Posted by Violet on July 1, 2009
...aka when plot bunnies attack! Or in this case a plot kitty.
Newton figured out that a body in motion stays in motion, and my muse definitely adheres to that particular law in relation to creativity. When the well is flowing it's overflowing. And I'm not complaining! Just gobsmacked and fearing for what little time management skills I've been able to grow recently.
I love cats and I'm a big advocate for animal rescue and shelter programs. Both of my pets (Yep, that's them in the photo! The cat is clearly basking in the glory of perspective.) were rescued and are now indispensable, well loved members of the family. Pets bring a lot of love and joy into the lives of their owners and I can't remember a time in my life when there wasn't a cat or dog (or both) as a part of my family.
On the way to Chick-fil-a I was thinking about cats and how one day I'd like to write a love story that featured a cat. But I didn't want the cat to just be some cute and fluffy background prop. Then I asked myself a few questions. How would I go about making the cat a major focus of the story? And my muse answered me eagerly: make the cat the keystone to the couple's relationship, just like you make romance the crux of a romance novel. What if the cat was a rescue? What if there was some kind of mix up involving the cat that brought the MCs together (and helped the kitty find a forever home)?
Enter characters with full blown motives and goals and dreams and issues! Enter plot! Enter title!
And I can't work on it at all (except for making lots and lots of notes) until I finish Rogue Wolf. I'll use this as more fuel for my fire! :)
If you're a writer, how do your story ideas come to you? Do you ask yourself questions that seem to spark a creativity influx? Jot down dreams? Do the characters come first? Or does the plot or setting start it all? And once you've got an idea does it open the floodgates for more?
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Tags: process, gay romance, contemporary romance, novella, rescuing romeo.
Posted by Violet on July 1, 2009
I feel like the past week has been one of my busiest in a while, and in a good way! I also can't believe I've already been doing WIP Wednesdays for about two months. Time really does fly and I'm still very glad to have this small level of accountability for my writing life. Another thing that's been helping me stay motivated is the great #writegoal crew over on Twitter.
Exsanguination
I have to mention again, because I'm still so thrilled, that my flash piece Exsanguination was published by Flashes in the Dark last Friday! :D
In Your Dreams
This is now in the hands of my critique group and I'll get to hear and read everyone's critiques on the 18th. Yay! And also eek! :)
I've realized the worst thing they (or anyone else) could possibly tell me is that my story/characters/setting/etc. is/are not believable. If I've failed to capture a reader's suspension of disbelief, then I've failed as a storyteller. I really don't think they'll feel that way, but if any of them do I'll have some major rethinking to do for that novel. I'm maintaining a nice level of optimism though.
I also wrote up a query letter for In Your Dreams that I feel pretty good about. I got a little brave and submitted it to the Query Shark to see if I can get a bite.
I'm holding off on doing a synopsis until I go through the post-critique edits, just in case.
Working Stiffs
Is done! It came out as a 7k word short, which, unfortunately, makes the markets I can submit it to more limited than if it were 2k shorter. It's being read over by my beta readers right now and hopefully they'll have some constructive feedback for me soon so I can make edits where appropriate.
I'm more in love with this story that I am with You Are What You Eat. I think I've got a real winner and I'm pretty sure it's the best thing I've written to date.
Clearly zombies like me as much as I like them!
ValorQuest
Has to go on the backburner right now so I can focus on Rogue Wolf, but I did manage to work on it a smidge more.
Rogue Wolf
This is the little novella that could. I'm really enjoying writing this so far and I'm getting a kick out of my muses revealing really weird things about one of my alien races as I write. I'm half seat-of-the-pantsing this one and half outlining. That's my traditional way of getting a story out and I'm making speedy work of this one (I think). 7k since Friday isn't so bad :)
Since the anthology I want to submit it to has a deadline of August 10th, I really need to just keep writing and writing until I can't write anymore. I'll also have to do a synopsis (ack!) for the submission packet, so I want to leave myself plenty of time to get the story and everything else together before the deadline actually gets here.
