Pages

Insert Myst reference here

Since I started this blog back in June, it has been slowly evolving. I customized the look and feel, where things are, what gadgets I include, and I am constantly fiddling with all of that. Then I discovered the brilliance of pages! So I began adding them (possibly in excess), and I tweak those quite a bit, too.

If you haven't had the chance, I encourage you to check them out and let me know what you think. Do you like the pages? Are there too many? Is there enough content on them? Or too much? Do they need more pictures? Are they easy to navigate? Do the titles on the tabs make sense? Can you even find where the tabs for the pages are??

I suppose what I am asking is for you to critique my website. I am open to any and all suggestions or feedback. This blog will continue to evolve as I figure out what works and what doesn't, what people like and don't like, and also where I am on my path to publication. Maybe one of these days the "Read My Stuff" tab will become a bibliography for stuff I've actually published instead of stuff I've just posted on the internet.

Today I added the "Current Writing Projects" page. I don't think anyone saw the boxes at the bottom of the home page that list what I'm currently reading and writing. I decided that I would like to showcase my projects so people who are interested can really see what I am working on and where I'm at with the project. It will be another way to illustrate my process, which is one of the primary functions of this website.

Maybe someday I will actually have fans and that tab will be of interest to them. In the meantime, I suppose it's mostly for myself and my dear friends and family who only read it because they love me. If you are reading this purely because you want to, then I am your fan. Can I get your autograph?

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.