August Update: Story Acceptance and Potential Collection

Good news! I did reach my Camp NaNo goal! Which led me to realize that even though it was fun to write, it's not really a very solid novel idea. I may go back to it when I'm bored just for fun, but I can't imagine when I'll have that kind of free time. It has a really interesting relationship dynamic--the protagonist and her rommate, and the protagonist and her not-so-love interest--so I may reuse elements of that at some point. But as a whole, it was mostly a rehashing of my time working at Wal-Mart turned into paranormal romance. I don't feel like anyone but me would enjoy it, so I'm shelving it for now to purse other projects that I feel have more potential.

So last month I started submitting short stories again, using Duotrope to find markets and track. I hadn't actively tried to get any short stories published for over a year, but in a flurry of cover letters and email queries, I sent out fourteen of my strongest short stories.

Then I sat back and waited. And got some rejections. And sent those stories back out. And finally, Jack said hey, there is this collection I think would be a good fit for one of your stories. So I submitted. And then, after about a month, my story got accepted.

A story I wrote for the Cafe, called "The Heart of Stone Monsters," will be in Wolfsinger's Misunderstood anthology that comes out on October 31 of this year. They are going to pay me five whole dollars. Woohoo!

I am excited about this. They've been extremely pleasant to work with so far. And as much as I love Halloween already, I have an even greater reason to be excited about it this year!

But. That is the only acceptance I've had so far. I still have about ten submissions out at the moment, but I'm getting rather discouraged. I've been through almost all of my stories once already. It's been a nice distraction, but I need to focus on more fruitful things. Writing short stories is a lot of fun, and I've gotten many a story idea for novels later down the line writing for the Cafe every month, so I don't plan on stopping writing them. But trying to get them published in magazines isn't really the best use of my time these days. It would be nice if I could recoup my Duotrope subscription costs, but even if I don't, that's been worth it to get my writing friends submitting, as well.

I think between Jack and Rachel, I've been talked into putting together a short story collection. Having written a short story a month for the Cafe this year, and all of my previous work, I'll have a pretty substantial amount of stories to collect. So I'm thinking about that. Brainstorming titles, trying to figure out who would edit it, how much I'd be willing to pay for a cover, stuff like that. I've been toying with this idea for about a month now, and I still haven't come down firmly on one side or the other as far as putting it out there. I think I'd probably aim for early 2016. Before Conquest, for sure, so I would have something to sell at the Bottle Cap Publishing table (if we get one).

I also really need to focus my energies back on the novel. Monsters of Lawrence is really close to done--A few weeks of intensive edits should make it ready for submission--but it's been in limbo since it came back from beta readers. I'm not sure if it's fear of failure or fear of success that has me stalled out at the moment. I'm also going through a phase of not feeling like my work is all that good, so what is the point of working on anything. I'd like to try to get back into it before the next book edit from Rachel. I have about a month at this point. Plenty of time. I just need to get my butt in gear and do it whether I'm in the mood or not. I've been putting it off for too long.

If anything, all of this short story submission has been a good warm-up for when I start submitting my novel. Helps thicken my skin and realize that there is a market for everything.

So that's me this month. Next month I will be in crazy last-minute wedding planning mode, and then Jack and I head to California for our honeymoon. We're hoping to do a bit of writing for the first half (since we were supposed to be at the Haunted Mansion retreat that got cancelled), and then drink a lot the second half in Napa. I'm looking forward to the time away. I'm sure I'll post update before our wedding, which is in early October.

October is shaping up to be a pretty awesome month for me. I just need to survive the rest of August and the first few weeks of September to get there!

July Update: Camp NaNo and Short Story Submission

The LFK Writers and I decided to participate in the second session of Camp NaNoWriMo this year. I'd say we've had about as much success this time around as we did in April. That is to say, some of us wrote a lot of words, some of us never even started our projects.

I will probably not reach my goal of 15,000 words, but I should hit around 10,000, and it's allowed me to explore a story idea I might otherwise not have revisited. The idea now has more of a foundation, and has the potential to become something, I think. Maybe something like a throw-away, self-published book I put out under a pseudonym, but also maybe something I can edit into a hot urban fantasy type book. Either way, I'm glad I did this round of Camp NaNo. I definitely got something out of it, even if I didn't reach my word count goal.

