Fiction Scribe

The New Year’s round…

I say … and you think … ?

1. Resolution ::
2. Happy ::
3. Bubbly ::
4. Kiss ::
5. Leather ::
6. Fancy ::
7. Pages ::
8. Stupid ::
9. Apologize ::
10. Secrets ::

There are a lot of tags I get tagged with or come across, but I’m not sure if I should post here or not. However, this tag has to be okay, and I like it a lot.

I found this over at Sara’s blog.

Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123 and go down to the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
Name the book and the author.

“And if not he, then there is one other I can turn to,” Dragonstar said, but he was gone before Faraday could ask who this “other” was.

She sighed, and sat back on the window bench with Katie. “I am so glad you are safe here,” she said, stroking the girl’s head.

Crusader by Sara Douglass

I want to see what other people come up with.

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve here in Australia and I’m quite excited about celebrating in a big city for the first time.

Starting January 1st, there will be some changes being enforced by 451press to make your blogging experience a better one. For that, I am quite excited and I hope to see the company and this blog flourish because of it.

Exercise 10 is coming a bit early due to the holiday coming up, so here it is…

This exercise is based off the previous post which included the idea of making a fictional blog about your character. This week, do it “old school” (or with a computer if you like) and pick two - or more - or your characters that you are having trouble with. Have one character write the other character a letter, as long or short as you like, about anything you want.

If you feel satisfied with the one letter, then go and do some writing! If not, then have the other character respond with a letter of his or her own. But remember, you want to write a story, not sit writing fake letters all day. (Unless that’s somehow in your story.)

Have fun.

Hello. I’ve been catching up with some of my internet travel spots and have found what I think are two great ideas for writing.

The first was something I didn’t find, but rather someone at Sara’s writing group Brand New Aspiring Writers. You can read this yourself on the site, but basically, “Word count journal is … where you write one word your first day, two words your second day … etc. By the end of a non-leap year you’ll have written a total of 66,795 words…”

I think this is a great idea and a great way to really hit that New Year’s resolution of writing a novel. If I can get my head in the right place as far as organization, I’ll be doing it, too. I’ve already signed up for the email notification. You just put in an email address for notification, so it might be a nice little surprise email for the writer in your life.

The other idea I found was via Sara’s Blog and this post. Basically, A. Writer has created a fake blog in the persona of her character. It’s an interesting idea and could make for an interesting exercise IF you don’t let it get out of hand.

I think this is a great exercise, but I can also see it becoming a huge time waster. My advice is that if you are going to do this - which I encourage if you’re having trouble “getting into” your characters - then first, make it a “group blog” for all of your trouble characters. Let them interact with each other as well as writing about their world. Second, do it only as long as you absolutely need. Your overall goal is to get a novel/story written, not write a blog.

Unless you’re like me and blogging is your job so you’d like to get both done.

Enjoy both ideas and let me know how they turn out for you.

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and received all they wished for this Christmas. I’m definitely happy with my loot.

I realize people - including myself - are a bit busy during these times, which is why I have kept things mostly light for this blog over the holidays. However, with the new year coming, I have resolutions to make and plans for different sections of this blog.

News - I’m hoping to dig into more of the actual news part of writing fiction. Exactly what that means yet, I’m not sure, but it’s definitely in the plans.

Path to Publication - That obviously went on the side for a while, but things are getting to be back on track. However, not in the way they set out. I’ll be starting this journey, but from a bit earlier than “I’m ready to edit then publish.” I’m starting a new novel. I have yet to write a word in it. So let’s really get on this path.

Pet Peeves, Exercises, UM - I’m going to exercise (no pun intended) my organizational skills so these little lovelies can always be on the same day and hopefully at the same time.

Writing Humor, Writing Sites - These are always a bit here and there because I post when I find them, but I hope to do so perhaps weekly or biweekly.

And, as always, I’m up for suggestions on new categories and post topics, so I’m looking forward to expanding the great list I’ve made already with all the suggestions and questions I’ve received from people so far.

So, cheers, wonderful readers, and here’s to plans for the future and useful posts to come!

I’ve spent some more time wandering around the internet and found some sites that make for interesting reading, if nothing else. However, depending on who you are and what you write, perhaps you’ll find some inspiration in one or more of these sites.

This post from Jennifer Fallon’s blog is something I found a bit cute. The post is about her hiring out minions, and I found it tickling not only my sense of humor but my mood for writing in my fantasy novels.

This page on the Union College site is another humorous list of things to avoid when writing that whould make you smile. This is a link more along the lines of if you feel like editing.

The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts is a good page if you are a writer who gets tickled or inspired by true-life mysteries of the paranormal kind. Even if you don’t, it makes for interesting reading anyway.

At first glance, you may wonder why I would put up a link to How to tick people off, but I saw this and, after having a good laugh, I thought, “How great would this list be for a starting point for an annoying character?” If your story is modern day (or not - use this list as a starting point to make your annoying character in any time setting) and especially if your setting is an office, take a look.

I’ll be updating with more sites soon. Enjoy these ones - let me know if they helped strike inspiration - and happy writing!

As part of a contest to motivate bloggers at 451press to try out podcasting, they held a contest for which we could submit our homemade podcasts. I just discovered that, along with the winner, the people over at the main 451press blog have posted a few others as well.

