In Other News...

Well, while I've been waiting for the weather to pick a season and waiting for this stupid cold I have to go away, I've been busy with writing.

First up, while lounging on my couch, watching Tangled for the zillionth time with Diva and Dude, I came up with a new plot point for one of my characters. Suddenly, a small side character became fairly important, with an entire backstory and new motivations that turned her into a bit of a villain. Definitely an obstacle of sorts for my main characters. This means more changes to my story, but it adds another layer to everything that makes me excited to see how it all forms up and comes together. I have to admit, while it's been frustrating, it's also been fun seeing how things are changing to make it better.

Also, it's a new month and a new short story for Once Upon A Distraction, and my story is now up for all to read. So head on over there if you have a chance to check it out. There's love and death and stormy weather to entertain you. :)

Well, that's it for me for now. Until next time, happy writing!

Word Wars

So, Andrea and I both follow alot of the same authors on Twitter. And every Wednesday a few of them would talk to each other about word wars, and since I figured it was an inside joke of their's or something, I didn't pay much attention. But Andrea was paying attention and was invited by one of them to join in on the fun a couple weeks ago. So when she invited me to play, this was my reaction:

"What's a word war?"

This is what she told me: these authors (that are friends and critique partners) have a standing plan for a word war every Wednesday at 1pm. They invite anyone who wants to do so to join in with them and for a solid hour you type as much as you can for whatever story it is that you're working on. At the end of the hour, everyone compares word counts, declares a winner, and shares a favorite line that they wrote during that hour - all via Twitter. It's like a fun (yet productive) game!

Andrea and I did one on Sunday after the President's big announcement (kinda nice since it let things sink in while I lost myself in my story) and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Then today, because Diva went down for an early nap I was able to participate in their war this afternoon. Once again, it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I even won the word war and Brodi Ashton told me the line I shared was really good and intrguing! (She's a soon-to-be published author!) Needless to say I had warm fuzzies from her compliment because she obviously knows what she's talking about. Very, very cool.

But the really great thing about these word wars is that I'm able to pick one of the scenes that's been rolling around in my head and just get it down without having to worry (right now anyway) about how it's going to fit in with everything else. Since I'm rewriting quite a bit, it's nice being able to jump around during the word wars so I can leave the chapter by chapter revisions for another time. It's quite freeing and I'm finding the creative juices flowing during these little one hour sessions. It's fantastic.

In other news, I'm going to try to make it my goal to finish my WIP over the summer. It will take a lot of hard work, but I think with some creative multi-tasking, I'll be able to get it done. And I've finally accepted that it won't be perfect to start with. The revisions I'm already doing have helped that sink in, and I'm able to move on and just keep writing a little easier than before. I'm hoping I'm not setting myself up for failure by setting this goal, but I think if I sit down for an hour or so every day and hammer some of it out, then little by little I could get it done by the time Dude goes back to school. Wish me luck!

Well, that's it for me right now. Until next time, happy writing! And maybe we'll have a word war together in the future!

I Found My Lady an Anthem

So, once upon a time in high school, I really liked Hilary Duff's music. (Still do, to be honest.) Since I was a poor high school student, I downloaded a bunch of her songs and burned a cd to listen to in my room while I got ready for school or did my homework and whatnot. Forever ago, when I was getting ready for a 6 hour drive to go visit my mom, I stuck this cd in my car so that I had good music that I knew and could sing to so that I could stay awake. (I am notorious for falling asleep on long drives.) Well, a few days ago I popped that cd back into the stereo of my car because there were no good songs on the radio, and as I'm listening to the tracks and singing along, this song comes on.

At first I'm not really paying attention to the lyrics, even though I know them by heart. I'm just singing along, grooving in my car. Then, towards the end, I start listening. Then I start the song over. And all of the sudden I realized, this song is exactly something that my main female character would say. The angsty music, the "What do you really want from me?" lyrics - it was absolutely perfect. I was in awe. So now I've been listening to this song constantly and it's given me an almost crystal clear scene in my head and after I post this, I'll be typing it up so that I don't lose it for when I get to that scene and I need it. It's given me a great insight to her character and it's been awesome to see how it's helping me change things up so that the characters feel more real.

