12 Years Ago Today

January 5, 1997-October 12, 1999

And I still can’t believe you are gone forever.  You are always in our hearts and thoughts.  We love you.

Love always,
M.

Monster High 2–The Ghoul Next Door

Ok, so from reading another blog I learned about the 2 chapter sneak peek at the new Monster High novel.  Granted I’ve yet to read the first one but I wanted to see how this one was.  The blog owner said there wasn’t much brand name dropping in this book, but I found that that simply wasn’t the case.  There are a lot of brand names in this sneak peek.  I’ve sense found this to be kind of cute since reading the last book’s sneak peek.  Not sure why really.  I guess because I realize this is what the story called for and although I haven’t read Lisi Harrison’s other novels I feel this is her style of writing, and who am I to say anything about her style?  It’s her vision and her way of telling the story, so more power to her.  This sneak peak makes me want to hunt down the first novel and read it.  I hope it’s at my library…which I still need to get a new card for.  Oops.   But yeah, it looks like it will be a cute novel.  It seems to pick up from a cliffhanger from the last novel, so seems like some questions will be answered.  If you are interested in reading the sneak peak for yourself, click here.  Enjoy.

Writing away,
M.

Choices, choices, choices…

Ok, so I want to get back to writing, like as of yesterday, but I have one tiny little problem.  See while I was waiting to get the inspiration to work on “Jumper”, I would of course get other novel ideas and write them all down and tinker on some of them.  I’m still not ready to work on “Jumper”, and thought I’d try a contemporary novel idea I had.  Problem is, “Jumper” is still screaming at me and forming in my mind as I try to work on other stuff.  Why am I not working on it?  Why do I keep pushing it to the back burner?  I guess because the story is still cooking in my mind.  But then what do I work on now?

I had a novel I was working on for last year’s Nano, but decided to quit because it needed an outline and I had no time to work on one.  So I am thinking of working on it now that I’ve found a way to make it work where I can tell the point of view of both characters from a book I am currently reading.  But that is not the contemporary novel I was thinking of working on.  I started outlining that one the other day and finding character names and whatnot.

Then I went through my writing folder, big mistake, and found all the other work I’d started on and didn’t carry through.  “Jumper” is the only one I carried through and finished the first draft, only to see that it wasn’t the right story my characters were trying to tell. So I am restarting it.  Keeping the skeleton of the story, but changing it around.  Even my main character Andrea has change some. So it still needs to be outlined. Maybe I need to focus on “Jumper” and leave these other novels alone until I finish it. “Jumper” won’t let me rest until it is written.

So maybe I already have the answer in front of me?  Just work on “Jumper” and get that story out of me since my characters are now being so talkative and I don’t have the deadline stress of Nano to tell me when to finish it by.  Of course I want to give myself only 3 months to finish it so it won’t be something I am still working on 5 years from now.  I mean it’s already something that I’ve been working on for a little over 2 years.  So maybe its time to get this novel done.  I really want to actively try to become an author.  Writing is just something that I find so fascinating and I have so many stories to tell.  So I’m deciding that this year is the year I am going to get serious about it.  I think I doubted myself before, but not anyone.  I’m still worried people won’t like me and any published works will be destined for lone dark shelves at discount liquidator stores and dollar stores, but I can’t let that fear stop me.  Because who knows, maybe one day my book will be reviewed by some of the awesome reviewers out there and be read by the awesome readers out there on their suggestions.  Maybe my book will be on a bookstore shelf one day and someone “will just have to have it”.  I can’t tell the future, and I shouldn’t act like I can.  I should just believe in myself, my work, and the fact that I’m pretty dang awesome. 

So…(takes a deep breath)…“Jumper” it is then.  I’m actually nervous about it.  I keep thinking it’s not ready to be written, but then when will it ever be ready?  So I guess me and my characters are going to be having a chat now.  Wish us luck.  This is going to be the year I finish this novel, and by my calculations, by the time May starts.  I am going to work on the outline for another couple of days, and since Feb. is short a few days I will be starting the actual novel writing on Jan. 30th.  So I have 4 days to get this outline done.  Busy bee mode is on.  I’ll keep you updated.  Bye for now. 