All of the LFK Writers have started to have similar feelings about NaNo. Not just Camp, but also NaNo proper. We're all outgrowing it a bit. We all know we can write a given amount of words in a month. We are now, most of us, in a place where we need to write good words in a month, not just any old words to reach an arbitrary word count goal. Having a deadline and the camaraderie for NaNo are still great things, but I think we've all grown past the point where we need NaNo to write.

I have never been so proud of my writing group as I have been this year.

We are all writing short stories every month that are published on our website. We've been going strong for seven months now. Rachel has just started a brand new books series, and she's actually doing really well without her publisher. The LFK Women Writers are beginning to submit stories to various publications. We've actually had a couple be published already. Jack continues to have stories published on a regular basis, and he is taking the GRE this very morning so he can apply to the KU PhD in creative writing program.

And that's just the start. Our group is expanding: we've had a couple of past members become active again. We've recruited several new members who are actually contributing their stories to the Cafe, as well. Several of us are getting close to finishing up full-length novels that we are actually serious about getting published.

It's amazing to be a part of such an amazing group of writers. Watching all of us grow as writers and gain the confidence to put ourselves out there along this journey has been incredible. I fought long and hard to get this group to where it is. And now, I feel like, if for whatever reason I stepped away from them, they would continue on strong. It's not like the days where if I didn't show up, there was no group.

I don't often get possessive or brag about this, but back in the day, with the help of one or two other people, I started this writing group. I had no idea, ten years ago, that we would have such an amazing group of people now. It makes me happy in ways I can't even put into words.

So that's my biggest news, I guess. I have an awesome writing group.

In other news, I finished editing my first full-length novel for R.L. Naquin. I have fourteen stories on submission right now, waiting to hear if anyone wants to buy one. I have written one short story a month for the last seven months. And...if all goes well...I will be starting edits on Monsters of Lawrence next month. Fingers crossed for me, friends. I am terrified about this project. It's so close to finished, but it still needs a ton of work before it's done. I know I can do it. I just need to jump in there and start getting my hands dirty.

Gotta get your hands dirty if you want things to grow. I'd say that goes for writing as much as it does for gardening. I've cultivated a lot of things this summer, from food to fiction. It feels pretty amazing.

April Update: Camp NaNoWriMo and stuff

Hi friends. Checking up on me, are you?

As you should.

I've committed to posting on my writing blog at least once a month, and the month of April got away from me. I spent a full week sick with two different viruses, but I'm finally feeling more like myself.

That's a thinly veiled excuse for the lack of writing I've gotten done. It's the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo right now, and I set my goal at an easy 20,000 words. I've written 3,000.

But I still have a week. I know I can write the words if I just sit and write. But I'm trying to make it a point to not do it that way anymore. I've done NaNo enough years to know I can write 60k+ words in a month. But I want to focus more on the quality of words, not the number. And so, if I don't get all 20k words written this month, it's ok. What's more important is getting my ideas for this story down.

I'm working on the third story in a series that I started writing as my very first unofficial NaNo back in 2004. The story wound down at about 15k words, but left a lot of other stories to tell. Over the years, I've rewritten that first version a few times, and I've settled into the idea that someday I'd like to have five "season" of five stories, kind of like a television show. I've sketched out the whole series, and while the early "seasons" aren't all that strong, I think it has potential to be awesome.

I've thought about maybe self-publishing these under a pseudonym someday. I like the characters and the silly adventures, but the writing isn't as strong as I'm capable of and they aren't all that factually solid. They're supposed to be fun, both to read and to write, but I don't want that to come back and reflect poorly on me, in case I ever get serious.

So, maybe in another few years, once I've gotten the first five episodes written, I will start releasing them into the world. Maybe I'll build up a whole life for my alter ego. I'm already playing with different names I could use.

That's what's going on in my life this month. Attempting to write a novella, struggling with my health, and still awaiting critiques from my beta readers on Monsters of Lawrence. My friends have affectionately given my novel the hashtag #LFKMonsters. It'd be cool if that caught on.

Things have been quiet on the editing front. I finished up work on my most recent special project from Luna Station Quarterly, my author friend asked for a month-long extension to beef up her next book, and a horror writer who is friends with the future husband approached me about proofreading an anthology he's putting together sometime in June. So I'm between projects. Which means I need to stop binge watching Netflix and get some writing done!

Up next, I've got more Towers of Kansas transcribing, another month of Confabulator Cafe flash fiction stories, and I'll probably have to start incorporating beta reader feedback on Monsters of Lawrence as my friends finish up. Lots of work to do.

