Anyway...were was I? Oh yeah, changing gears.
*GRIND* *GRIND* *THUNK*
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| I said, "CLUTCH! THE SMALL PEDAL ON THE LEFT! USE IT!" |
Ok, much better.
For those of you who are crazy enough to follow me, you probably heard that I finished my first draft of my first WIP. It is now sitting quietly waiting for a couple people to finish reading it before I go and tear it to pieces. I'm looking forward to it. I have some awesome ideas and if I pull them off right, it won't suck. Big "if" there. :D
Being a writer means that you have lots of words in your head waiting to come out. Just because you "finish" a draft, doesn't mean you can stop. However, there is some down time where you have to let it sit before you go back and do evil things to the words on the page (and not to mention the characters contained therein).
So, I put the thing down and promptly stopped sleeping for two days. It may have been the 5,000 words I pushed out last Sunday, it may have been too much caffeine. I think it is because my brain need to get words out and I wasn't.
A couple days later, I was talking to one of my tweeps, Adrien-Luc Sanders (he's the managing senior editor at Entangled Publishing he has some very interesting writing, editing, and publishing tips that he tweets about). He was talking about a melodramatic 17-year old. It was a funny post. I had to comment. Anyway, we ended up talking about being angsty teenagers and then a character started talking...really loudly in my head.
Yes, writers are schizophrenic...It's worse if you are a librarian...scary, I know.
So, this character was talking loudly enough that I couldn't ignore him. So, I'm now working on his story. It isn't mine, it's his. I tried to tell him off. He cussed me out, flipped me the bird, and kept talking. Yeah, he's that kind of character. I tweeted several times about him being an a-hole...because he is. It's not going to be a pretty story to write. It's going to have a lot of emotion in it. It will also not have robots, monsters, vampires, magic, swords, or spaceships. It will be a human story about a trouble teenager who has to deal with some pretty heavy things. I'm actually looking forward to writing it...provided I don't punch him first!
Now on to the #writemotivation update
- Finish draft of WIP: DONE! YAY! HAPPY DANCE!
- Figure out what I'm writing next: YUP! I also wrote down nine other story ideas that I want to write at some point
- Do character sketching/world building for new WIP: In process. I have about 5 characters developed. Still need a location and a few more characters before I can start writing.
- Blog once a week: So far so good!
- Cheer everyone else on: Yes! Although I could do some more cheering (IMHO).
Haha, and now you know what it's like to be inside my head ALL THE TIME. My characters always tell their own story, I just happen to be the one listening so I can write it down . . . it's kind of like eavesdropping sometimes.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Yes, it is. :D
DeleteBest of luck on your new character. Sometimes they jam themselves in your head and refuse to exit.
ReplyDeleteYup. That seems to be the case here. Obnoxious little bugger definitely.
DeleteYou do LOADS of cheering! I always feel bad because I'm so far behind most other #writemotivation people being in GMT, I tend not to be online when y'all are posting most prolifically throughout the day, so I have to backtrack to find the goods sometimes :) But I always see you cheering everyone along. IMHO ;)
ReplyDeleteLove that your new character is so vocal! Best of luck for the upcoming week.
Thanks Cheyenne. :D You do cheering all the time too, but yes being in GMT makes it difficult. :D Thanks for your support.
DeleteYay for being all over your goals. We're both in the same spot of waiting for our feedback on our recent completed, and I've started research for my next WIP. But, I am glad to say no a-hole character yet ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL. Yay! Good job, Mia. Glad to hear that you finished too. I have no problem waiting. The longer the wait, the easier it will be to look at the story with fresh eyes. Right? :D
DeleteShould be true. Though I am itching to get back into it, and hoping to have my feedback to me by end of this week.
DeleteEven trying to work on a new WIP by brain is still in gear for the current.
Oh yeah, I get that. Hence the ground gears. :D
DeleteCharacters never seem to listen to me either. The worst is when they plot things out all by themselves while your sleeping. It's all very inconvenient, especially when that makes you have to get up in the middle of what was probably the best sleep you've gotten in forever, just so you can write down their selfish behavior and "try" to go back to sleep.
ReplyDeleteBut that's just how neurotic my psyche is. *laughs*
Hahaha! Yeah, I didn't sleep for two nights after I finished my first draft. Then this new guy shows up and starts plotting things. I did have some of that in the last story, but not as much as this one I think. Last one, being a High Fantasy, wasn't as much character driven as this one. That being said, I expect to have more character stuff come out in the rewrites of the first one.
DeleteYour MC sounds delightful! No, really! I would *love* to be able to write snarky, at a minimum. I'm not funny by any means. And, well, I just write. Not sure exactly how, but I do. When the characters talk, though, you better listen. The short you just critiqued for me, the accent is how they talked to me. Some people have come back saying I shouldn't do it. But, well, they told me otherwise. So, yeah, I know how the characters fight back. :) And I agree, it's a wonderful kind of multiple personality disorder, isn't it? :D
ReplyDeleteLOL. I had no problem with the way your characters spoke. It made it feel more authentic.
DeleteThis story I'm writing isn't a happy, funny story. There might be some humor only because it needs to offset the emotional intensity. Make sense? I can be funny, but usually it is on accident. :D
excellente! sounds like a fantastic character, one worthy of sinking your teeth in to - the more complex, pain in the ass ones are. i may not want to invite him over for thanksgiving dinner, exactly...have fun on your new adventure! and congrats again on finishing your first book! you can never hear that enough. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Valerie. Yeah, I wouldn't invite him for dinner either. :D
DeleteCharacters aren't in the habit of listening to us. As much as I plot and outline, I only ever hit on the what - if I tried to hit on the how, I'd have mutiny on my hands lol.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your progress on this and the old one! Keep it up - and you're cheering plenty!
Thanks, KT. :D <3
DeleteYes, he's not much for listening. I told someone, I'm just along for the ride. :D
Sounds like this story is going to be something completely different, interesting! Also, I'm in jealous awe that you have completed 3 out of your 5 goals and are on track with the other two. Congrats! (& you do enough cheering IMHO ;))
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kat. I've had #1 on my list for a couple months, so it isn't as super cool as it seems. :D Eh...what am I saying, it is freaking cool! :D Anyway, thanks for the comment. I finished with the help of a lot of #writemotivation people.
DeleteNINE story ideas?? I'm so jealous, I'm lucky if I get one decent idea a YEAR. Go, you!
ReplyDeleteLOL. 10 including the new one I'm working on. Don't be jealous, it's a little crowded in my head. o_0 Besides, these may not be decent stories. They are just ideas that could turn into stories. Big difference. I needed to write them down somewhere so I could keep track of them.
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