Writing away,
M.

I don’t think I read enough.

So I’m sitting here watching Jackson Pearce’s live show for the first time, yay!, and she’s asking questions about authors and books I either haven’t heard of or haven’t read yet.  I so need to read more about the genre that I want to write for…and no offense to anyone but Twilight is not cutting it.  I guess I need to go ahead and get to the library and update my card and soon.  Stop by the show if you get a chance.  It’s still going.  She’s doing trivia.

Watch live streaming video from jacksonpearce at livestream.com

See you there.

Writing away,
M.

Frustration sets in.

My middle grade novel is suddenly changing on me the more I read about middle grade novels.  My concept I was going for would work better in a made up world or witches than in real life.  So now I’m toying with the idea of making my once plain and smart little girl into a plain smart little witch.  Ugh!  It really would work better, but hasn’t this been over done?  Witch stories I mean?  My concept is my character seemingly is the worst witch ever, but she is really one of the smartest and her wild knowledge helps save the day.  Then there is the concept of age.  First she was 8 then I pushed her up to 9 and now I am wondering if I should push her up to 12 now.  Ahhh!!!  Why can’t this be easier?  Such a mess this has become.  I am excited about the witch concept and I am eager to look up some “spells” and read folklore about witches and whatnot, but I’m still not sure on the concept.  I want to just focus on one novel but I feel this character could be a series.  Well I will work on the one and see what happens I guess.  Meh.  I should be in bed instead of doing this but I can’t sleep so I research.  Oh well. Off to research some more.

Writing away,
M.

Oh hold until…well I don’t know exactly.

I have decided to put “Jumper” on hold.  It’s just not going anywhere.  I tried hard to work on it today and then realized that the romance I wanted to form between these two characters just didn’t form.  I think I need more time to think about this because this story is very involved and I have to create a world for it and I just need time to think about it.  It does make me sad to abandon the story right now and I am wondering if I will ever return to it, but right now I need to WRITE and I can’t do that on this story any more right now.  I’ve been working on it since 2008 and it just hasn’t gone anywhere.  I know some authors do this and some just realize the story isn’t going anywhere and they say good bye and mourn their loss.  I’m not ready to give up on this story yet, but I won’t return to it for a while.  I want to focus on other work I’ve done and want to do.  I think it’s time to focus on my middle grade novel for a while.  Yep, my Nanowrimo from last year.  Here’s hoping this isn’t just another “Jumper”.  Can you tell I’m a little sad and feel I wasted valuable time?  Yep.  I know, it helped me learn and we all will go through this one time or another but it still is sad.  Hopefully working on my middle grade stuff will make me feel a little better.

Writing away,
M.

Chapter 4 is finally done!

So this rewriting/revising session wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be, and it’s sad that it was what kept me from moving forward in my novel.  I did have to slightly rewrite the chapter but I could keep a lot from the original, which was good.  It’s like my muse has woken up or come back from vacation.

Ok, speaking of muse, I’m gonna tell you something about myself.  So, other thank reading and writing, I have other hobbies.  Watching movies and listening to music are some of them, but another two hobbies I have are crafts and dolls.  I like to do crafts of all kinds, but have found myself lately sticking with fabric and needlework crafts.  As for dolls I like to collect them, customize them, and take pictures of them.  I recently saw a Live doll on Amazon for roughly 10 bucks that looks like a thinner more glamorous version of moi and I thought to myself, she could be my muse on several levels.  I thought if I had something to represent my muse to bounce ideas off of that I don’t really want answers to, what better than a mini me.  No people I have not gone insane, it’s just lonely talking to yourself.  LOL!  Hush you all, doll people would get it.  Any doll people out there to support me in this?  LOL!  But yes, I feel if the muse is here and present then I no longer have the excuse that she’s not here.  Unless of course I seriously messed up and my muse is actually a hunky male.  In which case, I may have to start all over then.  I’ll keep you updated on the muse front.