And ConQuesT is next month. Still no schedule yet, but Jack and I were both approached to participate on panels, so I'll let you know where I'll be as soon as I hear.

The next couple of months should be exciting! Stay tuned for more updates.

News and Updates

I'd like to be better about posting regularly to let you all know what I'm up to. Things finally seem to be moving on both the writer and editor fronts. So here are the details of my latest breaking news.

-I got a new job! I am finally breaking free from the administrative support world and transitioning into editing as my day job. I have accepted a position at an institute that develops all assessment tests for the state of Kansas. I'll be editing said tests at each phase, from developmental to and line edits - as well as potentially doing some writing for websites or other brochure type content as needed. This is a huge breakthrough. I am going to be a professional editor.

-My boyfriend Jack Campbell, Jr. and I attended our annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, ConQuesT, over Memorial Day weekend this year. It is always filled with frenetic energy of so many writers, editors, artists, and fans that it always charges my creative batteries. Jack and I participated in the Story in a Bag contest again, and we both brought home winner certificates. He won the professional horror category, and I won the amateur horror category. Luckily I still fall into the amateur category, because I'd hate to go up against him. This was our last con for fun. Next year, we work. We're both going to volunteer to moderate panels, and we'll have to do some networking.

-I ended up editing two short stories for my author friend Jason Arnett. He published one called  Prospects on Amazon (which you can find here) and Smashwords (which you can find here). He does a fantastic job writing within the dying genre of hard sci-fi, so if you like the old genre, check him out. I'm hoping his second short will go up for sale soon.

-Speaking of short stories, if you haven't checked them out yet, I've edited two short stories for my author friend R.L. Naquin. They are part of her Monster Haven world, and they are delicious little snippets that will either tide you over between books or suck you into the world. You can find the holiday-themed Hidden Holidays here (Amazon or Smashwords) and her more recent ode to the closet monster Maurice What Zoey Doesn't Know here (Amazon or Smashwords). She and I are working on putting together a collection of several of her short stories, and hopefully that will come out later this year. I'll let you know more about details once we nail things down.

-In other writing news, Jack and I have officially registered for a writing retreat for September 2015. Four days in lovely Northern California at the Haunted Mansion Writing Retreat. All of our food and drinks (including unlimited alcohol) will be provided, and our only responsibilities will be to write and also blog about any paranormal activity we experience. Jack talks a bit more about the trip, so head on over to his blog post Sound the Retreat! for details.

-Last, but certainly not least, story ideas are putting pressure on my brain, begging to be written again. I thought the voices had dried up, but now I feel like I'm riding the crest of a wave about to break. I am preparing to participate in the July run of Camp Nanowrimo with my amazing writing group. I haven't settled on which story yet, but I have settled on at least attempting something in the range of 30,000 words in a month. Right now I just want to tell ALL THE STORIES. I know I can't work on all of them at once, but eventually I'll decide on one. The win of Story in a Bag bolstered my waning confidence in my ability to write, so here's hoping I get into the swing of things again

Camp got Rained Out

Image borrowed from here

So my attempt at Camp NaNoWriMo this year was a complete wash. I wrote less than three-thousand words, which is way shy of even the thirty-thousand I had lowered my goal to halfway through June.

June was not a good month to write a novel.

I'm trying not to let that bother me too much. I did get a lot of brainstorming for the idea done, and the first scene is written. The foundation is there.

I think the biggest problem I ran into wasn't so much that I didn't want to write, I just never made time and when I did I wasn't highly motivated. I like my idea. But the foundation isn't solid. It's a sequel to Monsters of Lawrence, and Monsters of Lawrence is still barely a Zero Draft, so it was tough to keep writing in a world where I still need to fix a few flaws and figure out what actually happened and what is going to be cut out and therefore never happened.

Anyway, my main concern with not getting very far last month is that it was my second Office of Letters and Light sponsored event that I totally bombed. Anyone remember Script Frenzy? I wrote one whole sentence for that before I quit.

I failed Script Frenzy, failed Camp NaNo, so I can't help but feel a bit of concern for this November. Will I be able to write a fifty-thousand word novel later this year, what with all the writing interruptus I've experienced so far?

I do not, however, consider the month of June a waste. Not in the slightest. In fact, as I mentioned couple of weeks ago, I hit a major milestone. My first submission! It was something I always feared, and now that I have done it, I am actually kind of addicted to it.