For more info about the wonderful WIP Wednesday phenomenon please check out Kate Karyus Quinn's blog.
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Tags: critique, in your dreams, novel, query, query shark, process, writing, exsanguination, wip wednesdays, space opera, gay romance, working stiffs, valorquest, rogue wolf.
Posted by Violet on June 26, 2009
I love space operas. I grew up watching Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, Star Trek: The Next Generation & Deep Space Nine and The Fifth Element. I'd even hazard to put Stargate and the David Lynch version of Dune on that list. And, being a fan of the paranormal and supernatural, I love werewolves too.
So why not have them together in one world?
I'm ashamed to say I probably wouldn't have come up with such a crazy (and fun!) idea on my own. A few years ago when I was first trying my hand at short stories my husband challenged me to combine all my favorite story topics into one work. The story would have to include:
- Magic
- Werewolves
- Space Pirates
- M/M Romance
I whipped up a little short story that hit three of the marks clearly, but I didn't quite make it to the romance. The seeds were there. I knew these two characters were perfect for each other. So why didn't I just keep going? Well, I didn't know how to structure a short story. What I really had wasn't what I'd now call a story at all. It was the beginning of one. So it makes sense that I got stuck because there was no clear plot ahead of a little space battle.
I mentioned in another post that I was going to try to rip the good romance parts of my first novel out and form it into a solid novella piece to submit to Samhain Publishing for their space opera anthology. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had already technically done that (although with a sea pirate framework instead of space), which is one of my unfinished novel manuscripts. A Prince's Ransom is ten times the story The Gemini Effect ever thought of being, so needless to say I don't want to use a plot and characters I've written better in another story (which I do intend to finish next year).
So! I've decided to finish the challenge my husband gave me. I even have a title ready, which is my muse's sign that I've got something worth pursuing. So my new primary WIP (since there's a deadline involved!) is Rogue Wolf. :)
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Tags: a prince's ransom, process, writing, rewrite, space opera, gay romance, novella, rogue wolf.
Posted by Violet on June 25, 2009
I came home today and checked my mail and found Exsanguination has been accepted for publication by Flashes in the Dark! They've scheduled it to appear tomorrow (that's June 26th!) WOW! Hope you'll check it out!
I really enjoy the quirky horror short-shorts Flashes in the Dark publishes and I'm so happy they've accepted this piece. I keep hearing more and more that vampire stories are a tough sell right now because of a certain popular book series that's caused a flood of similar stories. But here's proof you can do it if you find the right market :D
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Tags: acceptance!, flash fiction, exsanguination, horror.
Posted by Violet on June 24, 2009
The past week has been a whirlwind of new writing activity for me! I've fleshed out the outline and characters for a new novel and come up with several rough ideas for short or flash stories. And I got to writing, which is the really good stuff. :)
ValorQuest
This is my shiny new novel in progress! It has geeky gamers, a case of mistaken identity and, of course, romance. I'm going out on a limb with this one by actually having an outline. I'm not just talking my usual "outline" of knowing the beginning, a few plot points ahead of where I'm currently at and the ending. Nope, not for this one. ValorQuest arrived in my mind fully formed. I'm sure there will be detours, and that's one of the most fun things about writing, but I've got a fairly solid road map this time and I'm eager to see it through. This is a skill I've been anxious to learn and I think I can make it work for me this time around.
I finally felt ready to start writing it yesterday and got out a whole 2%! I've got a ballpark of 80k words this time around, which is something new for me too. I know I need to break away from the standard NaNoWriMo mold of 50k and hopefully I can with this project. Maybe I can also learn how to not rush my endings.
And surprisingly (and excitingly!) enough, I even coaxed my hubby into reading the first chunk of ValorQuest. He's a great test audience since he's a gamer himself, and I was rewarded with pointers on how to fix my battle scene and him lighting up with laughter in the appropriate places. I'm glad I was brave enough to get his early opinion! :)
Working Stiffs
My new zombie related short story is about (you likely guessed it from the title!) zombies in an office setting. I'm trying a different kind of zombie from my last zombie story You Are What You Eat. These are a little closer to traditional zombies, but still not-so-much. Maybe I've been influenced too much by Mark Henry and Daniel Waters, but I'm all over some zombies that are integrated into "regular" living society. You won't find mindless droning hordes of flesh eaters in my zombie tales. Not yet anyway! I like my zombies to have personality.
