Monday Miscellany: What I Want as a Writer

Yesterday, I went back to see The Avengers one final time before it leaves theaters and we settle in for a two-month wait until the DVD release. (Unless those rumors of an extended cut are true, in which case, I will probably go back one more time.) I haven't seen a movie that many times in theaters since Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. (Shut up, okay, that was a great movie!) It really got to me. When I was able to concentrate yesterday, it hit me: it was the writing. There were no gaping plot holes like there usually are in big-budget summer blockbusters. It was such tight, tidy writing. Of course it was, Joss Whedon was responsible for it. But it's still just really inspiring for me. My poor husband doesn't understand why I needed to see it four times and why I'm seriously considering pre-ordering the Avengers Assembled collector's set. He's not a writer or much of a nerd, so I can't explain it to him. Mostly, I just settle on telling him that Cap has a really nice ass that is best viewed on the silver screen. That isn't a lie. (Seriously. Chris Evans has an amazing rear end and in the new Captain America costume especially, his shoulders-to-hips ratio turns my biological clock into a ticking time bomb. It's unfortunate.) I'm lucky enough to be married to a wonderfully secure man who just rolls his eyes and shakes his head whenever I mention a crush.

Anyway, when I got home of course I felt inspired and ready to work on making my own writing just as tidy, so I managed to churn out an action-draft for a writing exercise and then tackled a little more of the short story anthology I'm working on. I've done so much writing in the last week or so it's kind of crazy. I have two novellas outlined/action-drafted and two more with only the barest outlines, all four of those with very clear beginnings and ends and very clear word count goals. I have the first sequel to Please, Sir in the works. I've finished the first draft of three of the short stories for Lost and Found and I'm looking at completing the fourth tonight or tomorrow. I started up again with The Guest and started thinking about something I'm calling VietZombies for right now. I even started work on the novel I hope to take on for NaNoWriMo.

I did the math and have been practicing meeting the word count goals. In the three nights I've attempted to write 1,667 words (the approximate daily word count you need to meet in order to write 50,000 words in thirty days), I've succeeded. The first three nights are easy. It's the last three nights that'll be hard. I'm hoping to be ready to take on NaNo and win this year. I've never written a novel in a month and it's been a long time since I attempted a story longer than about 30,000 words.

Short stories are kind of My Thing. Novels? Not so much. But I'm kind of stubborn. I like to push myself to learn and master new writing things.

And then I like to do what I can to perfect the things I've already learned.

So... I guess that's the point of today's post, then. Drive. Knowing what I want to accomplish with my writing. Having written things to look at and take inspiration from and model my work on. Not that I want to write a superhero movie, but I certainly want to write lean, clean stories. I want to write characters that make my readers root for them--or against them. I want to be good.

Monday Miscellany: A Program, Fandom, and Work

Last week, Paperback Writer posted about Sketchup (which you can get here). I haven't really made anything with it yet, but I have played around in it, and I think once you get past the learning curve that it could be really, really useful. Probably the first "big" project I'll use it for will be to lay out the Vue de la Mer Inn, the main setting in The Guest. The free version is probably all you need if you're just going to be creating mockups for yourself/reference.

As I mentioned over the weekend, fandom has kind of taken over my free time lately. Despite the fact that I haven't gotten any "work" done, I can't complain. The thing about fandom is that it inspires creativity. It reminds you why you do what you do and what you really love and, at least for me, it helps push me back in the right direction. I remember to read the right things, watch the right things, and write the right things. If you've never thrown yourself whole-heartedly into a fandom, I recommend it.

This week here on the blog should be sort of a mish-mash. Tomorrow I have a nine things post for you and, since I really dropped the ball on reporting my book sales, you can expect two sales posts. According to my stats, a couple of regular visitors come looking for sales data, and even though my sales have been really low, transparency and help are two of the goals of this blog.

With any luck, I'll also be able to assemble the Smashwords formatting guide for OpenOffice and figure out how to offer it. Don't worry--like the official Style Guide, it'll be free.

SitRep Saturday: When Fandom Attacks

I confess that once again I have made zero real progress on professional writing. See, I saw The Avengers last week and, well... I've been kind of immersed in fandom. Reading analysis of the movie and characters, tumblelogging pictures and memes, watching the prequel movies (I'd already seen The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, so I watched Captain America: The First Avenger and... I had every intention of seeing Thor and Iron Man 2, I did, but... Cap!), and generally fangirling with a couple of girlfriends who also saw the movie and were similarly affected.

I've always wanted to be a comic book fan because the stories and characters are right up my alley, but I can't actually read comics. They give me a headache. This is why I'm thrilled that Civil War is coming out as a prose novel.

The guilt is tempting, it really is, except I've sort of dipped my toe back into the writing fanfiction game. Maybe I shouldn't admit that here. But I'm going to, anyway, because it's actually helping. My work has been pretty generic and stunted lately, good but not really moving in the direction I feel I should be moving, and most of my attempts to jumpstart my creativity and force myself to get better have failed. I've been feeling kind of hopeless but I've pressed on because the only real way to beat this sort of thing is to just keep writing. Thinking about fanfiction has done wonders for my creativity.

In fact, I have real news about the next writing project. It's not going to be the anthology I thought it was. I drafted the first story and then just got stuck on the second one--which is a good story, I feel, but it wasn't working because of the blockage--and I was getting down about it. But I've figured it out. The last two stories of the anthology are going to be set aside until a later date and the first story, the one I've already drafted, is going to be expanded. There's more to tell than what I've told. I think I'd like to learn more about Lydia and Locke for that matter.

So, if all goes well, I'll be reporting progress on Lost and Found on Burano Island by next Saturday.

Monday Miscellany: Movies, Blogging, an Offer

Last week, I finally got to see The Avengers! (I'm one of those weird people who understands what a special treat it is for most people to go to the movies, so I don't take my kid into a crowded theater for an inappropriate film. I wish I could say the same for the family of six sitting near me.) It was absolutely wonderful. And now I have a new crush on Captain America. Go figure.

I have made exactly zero progress on the anthology, which is upsetting, but I'll live. As you can see, I managed to get yesterday's blog post done in a timely manner and today's too. Expect to see a post tomorrow (I'm going to try something new, a list feature on Tuesdays) and on Wednesday (the last of the formatting posts). Since I'm having such a hard time with this "blogging" thing, I'm going to try to add a couple of assigned days to the schedule. If I can keep it up for four to six weeks, it should catch and I should be fine. At least, that's how it worked with the three regular posts I do now.

One last thing before I go. If you are a book reviewer, especially if you're just starting a book review blog, and you're interested in reviewing one or all of my books, please let me know. I am more than happy to send you a copy or get you a coupon code for a free download at Smashwords.