As for the novel.  I think I’m going to hop back in for chapter 5.  It’s a little less than an hour before the next live chat tonight at Writer On Con, and I have just enough time to make a dent on my work.  So I am off again.  Talk to you all a little later.

Writing away,
M.

What does she want?

Ok, so Write On Con is becoming such a big help to me and my writing, but it’s also showing me all the big errors I am making in my writing.  But one good thing, is has gotten me over my fear of continuing on in my revising and I am back at it now.  But I find that when I take big breaks I forget what was said and then looking back over it I am shocked by what I have put.  I mean it’s good, at least in my eyes, but I am like “How the heck did I come up with that?”  So now I am having to move on from that and figure out where to go from there.

Also I think I have figured out what is keeping this story from pouring out of me.  I read a recent blog post that talks about knowing what your character wants in the story.  If you know that then you move forward to get it for them…or not, depending on your story.  But I realize I don’t know what I want for my character.  I mean she’s in another time so maybe she just wants to get home.  Or maybe she wants love because she sort of broke up with her boyfriend.  But I feel there is more to her than just that.  I think she is searching for something more, but what is it?  I mean she will have a very crucial roll in the future of her city and country, but she doesn’t know it yet.  So is it ok for the character not to know what she wants in the beginning of the novel but to find out about it later?  I suppose it is.  I remember the blog post saying something along the lines of it’s ok if they don’t know it right away but you must know it from the beginning.  So I feel her goal will be to fix the actions in her life so that her future will come to play so she can protect the people of her city and her country.  But I don’t think she will take this “goal” to easily.  She will be stubborn about it, and not caring to put herself in harm’s way for people she doesn’t know or really care about.  “Let someone else do it,” will be her defense.  Don’t mind my babbling, I’m just thinking out loud here.  The one place it’s fine for me to talk to myself.  LOL!  Ok, so Andrea has a goal.  Now it’s time to go shake her life up a bit.  Off to write some more now.  Update later on how it’s going.

Writing away,
M.

I finished my novel!!!

The second one for the month. I now need to come up with a few stories to write to make up for the last 15,000 words. I am so not stressing about it. I am so far ahead of the game and I still plan to finish before Thanksgiving. Once I get started I know I will be able to knock out the rest of the words in no time. I am working on a story that I have wanted to write for years now. I just need to find a story similar to what I want my story to look like to see what kind of words I should be working with. Ahhh!!! So excited and in disbelief. I'll miss Nicole and her friends since after this month I am going back to Andrea for a while, but its all cool. As for now, I'm going to go exercise and then come back and work on my next story. Eeeee!!! I finished another novel!!!


Writing away,
M.

Ahhhhhh!!!

There are people who already have a green bar on the 3rd day!!! My writing hero Kateness has already written over 100k. I believe she is going for a million this year, so its understandable she's that far, but ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nonetheless. Damnit I would LOVE to be almost done. Its not about winning NaNo for me right now. Its about writing the damn novels and getting them out of my head into a story. Tomorrow I will write a lot. I have to. I feel so behind. Tomorrow I will shoot for 20k. I wonder how they do it. Maybe I didn't outline properly. :-( Whatever it is, I wish I knew their secret. Ok, off to bed. Nighters all.

Writing away,
M.

My incentive.

Yeah its silly, but if it gets me to write, then what's the harm right? :-)

Get it together girl!

I need to scream that to myself right now. I have plenty of time to work on my outlines and I am wasting it by surfing the web!!! Ok, I need an incentive to work on these things. I already see they will help me greatly in writing my novels, but I just hate this trying to come up with the next thing that will happen. I'm trying to force it and well that just doesn't work well with me I guess. Sucks so bad. But I will do it. I will turn on some Christmas tunes...wait...that's it. They have a Bing Crosby cd at Target I want. My mom had the tape when I was a kid and I loved it. I want the cd. If I finish my outline before the 31st for BOTH novels I get to buy the cd without any buyer's remorse. :-) Let's see if that works. Off to outline. Bye for now.

Writing away,
M.