Short Fantasy

Now that I'm taking a break, I've started working on a short story called Brace. It's a fantasy story, something different from what I've written before. Same with the short story. This will be my second one ever. Right now, I'm having fun with it. I've come up with a bunch of awesome characters and I can't wait to see them though the story. Hurray for crazy writing obsessions!

FINISHED!!!

HURRAY!!!! Done! Second novel finished! Yes!
Now to wait for a grueling edit. I could use a break anyway. This thing took two years to finish. Now it's done! Almost... But nothing beats this satisfaction. The thing about writing is, you hate it and you love it. All the struggle, all the stress... you know you're a writer when, at the end, it all feels worth it. And I've never been dissatified with finishing something. Especially a novel. Even if it sounds like it sucks the first time around and I'm too embarrased about it to show anyone. So I am a little eager to start editing.
I'm going to be thinking of a sequal, though I don't know if I want to do one yet or not. I'll work out some ideas and see what happens.
:)

Writer's Block-fact or fiction

I was just reading a book that was talking about writing and editing and all that good stuff, and I found that the author had a lot of strong opinions about things. One of the major things is that he doesn’t believe in writer’s block. There is a controversy on that, and I guess it’s still up in the air, but it’s a good point. He believes that writers use ‘writer’s block’ as an excuse to be lazy; that it’s actually just a way of saying that a writer has lost motivation or focus. Honestly, I don’t believe that. I’m a writer who has trouble with it and it’s not because I’m lazy or unenthusiastic. It’s because I can’t see my story in perspective. I can’t write with the normal flow or get right into the snappy dialogue. Still, I sit down at my computer and try. Every time, I try. Some days, nothing at all. But the act of trying even when it’s hard is proof against any laziness. What I think writer’s block is isn’t an excuse, but a term that writer’s use to say that the flow just isn’t coming like it should. It’s a mental block, an obstacle that truly does exist in one form or another. I suppose someone could use it to mean they feel like being lazy, but it’s a general term. For example, when you say you feel sick, you could mean you have a cold, or you could mean that you wish your brother would stop picking his nose while you’re eating dinner.

UNbelievable

I was just looking at my first story again and discovered that the word count is 190,862!!! How the heck did I write that much? I know it took, like, seven years, but come on! Why? I ask myself, why? I had no perspective back then about how long a book is supposed to be. But I've learned a lot already and the average is about 80,000 to 90,000, right? 250 pages? I have a new appreciation for how much work I did on that thing. It was good practice! I'm actually pretty proud of it. Although I'm getting better every day, so now I look at it and want to do another edit. sigh.

Short Story - Part 3

SHORT STORY UPDATE!!! This is my comic relief for the day.

Fweeeet. Fweeeet. Stay quiet. Listen. You hear that whistling? That’s a bad omen right there. We should hurry and find more shelter. If we don’t we won’t survive! And I would very much like to survive! There are so many things I haven’t yet eaten! There are so many people I haven’t yet teased! And I haven’t even been to Disney Land yet! This upsets me so. But never mind your problems. We must continue on. We must find the EEE!
I’m so sorry. I would feel just awful if you were to be frightened or saddened by the misfortune that may (and probably will) come upon you due to my lack of attention for danger. And I am sorry that you are too weak and imprudent to find your own way out of the predicament you have put yourself into by coming to Digilo. I just want you to know that I will try my very best to not let you get eaten by vicious monsters or lost in a terrible and dark place. I promise to look out for your well-being and put your needs before my own. It is for this reason, the fact that I am turning over a new leaf, that I am honest and sincere when I suggest that you should be the one to go into that deep, shadowy, and frightening cave first. Trust that I am only looking out for you. Know that if I were to go in first, I might suddenly fall through the floor or get eaten by a creature and then you would be all alone in this horrid place without your devoted and compassionate guide to help you.
Fweeet. Well, hurry up! Go ahead in! Don’t you hear that whistling? Again? It means something sinister is coming this way. We will most assuredly be safe inside this cavern. Go go go!
See? It’s not so bad once you get used to the constant fear of having something lurking behind you. It’s actually quite peaceful now. Hey, why are we always finding caves to hide in? Why can’t you pick a nice garden or restaurant or something to hide in? Caves are so cliché. And they are way overused in monster movies. I always prefer a good comedy myself. How about you? Nah, forget you. I know! We should do something unexpected; something out of the ordinary since we’re already stretching it with the cave cliché. Let’s run outside screaming like banshees and see what happens! That’s new. That’s interesting. Have you ever known monster movie characters to do that? I think not! Hmm. On second thought, we might get ticketed for disturbing the peace. Let’s just sneak quietly outside and fade into the shadows of the night. That sounds cool, huh?
Oh, wait… do you hear that? That’s not the whistle. I’m going to look outside. Uh… Wow.
Uh-oh. The sky is raining fire! Get down! Head back into the cave! It’s a meteorite shower! The forecast said it would be clear tonight. LIES! If we make it out alive, I’m calling in a complaint.

