Practice Makes Perfect

Or at least, deliberate practice makes you pretty darn close. If you stick to it long enough.

That's the key to life, isn't it? Sticking to things. Making habits. Keeping habits. If you want to become something, do something, you have to stick to it long enough that you can actually accomplish something within it.

I suppose that's what school is supposed to be about. Teaching us daily so that we can learn things through incessant drills and annoying schedules. We grow to dread the stuff so much, we hate growing up and learning that we're going to have to do the same mindless stuff to make a living, too. And to learn things outside of work? More annoying schedules forcing us to do dreaded drills.

But if it gets me to my ultimate goal of becoming a world-renowned writer? I'd do just about anything.

In that vein, I'm designing a schedule for my writing, to improve myself. And I need some honest opinions to help me along. What would you say, from this blog, are my weakest points? What skills would it benefit me to study in repeated drills to become a better writer? What would you say I'm the worst at?

I really need honest opinions here. Criticism would be wonderful. I just want to know where to start on my journey to becoming a better writer!

Writing quote of the day/month/year: “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

Out of Balance -- Life and Writing

My life tends to be either very calm and boring, or very exciting and chaotic. Rarely do I make it to a nice, even middle.

When is it, do you think, that I do the most writing? Of course, it's when life is calm and boring. Whenever life gets chaotic, I don't have the time or health to write. Am I alone in that horrible trait: allowing your writing to fall to the wayside?

I believe that the truly successful writers are those who don't allow their writing to ever fall by the wayside. If only I could be one of them. Somehow, I have to find a way to make do with what I was given. This time, I'm determined to finish this book and get it published. But...my writing WILL fall away into unimportance when life gets hectic again.

I'd like to take this time to thank all those who took the time to encourage me to continue writing (I still shudder when I think of that Twilight/Harry Potter crossover fan-fiction) and to tell you I have gotten some writing done. Just not as much as I would wish. But progress is progress, right?

However, I have another plea. Am I the only one who finds the act of writing easy, but the work of writing hard? Once I sit down and write, the words flow like magic. It's the sitting down and writing that I have such trouble with. Sometimes, I am not mentally able to handle the work of it. Other times, I'm not physically able to sit in the chair for long hours. More often than not, I'm distracted by other problems. Does anyone know of a way to get work done every day, no matter what? To force myself to work?

My life is out of balance. Whenever my writing is doing well, my life sucks. Whenever my life is doing well, my writing sucks. Is there ever a way to make the see-saw level out?

Thanks for listening, and for any advice you may care to offer. Here's our beautiful writing quote of the day:

"Capture your reader, let him not depart, from dull beginnings that refuse to start." -- Horace

Happy writing!

Writers Write...Right?

 

I haven't written for another day (except in my blog). It's like my life suddenly picked up again. My entire life was this book for a long time, and nothing interfered. Now, suddenly, a life is knocking on my door and intruding in my writing time. Stupid life.

But, seriously, I haven't written anything in my book for two days. Mostly because I haven't had time, but also because I'm procrastinating...again. It's hard work, the words aren't flowing the way they used to, and the internet is a powerful distraction.

However, I really don't want to end up like this:

So, writers write, right? Why am I not writing? I know I'm a writer, the last ten years have told me that, but what about right now? Don't I want to get this work finished? Well, yes, but I'm not sure where to go next in what I've written, even with the stupid outline. What should Yelina say or do to prove she's an evil stepmother (which she really isn't, but she seems like one at first)? I don't want to be too cliche. Although, to be honest, my style in writing is to start with the cliche, make it look cliche, then twist it around to almost the exact opposite of cliche. So, should I go with my instincts and start with the cliche, where I have her yelling and giving my character really evil, plotting looks in the beginning? And then twist it all around later when Yelina turns out to be the only person who tries to save the main character, as the not-so-evil stepmother (that was my original intention)? But if I start with the cliche, won't people stop reading?

Should I care if people stop reading?

Being a writer, I'm supposed to write for me first, and readers second. That's because there is absolutely no way to please everybody in the world, as we all have different tastes, but I can certainly please me and my tastes. But it's so hard to do in practice, sometimes. How do you shut off the back of your mind, where it describes how badly this is going to flop, no one will want to publish it, and people are going to hate you? Especially when you're a natural born people-pleaser like me. 

Why can't I take the attitude so many others have? That it doesn't matter what they think, I'm going to do what I love and they can go be unhappy somewhere else.

Despite all, I think I'll go with my planned plot and make Yelina look truly evil at first, then twist her character a full 180 degrees after the extreme circumstances hit. Does that sound good, or does it seem stupid to you? Would YOU read past the cliche and find out what happens next?

I can and will write this book. The question is WHEN. So, I have decided to set a goal time for finishing the first draft. The first goal time is going to be extreme, to try to push me to do it soon and not put it off til the last minute. Then, I'm going to have a second and third goal time that the first draft of the first book HAS to be done by, no exception.

First Goal: End of July 2011 (Possible, but difficult)

Second Goal: September 15, 2011

Third And Final Goal: December 31, 2011

I really want to be done by the end of this month. To make that, I have to write no less than 2,667 words a day, every day, this month (assuming this is a typical 80,000 word novel). To do that, I will probably have to turn off the internet at 6:00PM, at least, every day and have my book open to write in for the time period after that.

I guess I'm going to attempt my own version of NaNoWriMo. For those of you not in the know (which is no shame, because I never knew of it before last year), that stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it is held every year from November 1st to November 30th. Check it out here. It is completely free and my computer plus Google says it is also virus-free.

Well, I hope you guys are rooting for me! Let's see if we can't cut through the procrastination and worry and get this writing show on the road!

