Friday Meme

Katey: K V Taylor has posted a Meme over at her blog that I thought was fabulous and had to do, so here goes:

1. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter?”
I used to be a huge plotter but found that I got too bogged down and was taking too long to write the story. Now I delve just a little bit into the plot before getting the first draft down and then doing a detailed outline while I’m working on the second draft, so maybe half and half.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as a I write”?
A bit of both. I’ll do character outlines for the main characters and smaller ones for the secondary characters but as the story develops and I get to know the characters better, their personalities evolve and I learn more about them.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?
Usually, but sometimes as I get further and further into the story I’ll have a brainwave to do with plot or conflict which can affect their motivations.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?
Depends, I guess, on what or how much you choose to take from them. I think every writer works differently and you can't beat yourself up if you're not working to exactly the same format as the how to books. I own a couple, have read them and now they sit on a shelf. Should I read them more often? I don't know, I guess the proof will be in the pudding, huh.

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?I’m a recovering procrastinator. I’m becoming much more disciplined with my writing but I still go through stages where I’ll “just do this first before I sit down to write” and meanwhile five hours have passed.

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?
Bit of both, depending on the moment and how much time I have.

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?
I usually write in my lunch break and at night.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?
Must have noise. I usually have music playing when I write, I hate silence.

9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)
Lots of notes and conversations between characters in longhand but mainly the computer.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?
Yes, I know exactly what will happen to the characters at the end, where they will be, whether they’re still alive, just not always the dynamics.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?
For short stories yes, but for the novel I’m working on, no.

12. Editing – love it or hate it?
I’ve learned to love it. It was a long and frustrating process and sometimes I still don’t like it a lot.

A Good Result

Monday was a success as far as editing went. I only read Harry Potter for one hour after I woke up (am still very distressed that one of my favourite characters died at the end of The Order of the Phoenix) and, fortified with coffee, I got stuck into it.

I was amazed at how fast the day went and even further amazed by how much I got done (I gave four chapters of Kiss Butterfly a thorough going over). I have another annual leave day next month and also two in November which I’ll be utilising for NaNoWriMo. The TV didn’t get turned on, even for the midday movie which I always watch if I’m home sick. Come to think of it, I didn’t even have music on, which is unusual for me. There are crows nesting in the trees out the back though and they provide enough noise. They also seem to like to congregate outside my writing room window and make a hell of a racket, but I don’t mind them. It reminds me fondly of the term “a murder of crows”.

Today we have a terrible dust storm. Outside is horrible shade of mucky yellow and I can barely see across the street from my office window. It’s also very windy, making things a lot worse as we’ve a high fire danger warning at the moment. I only just rembered before too that I left my bedroom window open. Oh, joy of joys, everything will have a thick layer of dust on it when I get home.

A Writing Day

I’m taking an annual leave day on Monday to write. This is the first of several planned writing days between now and Christmas and I’m looking forward to getting up Monday morning (no Mondayitis! Woo Hoo! – of course now I’ll have Tuesdayitis) and sitting down to write, uninterrupted. I won’t be answering the phone, turning on the TV (the evil contraption tries to lure me into watching mindlessly instead of writing) and I won’t have the internet to distract me. I even contemplated leaving Harry Potter at work again but I’m going to use the small amount of will power I have to restrain myself.

Reading wise, head on over to The Absent Willow Review to check out Aaron Polson’s disturbingly creepy story, The Surgeon of An Khe.

Til Tuesday then...

Editorial Torture

Sometimes the words just won’t come out right and I feel like I need to belt myself upside the head to spit out what I’m trying to say. Well, actually, what my characters are trying to say. That’s not to say I’d actually belt myself upside the head because I wouldn’t—that would be painful and silly—but it might help and the right words might magically pop out of my mouth and drop onto the page. It’s like there is some anti-editing torture device strapped to my head, compressing all creative ideas and inspiration so that they can’t get out.

As it is, I’ve left a dotted line where those damn, elusive words are to go and added "FIX THIS". Then I moved on. This chapter is giving me the most trouble yet. It shouldn’t, because what happens in this chapter isn’t that complex. Maybe that’s the problem—maybe there’s not enough happening. I think I’ll just move on anyway and come back to it later. Then again, maybe I’ll just read a little more of Harry Potter (currently half way through book 5).

Reading wise, head on over and check out Cate Gardner’s The Unfortunate Tale of Captain Unworthy for a truly great and creepy read.

A Fearsome Christmas

Woo Hoo! This is the promo for Festive Fear, an anthology of original stories to be released by Tasmaniac Publications showcasing some of the leading horror writers working in Australia today.