I interrupt this story (again) because it’s fun to do so—I mean it’s for an emergency! Attention residents of Digilo! We are now under a “meteor” warning. Please stay inside and cower under your beds or cots or cardboard boxes. Do not go outside. I repeat, do not go outside for anything. Partaking of last meals would be a good idea. The meteors are flaming and dangerous. Very, very hot. No touching the flaming space rock.
…
Okay, the shower is over. It is now safe to traverse the outside world—no, I lied! It’s not safe. Not safe. Okay, now it’s safe. Have a nice day.

Well, you heard my forecast report. It’s safe. Let’s go! Outside into the outside place outside. Now would be a good time to search for the EEE. Or we could look for the ever elusive exit key. The EEEK. I bet if we found a key to the exit, we could find the exit and exit the exit and all will be well with the world. What do you think? Oh, watch out for that meteor. Hey, what’s that? No, not the three headed gargoyle. That red light way over there. Is that the exit? The EEE!? Let’s go check it out!

to be continued...

Fight Scene!

I've been trying to learn how to write out fight scenes better. I don't write them very often, so with all the ones in this book I'm writing now, I'm going to need to get a lot more practice. It's just hard to picture the scenes sometimes. And I've re-read some of my older fight scenes and not understood what was going on. I wrote it and I didn't understand!!! That's bad, I know. Practice makes perfect. Or nearly perfect. I'll take either. The most important thing I've learned is to keep the reader in the action. Set a pace. But you have to keep your style. And create interesting sentences. Also, don't get bogged down in details unless they're important. The character going through the battle may be more important than the actual battle. Battles can be broken down into basics. Action and reaction. It's basically one and then the other, just like science, I guess.

Today is Another Day

More writing tonight. same as always. I'm trying to be a little more... scheduled with it. I'm thinking that will help me get things done faster. No more, "oh, maybe I should today, later. Maybe not." It's go time! Word count at 81,951. Not much improvement, but a page an hour is my usual. That's more than enough in my opinion.
In other news, I won first place in a patriotism contest! hurray! $100 dollars to spend in the school bookstore! I'm really proud of the poster I made for it. Maybe graphic designing is not a bad match for me.

Just a writer, writing.

Well, it's getting kinda lonley, but the same goes for everything, doesn't it? Right now, word count is 81,235. Yes, I'm a slow writer, but I prefer not to lay out everything first which always forces me up against road blocks. Still, I wouldn't want it any other way. As for getting back on my writer's feet, I need to read more to get the flow back; write more fluently. After that, I'll get going again no problem. So let's see... James Patterson, again?

Letter of the Seven

What happened? Things were going so great! So smooth! You just had to do that to yourself didn't you? When are you going to finsish things already. I know you must be excited about it. It makes you happy. And we'd all like to see that now and then.
Just keep trying. "Even when it's hard, keep trying." Aren't those your words? I'll still help how I can. I know you're tired, but please, for all of our sakes, just try. You're so close! So close! Eyes on the prize! You can do it!

-The Wish Writer

Update Complete

Okay, this is the final product. And It was really annoying. I'll probably keep tweaking it; I know it's not the picture of Graphic Design talent, but it's good enough for my two-bit blog. Yeah... Maybe now I can think of something to write.