cutting the crap.

i've recently begun reading noah lukeman's 'the first five pages', and right off i know it's the book to save me and my gimpy novel. a quick excerpt:



"The main audience for this book, though, is you, the writer. Along with the criteria, this book offers an in-depth look at the technique and thought processes behind writing and has been designed to be of interest to the beginning and advanced writer alike . . ." (p. 14)



see, this is what i need. i can use help with grammar and style (thanks strunk & white--you guys rock the tizzypewriter), but even more, i could benefit from learning more about structuring a larger work. like a novel. the second chapter ends with a simple but eye-opening exercise regarding adverbs and adjectives--otherwise known as the writer's crutches.


from page 39:


"Remove every adjective and adverb from the first page of your manuscript and list them separately."


then, a bit farther along in the exercise:


"Look at your list of removed adjectives and adverbs . . . Cross out each one and beside it write down a less expected replacement."


sounds so obvious, right? i know.

so, i tried this first exercise. here are a few of my original adjectives/adverbs:

narrow, shallow, looming, spandex, muttered, belay, quiet, raw . . . you get the idea.

not horrible, but not terribly striking, either.
taking the manuscript apart and rebuilding to make it stronger; i've been hesitant to try this, concerned about the reassembly phase. i keep imagining the manuscript components articulated all over my desk and me standing over them, overwhelmed by a slow panic. *shudder* terrifying.

now, i have hope anew. check out noah lukeman's 'the first five pages' (isbn:068485743x).
http://www.amazon.com/First-Five-Pages-Writers-Rejection/dp/068485743X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235884087&sr=8-1

kindle me a story, grandpa.

okay, this is interesting. amazon's kindle now allows individuals to publish their work as kindle books. for free.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4489551_sell-book-kindle-format.html

authors set their own price and receive 35% of the kindle book's sales. think of the potential for networking with this thing. and the proof of a story's appeal to readers, assuming a significant number of copies sold. i'd imagine potential agents and publishers would eat that up.

will have to think on this--the idea of publishing a collection of short stories is near-irresistible, and i'll be reading up on how a kindle work's attractiveness would be affected by having been electronically published. but hey, if i'm ultimately aiming for publishing novels, getting my name out there now for short stories might be a solid approach. wild stuff.

these are not the old days, for sure.

monday writing prompt

i found a fairly intriguing photo at one of my favorite websites, www.pixdaus.com. i know images don't work for everyone, but dang, people. just look at this one and tell me it doesn't get you to wondering. the creepiest part for me? the old sepia-toned portrait in the creature's hands. there's a story here, i'm telling you.

http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=13543

dark speculative poetry

Bigtop Dreams
Laurie Paulsen

Stuffed clown,
propped on that spindly chair,
your silver painted eyes
glinting in the moonlight,
your floppy striped arms
arranged artfully so.
Stare at me like you mean it.

I fall asleep and dream of your teeth
dripping my blood,
your arms wrapped around my throat
as you drag me into the abyss.
Don’t you see?
Your obsidian needs
keep me from my own.
I watch you
to forget my own hunger.

I want to climb inside you
and feed on screams forever.

i was searching a bit on the internet for horror-based poetry. i admit my knowledge base on the subject is pretty spare, and could only come up with Edgar Allen Poe on my own. (If you know of other poets who specialize in the creepy, please send me their names.)

my internet search netted me a few amateur sites which may prove interesting:

http://www.authorsden.com/categories/poetry.asp?alpha=a&catid=52
http://www.sffworld.com/authors/poems/horror.html
http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/dark/dark_poems.html
http://unspeakablehorror.com/journal/2008/12/29/new-horror-poetry.html

so, take a peek. seems odd to me that more poetry exploring the spooky and disturbing isn't out there. horror and dark writing is a natural for poetic expression--the imagery distilled to its most pungent essence, snatching the most vivid moments for expression--these two forms should be an automatic pairing; like babies and pitchforks.

