October Biting

This whole blogging thing has taken awhile to get my head around, as can be seen by how long between posts. There were also a couple of crazy-busy months thrown into the issue as well. The idea of starting a blog at a busy time, not necessarily a wise one.

It’s given me time to think do I want to keep it going or not? The answer is yes. I enjoy following other blogs, personal and professional ones (my Google reader gets very long very quickly if I fall off the cyber-wagon) and I’ve watched and learned from them. Even as I’ve broken my own rule of being consistent with a minimum amount of posts I find myself thinking of various ideas and things to discuss.

Today I went public over on the RWA Australia blog doing a Blog Bites with Anita Joy. I agreed awhile back and it has taken me some time getting to it. It’s fun to do and I enjoyed answering the questions. I’m definitely feeling my way with what I’m comfortable with in the online world. Sure, I have a Facebook, Myspace and Twitter account, but was I ready to commit myself to a blog or website? I figure a blog is a baby step to this answer. A website? No, not yet.

Must be something about doing the 50K in 30 days that appeals to my inner blogger. I’ve signed up, for the first time, to NaNoWriMo aka November madness. I’ve ummed and aaahed over doing it for years and this year after my June experience have jumped on in.  The idea is to write a book in a month, or at least a partial book.

This time around my mermaid, T’Alinth is finally getting her say. She has been with me since this whole writing journey started. I think she was one of the first characters that would not leave me alone (she is such a pushy, petulant little thing). It has been her that propelled me over the edge into the writing world when I was too nervous to be around other writers (that is a whole other post).

As I write her story, I will continue to revise and polish FireWalker, the book I wrote back in June. It’s going to be a busy and very much writing focused month (but why do I think being busy a month before the craziness that is December is beyond me). Since writing takes centre stage (instead of being overseas, attending conferences) so will Luna Quirks.

Storytelling

The plan was to blog weekly and already I've veered away from the plan. There is a good reason for it. I’ve been busy. Finishing the draft for FireWalker. Yay!

I made the deadline, with a couple of days to spare, being prepared for the meeting tomorrow with my mentor. For a day or two in there, I thought I wasn’t going to make it. Going away for the long weekend made it dodgy. I surprised myself and wrote while away. Only had one day off last week and that was due to the 6 hour drive on the back of a lack of sleep the night prior.

My tally for the first week for the RWA NaNoWriMo was about the 16,000 mark. I knew it would be high and this week balances that with only about 9,000ish. There are still days left so we’ll see. The tally I set includes playing with a novella. I’ve yet to decide which one I want to play with. So many ideas, only so many hours in a day.

I was very fortunate to be one of the guinea pigs for the now very popular and successful Year of the Edit series of workshops run by the Qld Writer’s Centre. We had the very talented Kim Wilkins as our tutor. I’m pulling on my notes from that year to work on the scene map and commencing the structural edit for this book. I know a lot of people would say it needs to be ‘frozen’/placed in the drawer etc for a bit but I’ve discovered I’m an odd duck. Well, I already knew that but as I discussed the story with my partner, (who also write) he was amused to see how I really do not have any memory of writing some of my scenes. Even ones with my favourite characters are forgotten about. It means as I edit I am reading my story with a ‘first time’ overview. To edit a story detached and methodical are two words that are heard over and over and well, over again.

It leads credence to my theory I am first and foremost a storyteller. If I had lived a few hundred years ago, I would have been quite happy being a travelling bard, telling the stories, slightly different each time. Possibly, I may have had to be male as well, but that is another post for another time. Now in this day and age, stories, to a degree, need to become a static document, captured in time for repeated reading pleasure. It will be interesting to see how detached I will be as in the past my modus operandi was to abandon the baby aka story altogether. It was told, out of my head why would I want to look back at it?

Committed to June

June is a busy month at the best of times. There are multiple birthdays to remember – some even landing on the same day. This year June also means a month out from my trip to New York visiting my sister. So, why did I think finishing the manuscript by mid-June was a feasible and workable idea? I have no idea. I don’t think any vodka was involved in the decision making process either.

Once I finish the verbal stoush that is occurring in the current scene I will have made it to the beginning of the end of the book. Yay! Though the thought of reaching the end fills me with as much angst as any other section of the book. It happened in the last book I wrote too. I become caught in a state of stasis, unable to move forward or backward. I wonder if I’ll ever write again? If the story will work?

So we come to why I’ve committed myself to the 50k in 30 days challenge. Though in my case I chose 30k in 30 days. I like repeating numbers and also, the book should be ending in about 20,000 words. But having the commitment and guilt to achieve this being answerable to other real human beings…well, that ensures that FireWalker will be done. The wonderful discovery is that the real humans I am interacting with are a very supportive, wonderful bunch of people. I’m sure June (and the word tally) is going to fly on by.

Finishing under my tally means there will be 10,000 words to play with in another world arena that has been brewing for years too. Yes, you read right. Both worlds I am/wish to play in have been in my head for awhile. In some cases, the characters have been living in my head for nearly a decade. Even if they fill my brain to overcrowded levels, many have become like those comfortable old, fluffy slippers you can’t bear to throw away.

Breaking the Cherry.

It had to happen. I figured it was time I came into the digital world rather than commenting on many other blogs, I should actually commit to one of my own.

As an aspiring writer and as a member of RWA I've committed myself to the June NaNoWriMo challenge. The goal is 30,000 for the month. Oh, and this week is also the RWA BIAW too. That one, I'm only committed to 8,000. Seems quite small next to the number with an extra zero.

The book I'm working on has a tight deadline and nothing works better than being held accountable to others for getting work done. The book has to be done well before the June 30 deadline - though there will be no tax returns required shortly thereafter. If I'm feeling so inclined (not to mention having some word count up my sleeve) I may well play in another couple of worlds that have been cooking in the primordial ooze for quite some time.

So how come this blog? Well, as I'm committed already why not add one more experiment into the mix. We'll see what happens.