I even got my first rejection today, and instead of crushing me, I just frowned, shrugged, and then found another publication to submit it to. I know it's a good story. I just have to find the right market.

I'm no longer a submission virgin. I know I've been a writer this whole time, but somehow, this makes me feel like a really real writer now.

More like Slacker September

I've been neglecting my writing blog the past couple of weeks. In my defense, it's partially because when I sit down to write, I've been putting my novel before my blog. I figure that's probably the more important of the two. I wouldn't have much to talk about here if I wasn't writing.

I'll touch on a few miscellaneous things in this entry, just to catch you up.

Bog of Doom

First - L33T September is going well. I am still on track word-wise, and most days when I sit down to write I am still excited about it. This is the longest I've written almost daily on the same project ever, and I have found myself struggling with a whole new batch of problems. First and foremost - it's getting harder to resist the urge to edit. When I write entire scenes of crap, it becomes a pitched battle with myself to leave it how it is and move on to the next scene instead of re-writing it twelve times. My other problem has me bogged down in the middle of the narrative - which sometimes happens during Nanowrimo, but I'm seriously stuck in the Bog of Doom this time. I've heard other writers talk about the middle of the book slump before, so I'm trying not to be discouraged. I'll push through and hopefully get to the good action scenes I've already written soon. Just gotta connect the dots. La la la laa.

Second - my writing group's official blog is getting closer to official kickoff. It's really starting to come together. We'll start writing content over the next couple of months, and we hope to go live December 1st. Once there's something to look at, I'll link you all there. It should be a lot of fun!

Third - I'm starting to get ridiculously excited about Nanowrimo. Even doing Camp Nanowrimo this summer hasn't diminished the feeling that Christmas is almost here. The Christmas for writers. This blog will look a little different during November: it'll have word counts, me complaining and me being elated, yammering flows of consciousness, sometimes all in one day. So, um, maybe not that much different.

Fourth - Um, four went missing. I'll let you know if I find it.

Fifth - Due to the encouragement of my writing group, I am going to be using my Twitter account with much more frequency (although "more frequently" is relative - it was six months between posts before)). I've added my Twitter feed, with a "Follow me on Twitter" link, or you can click here if you want to follow me. I will try to be insightful, witty, and original in all of my tweets.

Haha.

So, as a writer, what social media do you use? Twitter? Facebook? Myspace? Linkedin? Blogs? Scribd?

L33T September

If you've had a chance to look at my Current Writing Projects page, or if you've talked to me since the end of August, you know that I am attempting to continue the novel I started in August for Camp Nanowrimo through September. When I reached 50k (with ten minutes to spare on the 31st, phew!!), I realized that I have a lot more story that needs to be told, and I am excited to tell it. I'm aiming to finish it off in another 40,000 words. The Writing Buddy helped me figure out that if I write 1337 words each day to meet my goal, I will have 40,110 more words by the 30th, and I will be "leet" every day in September!

For those of you who don't speak geek, if you type in 1337 on a calculator and turn it upside down, it looks like "leet" which is geek speak for "elite." Hilarious, I know. I feel like a huge tool explaining it. One of those whole funnier-if-you-don't-have-to-explain-it things. Moving on.

Before this year I've never had much luck at writing without a Nanowrimo to back me up, but with my word counter on the Current Writing Projects page, as well as the progress chart I made in Excel, I'm hopeful that I will be able to keep it up. I've been having a blast writing it, and it keeps getting better. I hope these fun days help me through un-fun days I know are ahead.

Amazingly, this story has continued to grow and evolve in ways I never even expected. Not bad for a random story I decided to write the day before Camp Nanowrimo began, with only a vague idea for a few characters and one dramatic action scene.

So the plan from here, like I mentioned, is to finish out around 90k words by the end of L33T September. I then plan to spend October going through it and figuring out what to keep and watch to ditch, what needs expanding and what needs changing, and get it ready for a rewrite. The rewrite probably won't start until next year, since that will bring me up to November and then I'll be embarking on another writing journey. That will give it some time to sit and simmer on the back burner of my mind. It should be done cooking by next year. I hope it turns out to be a delicious dessert: light and fluffy with absolutely no nutritional value, but irresistible and decadent, leaving you wanting more after taking the last bite.

Damn. Now I want dessert.