update: my husband handed me another link. looks fascinating! http://www.poemsofthefantastic.com/

imagery as inspiration

i mentioned before what sort of stimuli gets me creative. music and images, and one other: poetry. not all poetry, but the kind strong in imagery will get me. if it opens my mind's eye, puts me in that place, i'll take that feeling and run with it. today, i'm grateful for a blog i follow: http://poem-of-the-week.blogspot.com/

this week's poem, above pate valley by gary snyder, is a sumptuous buffet of desert imagery. detailed, evocative, and steeped in a sense of history both geological and cultural, this poem puts me there in that rocky canyon. i'm surrounded by slivers of arrowheads, of tall ash trees and fresh river trout, of fat deer grazing down the trail, and the juxtapostion of life as a trailblazer--living amidst the glory of nature as i use explosives and fired tools to destroy part of it for the advance of mankind. odd, that i feel peaceful after reading, and have the urge to dive back into my western novel while i have the taste of rock dust in my mouth and crisp canyon air on my face.

i won a kindle!!!

so, good news. i joined the fledgling authoring website www.bookrix.com in december, after a friend tipped me to it. the site was created by german Bookrix:

"BookRix is an internet portal and the first book community where anyone can place their own books, short stories, poems etc. to be promoted on the web, just like a published piece. The massive Web 2.0 - Projects, which have been hugely popular with music, video and photography fans, now have a sister platform, which will delight literature fans around the world: BookRix."
(from the website)

a free community offering writers of all stature an avenue to expose their work on the internets. writers get to pretty up their virtual manuscripts, choosing cover design, layout and fonts. the virtual books operate like "real" books, flipping pages as you direct, including title pages and forward. it's pretty darned cool. i'm still nervous about the first e-rights, but since i've published only specific works i don't plan to publish elsewhere, i'm happy with the public outlet.

since the english side of the site is still very new, and membership (free!) is still scraggly, the site held a contest in january for writers and readers. writers post their virtual books for the contest, and the works with the highest recommendation counts on feb 15th win. first prize: $2000, second prize: $1000, and third through fifth places: a new kindle. i placed fourth!! the kindle2 will be shipped in march, when amazon refills supply. woohoo!!!

the contest wasn't my favorite type, focusing on popularity and networking rather than writing ability, but i remind myself that networking and getting others excited about my work is a huge part of being a published writer. a successful one, anyway. i'm not so great at it, tending to shy away from conversations about my writing aspirations, what i write about, why people would enjoy my stories, etc. this contest showed me i may need to work on stretching that comfort zone, but also that i'm not at the lowest schmoozing rung, either. i don't know a lot of people, but at least i'm aware of the importance of reaching out.
also, i gotta give credit to my friend and cohort stewart--he won first place, and also garnered several recommendations for my contest entry along the way.

so, long story short: i won a kindle2!!!!! woohooo!!!!!

check out www.bookrix.com if you're interested in finding a writer's community on its ground floor--it's still small enough to gain significant attention, but developed enough to offer several different viewpoints and levels of talent. plus, it's got that kicky european sensibility. some of the navigation buttons still respond in german. :D

new upcoming e-zine!

hi, all. i receive newsletters from writer/writer advocate-extraordinaire holly lisle, and today i found one in my inbox that set my writey/readey nerves to tingling. check out her new fiction e-zine!!

http://rebeltales.com/

still in the planning stages, this looks exciting and different. author interviews, backstage passes to great query letters and synopses . . . well, check it out. sign up for updates!

it's dagnasty prompt monday!!

official monday prompt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAmi1M2Vm0E

funky and nasty and sexy and go with it. steam up the windows with yo' animal love sounds.

my first official rejection!

i'm excited to announce i received my first official rejection in the mail the other day! i can't explain it, but i'm actually happy about it. not resigned, or philosophical, but pleased. it's almost as if i'm an official writer now, if that makes any sense. i've been rejected by a major publication in my genre. they didn't laugh, or ignore me, but returned to me my story with a friendly form rejection requesting more submissions from me in the future.

one thing that made me chuckle: in the same envelope, they sent a note informing me they'd closed for submissions until 2010.

but it's official. i'm a professional writer. (we find our encouragement in odd places, us writers.)

here's a link to the story, if you'd like to read it.

