
Books in the series (if a series): 2 to 10 books
Status: World Building
Minimum Words Planned for: 50K per book
Notes on the story: I still so very much want to do this series but I need to finish off a couple of my other stories before I dive into this rich and diversified world. Because it's going to span all sorts of characters and the such.

I shall have fun.

Bk 1: Forensic/witch
Bk 2: Artist/seer witch

Title: A Family Pack
Genre: Romance/Supernatural
Pairing styles: various
Books in the series (if a series): ??
Statu: World building/plot building
Words minimum planned for: 50K per book
Notes on the story: Actually I need to figure out my notes for this and get is figured out how I want to tackle this series but it's kind of sitting there for the most part since I'm not wanting to do something typical but I still want to do something interesting with this series.

It's just going to take time.

Title: A Twist of Fate series
Genre: action/adventure/survivalist/romance
Pairing styles: various but not the focus
Books in the series (if a series): 2
Status: World building/plot building
Words minimum planned for: 50K
Notes on the story: I had to actually put this to the side. Not because I wanted to but because things go really busy and it's going to take some time in getting around to actually do some research on virus and the such.

But I am working out the plot. Slowly, but surely.

Stand-Alone Stories

Title: Follow Me Down
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): just the 1
Status: WIP
Words Minimum planned for: 50K
Notes on the story: Ah, my baby. I do plan on working on this story come 2017, but I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it.

The history behind how this story came to be kind of messes with me but I love the story line. So it's going to be fun trying to cut that history away from this book.

Title: Black Veiled Saviour
Genre: Mystery
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): 1
Status: WIP
Minimum Words planned for: 50K
Notes on the story: I'm working on this and I think I know where I'm going with it, so this is going to be fun to write on once more!

I'm so happy to have an idea on how to get things going.

Title: Untitled Prompt Story
Genre: Horror/Paranormal
Pairing styles: nothing truly important
Books in the series (if a series): stand alone
Status: WIP
Minimum Words Planned For: 30K
Notes on the story: Ah, so what to say about this. I'm going to work on this story as I go along because I need to recreate the outline and fill out the story line itself otherwise this is going to drive me up a wall. So I'll be doing that this year.

Fun times.

Title: Untitled
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Pairing styles: M/M
Books in the series (if a series): 1 (for Now)

Status: Planning

Minimum words planned for: Not a clue
Notes on the story: This is a holiday themed one where I wanted to tackle the whole "Santa needs a wife before becoming Santa Troupe". It's actually really interesting and I know who the love interest is, I just have to figure out a few other bits and pieces. Yes, joy. This pounced me near the end of 2016 okay? It was NOT happy making.

Nope. But I'll write it.

What Am I Focusing on in 2017?

I have a couple of lists actually, so how about I give you those lists? 

My lists have changed so often in the last month that I've given up having just several lists and narrowed them down to a few of the stories that I am going to really focus on.

Rewriting/Notes/Ect:
Ages Book 1 (I'm hoping by the time this goes up I'll have the last 3 chapters done)
Lex/Rose
All You Need
A Butterfly's Dream

Focusing on:

Bad Dog
Mean Bunny
Half-Angel/Vampire PNR
"Alive" Zombie story
Honey Drops bk 1
Crimson Shadows
Santa Claus PNR
Follow Me Down
Thread the Needle
Black Veiled Saviour
Untitled Prompt Story

Not that long of a list and it helps me to narrow my thoughts down to what I want to finish. So here's hoping that I get at least a few of these off of my list as 2017 progresses.