Perhaps next year will be the Year of Editing. I have the Sally Prescott story I wrote this summer, the Monsters of Lawrence that I hope to have finished, and whatever story I write Nanowrimo 2011. I have my work cut out for me.

I think I'll just focus on September for now.

And dessert.

Motivating the Muse

I thought I would try to do a fun post where I conduct an interview with one of the characters from my story, kind of like on a talk show or something, but it turned into an epic failure. One flat our refused, one didn't bother showing up, and then I got in an argument with my last resort (I honestly had no idea how upset he was about the whole love triangle thing). Unfortunately, that doesn't leave me with many other characters, so I might have to try that another day, or use a character from another story sometime. I suppose this is what I get for being so mean to them all the time. Give them a chance to talk to me out of the story and they let me have it.

So instead, I am going to talk about motivation. More specifically, my motivation. Every year I resolve to write more than just during National Novel Writing Month, but my muse is fickle. What it is about this past year that has kept me writing when in previous years my resolutions ended in epic failure?

The answer is this: meetings, deadlines, and tracking.

krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Meetings - The Writing Buddy and I have been steadfast in our meeting schedule. We've been meeting at least once a week almost without fail since December, and while not all of those meetings were wildly productive, it kept us both in touch with our current project and constantly thinking about the next project. Some of this I think is accountability, but it is also actually scheduling time to write - setting aside that time in my week so I have no excuse not to do it.

Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Deadlines/To Do lists - I've found the more specific the better with this, however they also have to be realistic and give me a bit of leeway. I set the goal to have my fanfic and my Sally Prescott adventure done by the end of the summer - they both got done. I set the goal to have my Rift story transcribed before I started the next story - it got done in record time. I've set the goal to write at least two blog entries a week, and so far I have. None of my past "write for at least an hour every day this entire year" or "type up every story you've ever written by hand as soon as possible" or even "you have to write a blog on Tuesday and Thursday by 5pm every day." I've discovered ways to set deadlines so that they work for me instead of against me.

krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wordcount bars/charts - I've had a chance during Camp Nanowrimo this month to analyze what makes Nanowrimo so effective for me. A lot of it has to do with the community: fellow writers who are fighting the same battles at roughly the same pace. That's why I am Municipal Liaison for my region - to help unify that community and offer support and encouragement. But I've discovered another part that keeps me motivated: I am obsessed with tracking. I track the books I read, the exercise I do, the food I eat, the money I spend, so when Nanowrimo rolls around and I can input the number of words I've written and see it come out in a neat little chart or graph, I am immediately hooked. I want to spend the month of September finishing the novel I started this month, so on my "Current Writing Projects" page I've implemented a word count bar, and I spent (probably too much of) yesterday morning creating a bar graph in Excel that has a trend line for each day's wordcount. It's not pretty, but it's functional and I'm excited to use it.

I am confident that in the years to come I will be able to use these strategies to get the words written. If I can keep up, or even increase, the amount of writing I did this year, I should be able to complete several novels over the next few years.

Now if I could just find some motivators for the editing aspect, I might actually end up with a novel I can query with someday. Advice?

Love is in the Air

 luigi diamanti/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's half way through the month (holy crap where did August go??) and I am on track with my novel at 25,000 words. I've reached the point where the story has taken on a life of its own, and has set my vague road map on fire and thrown it out the window. I'm ok with that, actually. It's making the trip much more interesting. And I'm pretty sure we're not lost. Yet.

But I'm feeling a bit like a sell out. I broke down and gave my protagonist a love interest. I had been trying to keep her chaste - being that she is inspired by the maiden goddess Diana, and, for a big spoiler-of-a-reason, she won't be getting together with the main boy in the story - but I've realized that chastity is boring. Or at least, I'm bored with it (I'm not sure what that says about my priorities). So I threw in another boy for her.

Maybe I haven't sold out, though. Maybe having a budding romance as a subplot makes a story more engaging.

Besides, I also want her to have a non-Hunter friend - someone who isn't involved with the dangerous Lawrence Underground. Someone that she can discover that world with, instead of having to experience it all by herself or having another character lecture her about it.

I suppose if I really want her to have a non-Hunter friend, instead of a "civilian" she could befriend one of the monsters who could then introduce her to the fantastical underbelly of Lawrence. Might make sense, since the goddess Diana is also associated with being able to talk to and control animals.

