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!