Goal: 3,000 words a day for the next 30 days

Goal: Complete novel by end of July 2011

Goal: Shut down Internet every day at 6PM, and DON'T reopen it

Thanks for reading! I really appreciate all of you taking the time to read my blog! Here's hoping I can meet my goals!

Tools of the Trade

So, you may have noticed, I'm a writer. As a writer, there are certain tools I use to work my trade. I thought I'd share a few with you, and if you have any you also use, I'd LOVE to hear about them. 

Well, to begin with, I am an outliner. I write general plot outlines, chapter-by-chapter outlines, character backstories, character breakdowns, maps of all the places my characters go within the story, culture breakdowns, creature details, plus, in Dragon Marked, I'm inventing my own language.

So, I have to have a lot of advice and help on working on this HUGE project. Some of the things I've used for help:

-The Anatomy of Story By: John Truby has projects at the end of every chapter to help flesh out your story or idea. They can be a little annoying, but have opened up whole new scenes for my storyline. Will these scenes make it to the final version? Only time will tell.

-Worldbuilding Questions By: Patricia C. Wrede. If you know anything about fantasy, you've probably heard of Patricia C. Wrede. I have long adored her books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. And her worldbuilding questions are practically necessary for any self-respecting fantasy writer to use.

- Character Breakdown By: Charlotte Dillon (www.charlottedillon.com) This is a free chart to breakdown the characters you wish to place in your story. Now, it is EXTREMELY detailed, but you can take out whatever you want and still have a pretty good picture of who and what your character is. I don't know for sure if this will make my characters more 3-D, but I do know that all those vague ideas I already had for my characters are fleshed out in this process, so it should be good for something.

- The Language Construction Kit By: Mark Rosenfelder. This is both a book on Amazon.com and a site for great, FREE advice on creating your own language. I'm so glad I found this site, as I have not a clue where to begin on creating your own language, but am determined to do it for this book.

There are a few more sites I've used but can't recall at the moment. Suffice it to say that I have piles of research notebooks, loads of files on research, and am just starting the prologue of the book. Pitiful isn't it?

I told you before, though. I want this book to be perfect. Or, at least, as close to perfect as I can make it. So, I've gone a little overboard. Doesn't everyone?

Seriously, this idea lit a torch under my bum. I hadn't written anything for like a year or more, I felt depressed and despondent from my recent loss of a job, and then this idea hit me like a bolt of lightning. It drove me crazy until I capitulated. I would write this book. And I would do one heck of a job with it.

So, I threw myself into the work with everything I have and have lasted this long. I WILL finish this book. I WILL get it published. And I WILL make all this time and effort worth it.

You can bet on it.

Anyway, if you have anymore tools you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. I know there are tons more out there, I'm just so swamped with what I have. If you'd like to search for even more, try 100 Amazing Writing Tools You Never Knew You Needed. A lot of them look really cool, and I think I might try a few...if they're free.

My computer, google, and my virus detection program says all the above links are clean, and all except the books (The Anatomy  of Story, The Language Construction Kit) are free. Hope all this helps all you fellow writers and have a wonderful day! And please comment with any additional tools you've found. You know I'd love to see them.

Oops! I Said It Again!

Not very long ago, I discovered the bad words for every writer: was, is, are, be, etc. Pretty much all those 'to be' verbs come with a no-no sticker attached. At least, if you happen to be a writer. They (and by 'they' I mean the books on writing) tell me it sounds better to use an "active" voice instead of an "inactive" one. And those 'to be' verbs fall under the category of "inactive".

But I can't stop using them! I didn't realize how often I did use them until someone had to tell me you shouldn't. Ignorance was bliss. But now, every sentence I type comes with a sudden flash of warning: You can't say that! Change it to something else! Kyla, you 're using a bad word again!

Argh. I want to go back to my former ease in writing and not worry over the bad words until it comes time to rewrite and revise. But how do you recapture lost innocence? Will I never write a word without worry again?

How important can not using those words be? Should you never use a 'to be' verb? Are there certain circumstances in which you should?


Does anyone else struggle with this annoying habit? Or do you have other bad habits you find hard to purge or ignore? I'd love to hear your suggestions, problems, and advice, so please share!

Personally, I'm sick of my internal editor and I just seemed to hire him. Any advice on how to fire him or at least get him to shut up until the second draft? Seriously, right now I just want to fire the jerk.

Does anybody else have trouble with their internal editor? Did you only discover him/her after reading advice books or sites? Is it a common affliction among writers? Please leave your opinions in the comments below!



Until next time, happy reading!

Back On Our Feet

It was a nice trip, but I am so glad to be back home, on my own two feet again!

I had such fun, but my niece and nephew stole my computer the entire time! The only time I could get on the computer, the internet was out. So, no blogging.

Well, now that life has calmed down (some), it's about time I discuss why I made this blog. To be honest, I'm a writer who is currently working on a major project that I plan to get published. And I found myself thinking it might be fun to write a blog about the process as I'm doing it. I've been at it for about 8 months already, but there is still so much to be done.

I'm still working on the research phase, but I'm almost done (oh boy, am I ready to be done). And then I can start writing, something I really want to begin doing. I can't though, because I really believe this book has to be done to the best of my ability, meaning I have to put a lot of time in the research. Good simply isn't good enough. It has to be incredible, phenomenal, wonderful.

Has anyone else out there done a lot of research before writing a book? Did it help benefit your writing? Because my book is a fantasy, I have a lot of worldbuilding to get done. I LOVE worldbuilding. But I'm frankly sick of it by now. I'd really like to hear someone tell me how worldbuilding to a large extent helped them create a very good book, because that would be great encouragement for me right now.

Well, that's all until next time. Maybe I'll improve on this blogging thing by then.