It's become apparent that my need for another character is a crutch; I am a dialog fanatic. I need someone for her to talk to. She talks to herself too much already, and I write dialog so much better than I do action or description.

So anyway, what do you think? Do you think a love/romantic interest adds an interesting dynamic to a story, or do you think it's distracting and irrelevant? Is adding another male character superfluous?

As a side note, I am considering having her fall in love with a unicorn trapped in the body of woman (my sister's character suggestion that I am taking a liberty with). This would probably be instead of the male love interest, if I go that route. More interesting? Or maybe too contrived?

For the record, she is NOT falling in love with a vampire. My vampires are proper vampires - the terrifying kind that violently rip your throat out just because it's funny and they are only interested in humans because their hot red blood is delicious.

So yeah. Who's hungry?

End of side note.

The Input/Output for Camp Nanowrimo

Urban fantasy has been the rising star genre lately. I'll admit, I read a lot of it. It's always so jam packed full of action and horror and fantastical creatures and, as long as it's not YA, some sex thrown in (although even then, sometimes you get some good before-the-cutaway scenes).

It's all so fun and fluffy. So dramatic. No wonder people like it. It's almost like watching television.

Since I enjoy reading the genre so much, I've really wanted to try writing it for awhile.

Enter Camp Nanowrimo. What better genre to write when trying to cram a 50,000 word novel into a month?

And so my first true attempt at urban fantasy is beginning to take shape. I'm roughly 11,500 words in, and I haven't introduced my first supernatural creature yet - at least not a full frontal look. Lots of things lurking in the shadows and the corner of the protagonist's eye. But the big reveal is a scene that's coming up soon, and then it will all be chaos and action and blood and fighting and death. Rawr!

I'm only slightly worried about the fact that I am terrible at writing action scenes.

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Guilty Pleasures Vol 1

I've found while writing this particular story that I am pulling a lot from the Anita Blake novels. Anita Blake is a badass vampire executioner who also happens to be a necromancer. All kinds of baddies from vampires to zombies to shapeshifters make trouble for her. Some of the snippets I've written, jumping ahead in the narrative, have been a bit influenced by Hamilton's world and style. It's also interesting because her books take place in St. Louis, Missouri. So not too far from home, since my story takes place in Lawrence, Kansas.

The other series I am finding myself heavily influenced by is the Mortal Instruments books by Cassandra Clare. I love the world she created, with the angels vs. demons dynamic, not to mention her characters are dynamic and deep. Her pacing is excellent and her dialog is brilliant - laugh out loud funny at times. The entire time I was reading, I kept thinking "these are the books I've always wanted to write." So now I am. I've stolen a couple of character traits and other ideas from her novels. I can't quite nail down the humor, though. I'm just not that funny, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I find myself hilarious, but not many other people get my sense of humor.

Diana, maiden goddess of the hunt

I've also found myself drawing from Greek/Roman mythology. I'm not sure how it happened, but I have two characters based on Roman gods. Their stories are nothing like the stories of those gods, but I've stolen character traits and relationships from these two gods. My protagonist is named Diana, which I thought appropriate since she is going to become a vampire hunter. I've given some of the traits associated with the goddess to her. That's all I will say for now, in case this story turns out to be any good. I would hate to give out spoilers for my own work.

Finally, both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, a lot of my own life experiences have inspired this story. A year ago this month my mother passed away after a long fight against breast cancer. While I am so lucky to have lots of friends and family left, I got to thinking about a person who might not have much family after losing someone close. And what if that person had the only family member she had left violently taken from her? What would that look like? How would I react? I have put a lot of myself into my protagonist, even if she isn't actually me. In a way, all of my protagonists are me, or at least share some of my experiences.

But I digress.

And I procrastinate.

It's time to go work on that novel I've been yammering about.

Roadtrip Without a Roadmap

50,000 words in 31 days? Pshaw.

Camp Nanowrimo is underway. I may not have any idea where this story is going, but my word count is on track, the story is unfolding, and the pages are filling up.

I've become neurotic, like I always do during Nanowrimo: babbling to myself as I wander through my apartment, acting out scenes to get dialog right, insomnia, leaping out of bed with a flashlight to write down ideas that coalesce as I fall asleep, and drinking copious amounts of coffee even though I had completely kicked the habit. All of these things mean writing to me. It gives me a warm, euphoric feeling. Normally all of this is associated with November, but now the Christmas for Writers comes multiple times a year. I am ecstatic.