I'm around 3/4s of the way done with this one. I'm just about at the climax of the story, but I took a little break to start on ValorQuest since it was eating my brain yesterday (heehee!). Here's another one I was able to get my hubby to take a peek at. In this one I'm concerned with voice and pacing. I'm writing it in first-person present tense and I'll be pestering all my beta readers about how well it actually works for the story. My hope is that it gives a bit of immediacy and oomph to what might otherwise be a rather slow, shambling series of days at the office. At first... ;)
So I asked my husband how he liked the characters and if they seemed like real people to him:
"Yeah, I liked them all. But one was kinda stiff," he said.
I pause for half a second, wondering if this is a classic set up, and then go for it because, as a writer, I have to know. The Inner Editor won't allow me to walk away. "Which one?"
"The zombie. HAHAHA!"
For more info about the wonderful WIP Wednesday phenomenon please check out Kate Karyus Quinn's blog.
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Tags: short story, novel, process, writing, wip wednesdays, horror, working stiffs, contemporary romance, valorquest.
Posted by Violet on June 21, 2009
And because I can't resist, here's a bit from the interview with the heroine! A little background: she and the hero are dating online and have never exchanged photos. :)
VH: You don't think he'll still like you for who you are if he sees you and doesn't find you physically attractive?
Amy: Okay, I'm not stupid. He's a man. If his other brain isn't in sync with his actual brain he'll just want to be friends. Or, worse, do that whole "I see you like a sister" thing. Ugh, I hate that. It doesn't help that I sort of told him I was a little older than I am? And I look sixteen still. The whole getting carded for booze thing was a novelty at first, all "look at me I'm twenty-one!" but now it's just annoying.
VH: What if he turned out to be unattractive? Would you stick with him anyway?
Amy: Of course. Beauty's only skin deep. It's what's inside that counts, and the guy has a cute and sexy mind.
VH: Sexy?
Amy: ...Yeah? [blush and fidget]
VH: Do you guys ...talk dirty to each other?
Amy: Um... sometimes? [deeper blush]
VH: Cybersex?
Amy: More like ...phone sex.
VH: Like the whole "what are you wearing?" thing? [giggle]
Amy: Oh God you make it sound so stupid! [covers face with hands] Let's just say we're both creatively dirty minded and leave it at that?
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Tags: novel, process, excerpt, contemporary romance, valorquest.
Posted by Violet on June 20, 2009
My muses tend to crack me up, and the geeky hero for my new novel WIP, ValorQuest, is no exception! I've been working on some casual character interviews with my two MCs and thought I'd share a little excerpt from the hero's. I did it in a sort of shorthand so I didn't have to waste time describing when the dialogue was what I was after. Here we go:
Lewis: What is this crap you're listening to?
VH: It sounds kind of like... reggae, doesn't it?
Lewis: Why? Why would you do that to yourself?
VH: It just came on! I don't control the radio. And, anyway, we're here to do a job.
Lewis: Like... customer service? Or like tackling mobs? [confused expression]
VH: LOL! A job... mobs... The Mob...
Lewis: ...That was an accident. [laughs nervously and clears throat]
VH: Oh. Well it was cute. Anyway! Neither of those kind of jobs. This one should be fun.
Lewis: PvP?
VH: Hmm I guess you could look at it that way? I'll just ask you a few questions and you give me honest answers. Easy right?
Lewis: Yeah, I guess so. [shrug]
The interview is, of course, much longer than this and I could still keep going with it. So far it's solidified some ideas I'd had about secondary characters and given me more insight into Lewis. It's important to know how my characters see themselves if I'm going to grasp their voice fully. And I'm totally loving the idea of gamer MCs and their uber geeky love. They say write what you know, right? :)
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Tags: novel, process, excerpt, contemporary romance, valorquest.