So thank you to Hilary Duff - almost 10 years after I downloaded this song - for making music that still speaks to me. It's been inspiring, to say the least.

Why didn't you just say so in the first place?

So.

For the past week my main character from my main WIP has been talking to me. And not like "Oh look, I have excellent dialogue for you so you can continue writing" type talking. It's been "Well, if you can't figure it out on your own, I'll tell you" type talking. What did he help me figure out? Well, I'll tell you.

I've been writing him all wrong.

Well, not completely wrong. Just wrong for where I'm currently at. He's too nice, way too soon. And so there's not enough conflict between him and my female lead. So there was nothing left for me to do but end the book way before it was time to do so. I wasn't giving him enough depth and he was coming out shallow, so the rest of the story was too.

The fact that he's finally revealed what the hell the problem has been after all these weeks thrills me to no end. Because it means that now that I've had time to digest this development, I'm getting all kinds of new scenes running through my head.

But.

That also means I have to go back and rewrite a fair amount of the 50 pages I have sitting in my documents file on my computer.

Ugh.

Now, I could just move forward and write from where I am with this new knowledge in mind, but it actually changes A LOT of what's already happened, and I don't quite know where I am in the story anymore. So, for the next little while I'll be going through what I have, chapter by chapter, and rewriting what needs to be fixed right now and leaving the rest for edits later, so that I can continue with the story and finish it. Then I'll go back and fix everything else that isn't so important right this second.

While I don't relish this task, I don't see any other way to proceed. And I'm kind of excited to see how everything changes, because I really think this will make it better. I feel bad for Andrea and Aubery though. I'm going to be making them read my stuff all over again now, and not everything is going to be a glaring, obvious change.

They will hate me by the time I get to anything new. *sigh*

So, wish me luck as I let my characters take over and change the story as much as is required. Hopefully I don't end up going absolutely crazy in the meantime.

Until next time, happy writing!!

Sigh...so....

Ok, so here's where I am right now.

- I've completely been ignoring my current WIP. I feel stuck and that annoys me so in typical Jenn fashion, I'm pretending it doesn't exist for right now. (That's a lie, I still think about it quite a bit, but I haven't actually worked on it for weeks.)

- I've been taken over by a new, different idea and it's what I end up working on when I do actually sit down to write. It's not bad. Really rough, but I'm liking where it's going. And right now they are the characters who are talking to me the loudest, so that's where my attention is going.

- This morning while in the shower, a brand new sparkly idea popped into my head and while I washed my hair and shaved my legs I let my mind wander with this new character. I'm very intrigued, but I think that story would involve a fair amount of research, so I think I'll get the basics down (so I don't forget) and then leave it alone for awhile. Or, as I start writing it I'll become obsessed with it and it will take on a life of it's own. It's happened before.

- But, while my head has been taken over by shiny new ideas and crazy new characters, I've disappeared into the world of reading. I found some great books at the library and so I've disappeared into other peoples' made up worlds for a while. And it's been blissful. And very interesting, since I still read like a reader, but I also now read like a writer. I'm picking up more on things I like and don't like as research for my own writing style.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. Completely disregarding any deadlines I had given myself and just going with the flow. Call me irresponsible, but I don't care at this point. I'm giving myself up to the characters that talk the loudest right now - no matter what story they are a part of.

It feels very freeing.

Stepping back

So, for the last week or so, I have been in a writing slump with my WIP. I still love it, but my characters are being extremely stubborn and only talking to me about scenes way ahead of where I am. Not very helpful and it's leaving me quite frustrated. I might do another free write, just to get it down, but I'm trying really hard to work straight through so that I have a solid, working first draft. Wish me luck that they'll be a little nicer to me so I can make progress again.

