I know Nothing about Nothing.

Yeah, nothing to really update about today when it comes to writing, except that, well, I've been writing.  But I promised myself I'm post on here frequently, so let's see what I can scrounge up.

I sent some of the newer scenes that I wrote to my friend and I got some positive feedback about it, so that boosted my self-esteem x100.  It's great to have a friend that really understands story structure and the writing process in general, which means I can count on her to actually give me solid critique instead of "oh, it's good."  That drives me crazy.  So now I'm even more motivated to get things done.

I keep trying to push the impending re-write out of my brain, but I keep thinking about it.  Its going to be interesting and somewhat terrifying for me, because there are maybe four or five characters that I decided should be added in about half way through.  So now, in this first draft, these characters just pop up out of nowhere and act like they've been there the entire time.  (Imagine my friend's face when I tried to explain it to her before she read through it...)  I'm curious to see if I'll have trouble adding them in from the beginning.  At least I'll already have a strong idea what sort of character they are.  :D

Other than that, I have to be up tomorrow at 4:30am, so that mean a nice, early 9pm bedtime for me!  And a nap in the afternoon tomorrow!

I know Nothing about Ideas.

Finally just came up with a solid ending idea for my novel.  Freaking took me long enough.  Without the ending I was kind of flailing around the middle without direction.

My outline made it possible to sort of head in the right direction, but without anything solid it wasn't doing much good.

So I was talking to my friend, and it suddenly hit me - a way to end the story that made sense, tied everything in together, and left off in the right way to easily slide into the second book.  :D  I was so excited - finally I figured it out.

It's so weird how it takes such a long time to come up with these ideas.  Or rather, I should say how long the actual process takes of writing a solid story.  Before I had my amazing realization, my ending was so horribly cliched, and the whole reasoning behind the bad guy's actions didn't really make any sense at all.  I'm glad I'm finally past all that.  It means I can finally see the finish line of my first draft!  I have about a fourth of it to go (changing the ending lengthened it a little), but it's not so far out of my reach now.

Also, every good idea I've had for this story came about by talking out loud to other people.  Sometimes they didn't even have to say anything, just discussing it outside of my own head was all I needed to get the ideas really flowing.

That's why I'll always call my best friend when I need to talk about story plot.  :)

Where/how do your best ideas come about?  Share with me in the comments!

Sirantha Jax is my Hero

I am such a fan of Ann Aguirre it's not even funny.

I've always had a problem with buying books based on their covers, and then I go home and open them up and hate it.  I've discovered over the years that most of the book covers that attract me contain stories I have no interest in, or the writing style turns me off.  Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series was not like that at all for me.

I totally bought her book because of the cover art.

How fucking awesome is that cover?  I want to be Sirantha Jax so bad.  I'm also going to hound this cover artist when I'm ready to publish my novel.

Today I was so excited because I came across her last book in the Jax series over at B&N, and I immediately snatched it up.  And then I got all sad, because it's the end of a great series with great characters.  I'm sure most of you can relate.  Kind of like how you felt when Harry Potter came to an end.

So then I tinkle around with the idea of grabbing her fantasy series, because she is such an awesome writer, but I tend to stay away from urban fantasy novels, because there's only so many hot girl being a total bad ass and running from her past because she has a special power books I can take, which, of course, is what Blue Diablo is all about.

Kinda wish all of Aguirre's novels had the same artwork.

Who knows?  I'm hoping this series will pull me in like Jax did, and there are some awesome urban fantasy series that I love, like the Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman.

 This cover is so emo.  Look at him up there, perched high above the city in the rain, thinking dark thoughts about the troll under the Brooklyn bridge.

This series is awesome, one of my favorite fantasy series, and I was so happy to find out that Rob Thurman is totally a girl.  And might I just add that Cillian Murphey is 100% Cal Leandros, and I expect a movie to be made some time in the future.

 How can a man possibly look so good?

Anyway, can't wait to dig into these books.  If you haven't read any of her stuff yet, go for it!  <3 br="br">

My Dog Hates my Writing.

So I knuckle down and start doing writing things, right?  And then my dog comes along and tells me she hates my writing, and then shows me just how much she hates it.