14 disturbing tales that will make you wonder if Christmas really is something to look forward to. Limited to 150 numbered softcover copies with a release date of December 5th. Only $15.95 US (free shipping within the US & Aus).

Brett McBean
Marty Young
Martin Livings
Leigh Haig
Josephine Pennicott
Amanda J Spedding
B. Michael Radburn
Crisetta MacLeod
Stephen Studach
Felicity Dowker
Loretta Leslie
Mark Farrugia
Danielle Ferries
Steve Gerlach

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I can hardly wait, and I'm totally chuffed to be appearing in an anthology with some of these supremely talented people!

Annoyingly Ill

I was off work yesterday with a bad headache. They’ve been getting increasingly worse over the last year or so and they really knock me around. Suffice to say I haven’t been doing any reading. I finished K C Shaw’s Jack of All Trades on Wednesday night which I very much enjoyed and I now want an emperor dragon for a pet. I’m halfway through critiquing a story for a friend, three quarters of the way through book 4 of Harry Potter and about halfway through editing Kiss Butterfly, but yesterday I wasn't game to so much as pick up a book let alone look at a manuscript.

So I pretty much lay prostrate (is that even the right word) all day except on the few occasions I went downstairs for more water, pills, or to make tea (strangely enough I don't often drink coffee when I'm sick). While I was making said tea, trying to move as little as possible, I dropped the carton of milk on the kitchen floor. Normally there would have been much swearing and threats against the milk carton for daring to slip from my hand, however, I don't know whether it was just that I didn't want to risk the pounding in my head turning up a notch or whether my exercise to remain calm - "serenity now" for the other Seinfeld fans out there, but I got out the mop and filled the bucket with soapy water - without uttering a single word - mopped up the milk, and then went back to bed with my tea.

I’m back at work today, obviously as I am online (I have no internet connection at home - I can’t decide whether this is a good thing or not), so I don't know how well sitting in front of a computer all day will go, but here’s hoping my head is recovered enough so I can get stuck in over the weekend.

A Surname Meme

This Meme has been popping up on everyone’s blogs and Aaron pretty much tagged the world, so I thought I’d have a go at it, just because it looks cool. Here be the rules....

From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author’s last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Bonus: If you can, pick the first book you haven’t read off your shelf, unless you’re one of those people who’s read all the books you own.

Post the first sentence of each book, along with the author and title. Feel free to skip prefaces and such, especially if they’re by a different writer.

* * *

French, Nicci – Secret Smile (she writes great psychological thrillers): I’ve had a dream recently, the same dream, over and over again, and each time I think it’s real.

Eugenides, Jeffrey – The Virgin Suicides (A surreal but brilliant book): On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide—it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese—the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope.

Radcliffe, Ann - The Mysteries of Udolpho (Ahhh, Gothic novels, how I love ‘em): On the pleasant banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, stood, in the year 1854, the chateau of Monsieur St Aubert.

Ransom, Christopher – The Birthing House (fantastic novel): Conrad Harrison found the last home he would ever know by driving the wrong way out of Chicago with a ghost in his car.

Irving, John – The Hotel New Hampshire (I’m so envious of Irving’s writing style): The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born—we weren’t even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Franny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg.

Evans, Nicholas – The Horse Whisperer (Great story, but the ending...): There was death at its beginning as there would be death again at its end.

Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein (I collect copies – every time I see a cover I don’t have I buy it. They have their own little shelf): You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

First lines rock.

September

I feel pretty good about what I achieved in August. I worked fairly solidly on Kiss Butterfly, I didn’t get any short stories done, but the editing is chugging slowly but steadily along so that’s a good thing. I’ve given myself a personal deadline of 31 October to get this draft of Kiss Butterfly done and I can feel the deadline goblin peering nastily over my shoulder, but I’m pretty confident I’ll get it done.

Never fear, I plan on September being twice as fruitful as August was (I’m feeling terribly optimistic at the moment). This month I plan to edit eight chapters of Kiss Butterfly (if I say how many out loud there’s a better chance I’ll reach that goal). And let’s not forget my current Harry Potter obsession. I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to put those books into a lock box at night, they’re starting to occupy my every waking moment. This month I also plan on writing a short story - the sequel to Sister Sunday which I have titled Dear Dead Dolly. I'm also going to give The Pennyroyal a bit of a working over and send it off somewhere else.

Apart from that, there isn’t much to report other than I’m editing, editing, editing, and sneaking in a chapter of Harry Potter here and there. And nearly finished Jack of All Trades. And watching late night TV. And pausing to drink more coffee.