Also, I think I've been focusing too much on getting it done so it can be published. I know, I accepted Andrea's challenge, but it's putting my focus on the wrong part of the process, and I think it's contributing to my slump. I'm too focused on what other people will think, I'm not focused on just writing what I like; my story the way I want it told. So, I'm going to give my creative self some space and try to just think about writing the story for me. Not for anyone else. I think it will come out better too. Lately I feel like it's too forced, which makes me sad. I'm hoping to get a night once a week where I can turn on my music and disappear into my head for a few hours. I haven't done that in a long time, and I miss it. It's been way too busy around here.

Also contributing to my lack of progress (I know, there's a lot) is I have a new idea that's distracting me. It's a mixture of an old idea and a new one, which I feel makes for a new, even better idea. It's rolling around in my head and now those characters are starting to talk to me as well. It's getting very distracting in my head to be honest. So, since I'm paranoid I'm going to forget it, I'm doing a free write for this new idea. It's weird because usually I focus on one thing at a time, but I'm actually going to attempt to work on both the new idea and WIP until the free write for the new idea is done. Then, once it's safely stored in my computer and thumb drive, hopefully I can leave it alone and get back to my main WIP. Wish me luck.

And, last but not least, if you haven't headed over to Once Upon a Distraction you really should. All of our February stories are up, and I must say, they are pretty good for our first time. The theme for February was trauma (dealing with it, overcoming it, etc), just in case you were curious. Next month is more fun. In honor of Andrea - who LOVES 311 - March's theme is to use a 311 song as the title for the story. I have to say, I was surprised by what I came up with, because it has nothing to do with the song, so I'm curious to see what the girls come up with for their stories. And there's an awesome contest going right now to win a signed copy of Matched by Ally Condie. So really, you should check it out.

Oh, and just because I just finished it and it was incredible - everyone needs to read Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. This book blew me away and I was crying by the end. The story was so amazing and so...relevant to life that I just can't get over it's awesomeness. I borrowed it from the library, but I'll definitely be buying my own copy in the future. And I'm making Casie read it. Really. It's amazing.

That's it for me at the moment. Until next time, happy reading and happy writing!!!

Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead

K, well, maybe not a witch, but my writer's block is gone! Hooray!

While I was waiting for my characters to start talking to me again, I looked for any kind of inspiration I could. I watched some good (and not so good) movies, and read a bunch of books - taking notes on things I liked and didn't like so I could apply it to my own writing. And then I read a book that helped me break through my wall.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

To say it's a delicious morsel of YA romance is an understatement. In my opinion, it got everything right. I LOVED Anna. I wanted her to be real so we could become friends. She was smart and sassy and her inner dialogue was HILARIOUS. I was constantly laughing or giggling out loud. Her love interest - St. Clair - was fabulous and witty and completely charming. While they had chemistry right away, I love that they became friends first. They had a wonderful friendship and it just made the book that much better for me. There was plenty of conflict and subplots to keep everything moving and the ending made me sigh with delight and contentment. It was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Anyway, reading this fantastic book gave me back my desire to write again. Immediately after finishing, my characters started talking to me again and my mind was flooded with scenes and dialogue that it was almost overwhelming. And the next day I wrote 4800 words!! In ONE DAY!! It's not perfect, but I'm happy. And I'm learning that it's my first draft, so it doesn't have to be perfect right now. What's important is to get it all out, then I can go back as many times as I need to to polish it up and make it just right. That realization helps me to not feel so intimidated by the awesomeness of other authors. Someday, I'll be awesome too. : )

Anyway, I have another critique group with the girls tonight, and that always helps with motivation too. Andrea is working on her second draft and I'm loving her details and descriptions. It makes me jealous because I have the worst time describing things. I can see it in my head, but I struggle to put it in words. And Aubrey is still working through her free write and the stuff she's coming up with is intensely emotional and beautifully written. When she puts it all together as a book, it's going to be amazing.

I'll try to post later this week with some musical inspiration when I'm not busy writing, because my head is still buzzing with new material. Until then, happy writing!