Mom, your writing sucks, you should be doing productive things, like rubbing my belly.

There was no stopping her, either.  And she's too darn cute to yell at about it.  I'm sure she'll move when she's confident her message has sunk in.

Still plowing away, however.  Getting this ending done pretty soon!

I know Nothing about Ending a Story.

Oh man, so much has happened since I stopped posting.  I wish I was better able to stick to goals such as writing every day, but for some reason I just haven't had the motivation.  I could make a bunch of excuses, but that's just what they'll be read as: excuses.

I moved two weeks ago, and now I've set up base in lovely Ventura, CA, and the weather is wonderful and the beach is wonderful and my bookshelf is up and it's wonderful and suddenly I had the strongest urge to write.  So I've set a new goal for myself: I AM going to try and write every day, even if it's for just an hour or two, even if it's just a sentence, I'm going to try and write something.

....And this time I mean it!

Ha, I know, how many times have you heard that from someone.  All I can really do is shrug and try my hardest this time, and promise myself not to give up and hope for the best.

Another goal I've set for myself is to finish up my outline.  The ending has been so very vague and so very up in the air that I decided to just suck it up and get something more solid down on paper.  Of course, a vague, three-paragraph end turns into ten or so pages of an ending outline, but once that's done my main characters will finally have some direction.

I've noticed that my main characters have started to almost wilt in their rolls because I don't have much of anything for an end thought up yet, and I've come to the conclusion that it's because I'm wilting without an end.  This needs to be fixed asap.

What is your next writing goal?

I know Nothing about Outlining.

It's actually not something I like doing, if I'm going to be oh-so-honest here. However, it is needed, big time. Especially when writing lengthy pieces like novels, although I tend to think outlines are great not matter how long your story is going to be.

Even with outlines it's hard to keep track of characters; who they are, what relationships they have, how they're connected to each other. For example, in George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows), there are so many characters it's hard for the reader to keep track of who is who and what they're doing and to whom they're related. G.R.R.M. is able to keep track of them pretty well, which amazes me to no end, but he had to have had trouble. I can just imagine the notes upon notes upon notes.

If you've started a story and have yet to do an outline, there's a very large chance you will become stuck or stranded or stilled in your writing. Not to say that there aren't people out there who can plow straight through, no outline needed (I'm impressed, it's a talent I wish I hand), but it's rare. So if you're in the beginning or middle of your story and can't seem to move forward, I strongly suggest trying an outline. It just might inspire you and help you along.

I'm someone who has to skip around in my writing a lot, as I've stated before in an earlier post. Outlining helps me do this. It's like taking notes down for that research paper you have to write for school or for a speech you have to dictate. Forgetting thoughts about your story is easy - it's just as easy to write them down, and you'll be glad you did.

My story has already changed so much from the original, I don't recognize it anymore. It's a good thing, and it really goes to show that outlining is always going to help you remember, change and adapt to an even better plot and even better characters.

So try out an outline. It couldn't hurt. :)

I know Nothing about Snow...

Aaaand it's still falling....

And still falling...

And falling some more.

It's a good thing I like the snow. I like snow better than I like rain. Rain just makes you wet instantly. At least with snow you don't know you're wet until you're inside, and by then it doesn't matter! Plus, you can't make rain-balls and have rain-fights.... T.T

Anyway, I was going to hop on here and talk about the benefits of Fanfiction for young writers, but I just finished typing up a heated debate about it elsewhere, and I just can't bring myself to write about it anymore today. I'll put it on my topic list though, and it will be posted up in the future.

It's supposed to snow all day tomorrow, and I'm hoping I'll at least get the morning off so I can do some writing on my novel. I haven't opened up the document in weeks, and it's eating at me. I'm slowly going insane. Plus, work is picking up (lots of privates, birthday parties and babysitting gigs coming my way - I'm super-busy), so I'm just not getting that writing time in that I normally would.

It's okay though, I just have to bide my time.

The end is so close I can taste it. The epic ending is coming so fast, I just can't wait to get it done so I can go though again and build it up into something even more amazing. The hardest part is just finding the time to get to it.