Some Port with your Subplots

It's Tuesday, so that means it's my day at the Confabulator Cafe. The topic this week is the importance of subplots in longer fiction. I think all of us are in agreement that subplots are pretty crucial. I mean, you could eat just a hamburger, but it's better with french fries and a soda. Or I suppose if you are a healthy eater, you wouldn't want to eat a salad with just lettuce. It's better with other veggies and dressing and some croutons, maybe a little shredded or feta cheese...ehem. I'm making myself hungry. At any rate, go take a look at my post "A story isn't just vanquishing foes and saving the world" at the Cafe. Be sure to read the other posts this week to see how the rest of the crew uses subplots.

While you're at the Cafe, you should check out some of our new site functionality. We have a tab that links to all of the different post categories, so if you want to go read all of the Ephemera answers we've ever posted, you can hover over the "Categories" tab to pick which category you want to see more from.

Even better, if you want to just read the flash fiction we've posted, you can hover over the "Flash Fiction" tab and select which story prompt you want to read. It lists all of the stories by name and author for that week.

The Cafe has been open for six months now! I'm so proud of all of our contributors and that we're still going strong and always making improvements.

This past Sunday, I wrote about my first experience trying Port wine over at Red Wine Reminiscence. I wasn't much of a fan, and I'm not sure if it had to do with the wine selection - the Founders Reserve Sandeman Porto -  or port in general. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try again. Sadly, even over a month later, we still haven't finished the bottle. We even tried to pawn it off on our guests on Father's Day. I should have just sent it home with my Dad. He liked it, at least.

I've been enjoying the wine blogging as much as the wine drinking. It's given me a chance to practice my photography skills, as well. I've been having fun coming up with artistic shots. This photo contains the boyfriend's awesome wine rack.

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.

Thoughts on Writer's Block and Wine

My posts for the week are up at both the Confabulator Cafe and Red Wine Reminiscence!

At the Cafe, read about why I think writer's block is a real phenomenon in my post The Semantics of Writer's Block. Be sure to check back all week to see what the rest of my writing group has to say about it; the opinions vary drastically.

When you're done, you can read the much lighter review over on my wine blog of one of my new favorite wines, the Lomas del Valle 2010 Malbec.

Come back here and visit me on Friday, where I'll talk about how Camp NaNoWriMo got rained out for me, but how the month wasn't a total bust.