Including my submission!

Keep in mind it’s my first podcast ever, but feel free to check out my podcast on reading your writing out loud as well as other wonderful podcasts.

Follow this link and happy listening!

I say … and you think … ?

1. Terrify ::
2. Month ::
3. Throat ::
4. Invasion ::
5. Nail ::
6. 12 ::
7. Bicker ::
8. Thomas ::
9. Sibling ::
10. Delude ::

When dealing with writer’s block, I think all of us have heard at least once “write what you know.” Well, for this exercise (and given it’s nearly Christmas, and you’re probably quite busy) I’ve decided to take up The Aspiring Romance Writer on her game of holiday tag. In turn, I take all of you. It involves writing about yourself, which can be the easiest subject to write about.

Happy holidays!

Favorite seasonal movie?

Song you most enjoy this time of year?

“Holiday Greeting”?

Decorate, inside? outside?

Do you make a list?

How up to the last minute do you shop?

When do you open your gifts?

Holiday food you most savor?

Favorite holiday book?

New Year Resolutions?

If you’re in a bind (or stressed and want a little goodie in the mail for yourself) here’s a little link for you that isn’t only for writers, but artists of all kinds.

Gifts for Artists

By the way, I only post up merchandise sites if I’ve found something that I’d like on there, just so you don’t think I’m posting up random sites I don’t look at.

Happy Holidays!

I’d just like to take this time to say best wishes to you and yours over the holidays. Stay safe and enjoy the time you have.

Cheers, mates.

Since I started writing books, I knew that the publishing company I would always strive for is Tor publishing. They publish some - most - of my favorite authors, and to be published by them…

End daydream.

Anyway, in my search for both publishers and agents, I came across the Tor website (which includes links to Forge publishing as well). While wandering through, I found a SF Resources on the Web page which some of you may be interested in. I haven’t personally gone through all the links yet, but I am planning on it. I just thought to post up the page so you don’t have to wait for me.

Enjoy!

G.U.D. magazine is a fairly recent publication now accepting submissions of every kind - not only writing. Given that this was set up in part by a person I trust not to be a scam/scum artist, I thought I’d give him a little plug here so everyone could check him out.

Here are the submission guidelines, and don’t be intimidated by the fact they pretty much know exactly what they want.

Good luck to anyone who submits!

Another question I was asked recently (well, asked to do a post on anyway) was how to keep motivated.

Unfortunately, I’m not the best person to talk about this, but I’ll do my best.

Motivation is a lot like inspiration; it comes and goes usually as it pleases. However, motivation is one of those things that, mostly unlike inspiration, ties into those “write for five minutes daily” writing goals.

Sometimes you just don’t want to do it.

Maybe you try to trick yourself into doing it by leaving a cheerful post-it for yourself on your laptop or leave chocolate in your writing studio to try to lure yourself in there to sit down and write. (I can just hear my friend Hawke saying, “Take the chocolate and run!”)

Something you should realize - if you haven’t already - is that yes, sometimes writing will be like pulling teeth, as they say. Yes, a lot of times it will be hard, you won’t want to do it, and, if you’re like me, you might just want to stamp your foot about it. That’s where your dedication to the craft and rediscovering your love for writing comes into play.

I realize I haven’t truly addressed the issue. Rather, I’ve acknowledged its presence.

To keep motivated, you could use the tactics above to “lure” yourself, but I think that goes more along the lines of getting yourself in proximity of your writing tools rather than the actual act of writing. Here are a few tips that might help you out:

1. I consider editing just another part of the writing process, which it is. So if you don’t feel like writing, edit! Either you’ll get a good amount of editing done or you’ll find some inspiration for something to write about.

2. Keep several things going at once. A few people I’ve talked to disagree with me on this, but for your interest’s sake, keep as many things as you can stand going at once. This keeps you from stopping writing completely due to boredom. If you aren’t too thrilled with one story right now, work on the other one and come back to it. I usually do this when I want to start a new novel. My preference is to get five or six going and then one will shine through, and I’ll end up dedicating most, if not all, of my time to that one.

AND…

3. This is so, so important: Acknowledge your triumphs. Athletes get medals, people get certificates… Why shouldn’t you give yourself something for achieving your word goal? If there are no rewards for you achieving your goal, then you’re probably soon going to be wondering what the point is. So take that bubble bath or go out to that movie. You set a goal and achieved it; reward yourself.

So fellow writers, good luck with your writing, and always feel free to use a rant as your required writing for the day.

PS. In regards to keeping several things going at once, one of the people who disagreed with me actually gave me this quote, which I absolutely adore but probably don’t have right because the forum is down so I can’t get to his post:

“If every first draft is [crap], then several first drafts must smell terrible.”

writing motivation

I just wanted to let everyone know - though it’s likely you may not have noticed - that I have now done what I should have been doing all along - actually keeping proper categories.

My dear readers, you will no longer find stray exercises in the general category nor anything else like that. There are a few crossovers, but not many. That should make things easier for anyone who is actually sitting down to do a few exercises and doesn’t want to have to wade through all my posts to do so.

This will also probably reveal some counting mistakes on my part with exercises and pet peeves, but I’ll risk it.

Ahem.

Enjoy, and I apologize for not paying more attention sooner.