Basement Jacks
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1473141

"They don’t always talk. Sometimes, if I come down with my Mom to help with laundry, they just watch. If I’m alone, though, they whisper a lot. Stories about people lying in the dirt under the floor boards. Those people used to live here, they say. One’s even a little girl, like me. She likes flowers, so I brought some down one afternoon and left them in a pretty plastic cup filled with water. I tied a red bow on it. The next day, they were gone. I hope she liked them. Her name’s Emily, the walls told me. I told them my name is Jacqueline, Jacks for short, and that now we could be friends. They whispered to me they would like that."

time shmanagement.

in january, i told myself i would shift my focus to finishing one of my novels this year. i tend to jump into multiple projects, flash fiction writing circles, writing workshops, editing and mailing off submissions to publications, and more of the like, to the detriment of any time spent staring at the crude materials that make up my larger work.

what doesn't help me is the fact that i've never written a complete novel before, and have only the foggiest notion of how to edit the thing. i seem to lose my direction when faced with such a huge undertaking.

so, it's february. and i'm still involved with my workshop and my weekly circle, and i've added onto that revisions i've been doing to a story that'll see publication next month. (woohoo!!--and the revising is going along swimmingly, thanks.) these are all worthwhile pursuits. nothing to be hand-wringy about.

but it's not focusing on the novel now, is it?

how do i accept deep in my squishy soul that this thing won't write itself? and how do i get to the mindspace where i'm truly ready to wade in with both feet, get those ankles wet and freaking stay wet, and fulfill my destiny? hm. maybe that begs the question: what if my destiny isn't writing novels? or worse. what if my destiny isn't . . . *gasp* . . . writing at all?

is being a hobby writer enough for me? answers to these questions and more next time.

it's writing prompt monday!

hi, y'all--
official monday prompt(s):

"Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around." --Terence McKenna

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” --Philip K Dick

i like both of these quotes, which tend to make me think funny things, see the world in a different perspective. hope either one does something for you.

ebert rules.

depressing and frightening in its implications, this journal entry from november leaves me shivering in my boots.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/death_to_film_critics_long_liv.html

"The celebrity culture is infantilizing us. We are being trained not to think. It is not about the disappearance of film critics. We are the canaries. It is about the death of an intelligent and curious, readership, interested in significant things and able to think critically. It is about the failure of our educational system. It is not about dumbing-down. It is about snuffing out."

true and disastrous for everyone, not just those who enjoy thinking. roger's journal never fails to illuminate and provoke a reaction from me.

so, where do you get your ideas?

how do you start a new story? how do you decide where it'll lead? i'm curious.

i like images (www.pixdaus.com), and music (www.pandora.com). i surround myself with mood-altering sensory experience, and that seeps into my head, gets me thinking. i'm not so good at plucking juicy plots from the idea tree; i tend to see a particular scene in my head, a flash of a scene, even, and go from there.

how do i decide what happens next? i pretty much listen to my characters, and try to allow them to do what they would do, consistent with their personality. if they're just standing there, waiting for the excitement to start, then i ask myself, "how can i really screw these people over?" heh.

rule #1: don't make life easy for your characters. a character overcoming trouble is a bajillion times more interesting for readers than a character leading a charmed life.

so, how do i make myself write when i really would rather watch ghosthunters? that's a hard one. sometimes i give in to the relaxing evening--hey, i deserve one, okay?--but most of the time i settle my monkey mind; i tell myself that writing is fun if i let myself sink into and chew on the story. the hardest part of writing is reentry--finding that same headspace you had last time you worked on the story, continuing the style and tone, and remembering where you wanted it to go. i like to read what's written from the start, and that gets me there.

many writers keep notes, jot down their moments of genius. i know i should, too. those notebooks never seem handy when i need them, and i have a tendency to forget everything else as soon as i focus on a specific thought. the idea fragments float away like ashes on a breeze, damn them. even if i remember enough to make a note for later reference, it never feels the same when i return to it. it's gone cold.

so, i consider myself an instinctual writer. i follow what feels right in the moment for the character. if that's a different reaction from my original idea, i try it on and see what happens. we all have so many stories to tell, and who's to say our first idea is the best one? so, don't be afraid to play. if you're nervous about changing the story direction, save it as a revised copy and go hog wild.

rule #2: allow your mind to explore all possibilities. ignore nothing, no matter how extreme, how ridiculous, how impossible. give it a try and see where it takes you. therein lies genius.

here's an awesome site chock full of inspiration, exercises, pokes in the virtual eye:
http://languageisavirus.com/

see if it does anything for you--any site featuring william burroughs' angular mug can't be bad.

monday (tuesday) writing prompt!

a day late, but hopefully scads of dough long:

"you find something in your car trunk you didn't put there."

aaaaand . . . go!