I'm don't know what it is about Nanowrimo that gets my writing juices flowing. While I will say that this year has been better in leaps and bounds as far as my writing progress, I just don't feel the things I feel during Nanowrimo as strongly. Something about the community, the deadline, the pressure (get 50,000 words written in a month), and also the lack of pressure (write for the love of writing without judging what comes out). Writing with true literary abandon. It really is magical.

Granted, it's only what, Day 4? Everything is still fresh and new and exciting. I'm sure posts full of complaints will follow in the days to come.

For now, though, I'm settling into the groove and ideas are coming and characters I didn't expect keep introducing themselves and I have gotten distracted doing internet searches to chase down ideas. My brain has spark flying from all the information and ideas. I'm stealing every drop I can from my life and infusing it into my story: the funny guy at the coffee shop, the weird kid at my apartment complex, the street performers on Massachusetts Street, a conversation I had with a friend. Nothing is safe. You'd better not do anything memorable or noteworthy around me for the next month, or you might find it in my story.

I'm even building a Pandora station for mood music for this particular piece. I am finally writing the urban fantasy I've been obsessing about. I have no idea how it ends, and only a couple of vague scenes in the middle, but I have characters and a world and some very strange things going on and a very horrible thing about to happen. I may not be driving a shiny new Porsche easily across the finish line (more like a beat up Ford Taurus clunker), but I have got the wheels to get me there.

Oh, and I'm happy to pick up hitchhikers along the way. Care to go on a road trip without a known final destination? I've already got R.L. Naquin and Could the World Be About to Turn in the car. I'm sure we can fit a few more!

Hell and Screenplays and Camp Monsters

When the subject of weather is introduced into a conversation, people assume that it's because there's nothing else to talk about, that you are just exchanging pleasantries with someone you don't know very well to pass the time. Not so for us Kansans. Weather is an event. An ongoing drama. I honestly never get bored talking about Kansas weather even with my best friends and family.

And right now Kansas is HOT. Hot even for me, and I love summer. I hate to use a cliche, but it really feels like what I'd imagine hell to be like if there was such a place.

Due to the "excessive heat warning," and the "dangerous heat index" I have been spending a lot of time indoors - because weather.com tells me that outdoor exposure should be limited - so I have had lots of time for input/output. Mostly input.

I devoured a great deal of Doctor Who over the weekend. Yes, I'm still on that. But. I spent as much time watching special features as I did actual episodes, and I've learned something about myself. I've entertained the idea before, but I'm beginning to think that I might be better suited for screenwriting than for novel writing. Not only do I seem to write at the pace of a 45 minute television show, but I also focus a great deal on dialog and tend to neglect setting and description. And I suck at writing action scenes. My action scenes beg to be choreographed by a professional on a production team.

But the aspect that intrigues me the most about screenwriting is the collaborative nature of it. Sure, the writers do have to spend their private time actually writing the script, but based on all of the behind the scenes stuff I watched, the production team and the other writers all get together to go over a script to work out scenes and tweak it. And then they all get together with the actors for a read-through. All of the writers have to work out with the head writer where the overall story is going. Can you imagine some of those meetings? All of those ideas flying around? My idea of the perfect job. I thrive in collaborative settings like that.

All of that being said, I'm quite sure that I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. I have researched all of the ins and outs of novel writing and book publishing, and even self publishing online, but I have no idea how one begins a career as a screenwriter and what the job itself is actually like. I am going to have to look into this.

In other, completely unrelated news (although still slightly related since it still has to do with writing): I've actually committed to doing Camp Nanowrimo this month. I started my story and everything! I'm exploring the urban fantasy genre I've been wanting to write. I have no earthly idea where I'm going with it, but I'm taking the "write what you know" advice. It takes place in Lawrence, and I'm taking a lot of real life and twisting it a bit. Easy, laid back, familiar, and something I'd enjoy reading as much as I hope to enjoy writing it. Here's the synopsis I offhandedly came up with for the Nanowrimo website:

A lonely woman, trapped between adulthood and childhood, moves to a new city to be closer to her sister - her only remaining family - after they lose their mother. As she explores the new city, she finds that monsters are real, and one of them is after her sister.

I'm tentatively (with tongue in cheek) calling it The Monsters of Lawrence. The irony there being that I just finished a true crime book for book club called The Monster of Florence. Too clever?

So yeah. There it is. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.