Writtenwyrdd

Random lines

“A zombie vampire?  Isn’t that redundant?”

“No, they’re not the same thing at all.  Dead and rotting versus dead and spoilage free.”

“You’ve been canning too much lately.”

 

It's always a good idea to have pen and paper handy.  I jotted that down yesterday during a conversation that had me snickering.  I don't know how, or if, I shall use it, but it amused me.

 

What I do is to jot the random lines into a Word file and then add a few idea notes, name it something relevant, and save it to the Ideas folder on my desktop.  I can dust my hands of it until such time as I need some inspiration.

 

How do you deal with random ideas so as not to lose them?

 

And I have to mention that I want to add another line to the above: "Just preparing for the zombie apocalypse."

 

Additionally, just a reminder about my currently running flash fiction blog contest.  Please see here for the details.

Yes, exactly!

"Sometimes when I'm drafting, I have to do a quick outline or write other notes to myself to figure out what happens next. I guess I could just write the draft and change the stuff that doesn't work, but these notes help me brainstorm. They're also a way to trick my inner editor into thinking I'm not really writing, and therefore don't need his "services."  Adam Hein, from his blog

I totally understand what Adam's getting at here, and I use this trick quite successfully.  In the past year or so, I'd gotten it in my head to abandon that technique and just write the draft.  The practice has kept me stalling in the quagmire of the middle, time and again, because I do just what he says: Engage the Inner Editor, and she's a real picky bitch.

So, instead of chasing my metaphorical tail, I've been scribbling "notes" that are actually free-writings of the scenes.  I just go with it, write whatever and however it comes to mind, and make a big ol' mess on the page...and end up with a very rough draft but one that IS decidedly a rough draft.  Voila! Ici! 

The self-abusing writer syndrome

Sabrina at Coffee Quill kindly gave a link and a nod to my recent post on The Inner Critic As Muse.  And her interpretation of what I said there made me think about that critical inner voice from a slightly different angle, which I wanted to share here...because I think it bears examination:

But truly, the worst thing that we do to ourselves is chip away at our self-confidence. We do ALL THE WORK much of time, too. If you were in a relationship that had someone emotionally abuse you, you would feel okay to walk away (once you realized what as going on WAS abuse, which is another issue entirely.) But when we do that to ourselves, well, we never think of it as abuse, do we?

Do you do that all the time when you sit down to write?  Is that what's behind a "Why bother?" or "Ho Hum, I think I'll just take a nap?" attitude?  Check out the inner dialog, ask why you are thinking whatever line you repeatedly tell yourself.  Ask why to that first answer as well.  Keep asking why until you see that, at root, it's about a sense of unworthiness or "I'm not good enough" or whatever the heck you have for the basis of your writing-related issues. 

I bet there's some element to your issue that might be defined as abuse if one person were doing it to another...

Why do you blog?

I've been seeing a lot of bloggers beginning to flag recently, most of them legitimately citing that they haven't the time to keep up with the posting, much less reading and commenting.  It's sad, but so long as they occasionally appear to comment or post, Google Reader will let me know and I can read them and comment, assuring them they are not forgotten and me that my blog friend is still around even if we don't chat so much any more.

I've made noises about slowing down my own posting from six days a week, sometimes several posts a day, to maybe every other day.  The truth is, though, that I tend to write five or ten posts in a row, thus only eating a half day every couple of weeks.  This is still a lot of time, but the application of one dose of 'medicine' over two weeks is a lot less pressure and stress than every damn day, rain or snow, hell or high water!  So I think I'll continue on the six days train until I really can't or don't wanna no more.

But really, my desire to post so much says something about me.  Not sure what that something is, though!  It might be I'm bombastic or that I think I know everything and here's my soapbox from which I preach Wyrdd's Rules Of Writing...But, really, I just like to talk about whatever interests me.  And I really like to chat about writing.

Maybe blogging is, as Josephine Damian has warned on her old blog, just 'scratching the writing itch;' but I think this blog has helped me be a better writer, as, because of blogging,I think and read about writing a lot.  And I think the conversation about writing keeps your head in the game.  It's sort of meta that way.

Yet there is a legitimate down side:  The amount of time I have to spend reading blogs, writing posts, and commenting to stay in the writing conversation is growing to be more than I should allocate.  I skim or don't read/comment on the majority of posts in my Google Reader queue.  Truthfully, I no longer comment on Evil Editor or do continuations there for this reason.  So perhaps I should cut back on blogging-related activities after all. 

Thing is, though, reducing blogging-related activities would not enrich my personal life, it would take away from it.  So I'll opt for using better time management, lol!

Why do I blog?
I started blogging about 4.5 years ago now, and the reason was because I was approached to write a series of articles for a publisher.  Turns out she's not really a publisher, more a POD clearinghouse from what I could tell; and besides that the deal was fly-by-night in that payment would have been based on Google advertisement.  (Such a deal!)  Since I wasn't into buying the Brooklyn Bridge, I declined; but the offer made me curious:  Did I even have anything to say about the topic of writing?  So I checked out the hitherto unexplored world of blogs, found Miss Snark, Evil Editor, Preditors and Editors, and by following links a bunch of other cool sites by cool people with things to say. 

And I started the blogger blog to chip in my $.02.

I haven't flagged since, so I apparently do have something to say.  Whether or not it's germaine to anyone but myself is the real question! :) 

Anyhow, enough naval inspection.  Let me just add a big thanks for stopping by and visiting me here, and thanks too for being part of the conversation.  I'm not so emotionally bankrupt that I need the shoring up; but no one wants to feel like they are talking to the air. 

But let me ask you all the same questions: 
Why do you blog?  Is the pace getting too much for you?  Do you need a break from blogging occasionally in order to recharge your batteries? 

Short story tips

"The ultimate crime in writing is to be boring.  You risk that every time you are careless with your plot."  p7, Creating Plot by J. Madison Davis. 

I'm sure you all are aware that short stories differ somewhat from novels.  Not including length, of course.  And then there are the varieties of short stories, to include flash fiction (which can be of various lengths from 100 to 1,000 words, generally); short stories; novellas; and the mid-range category between short story and novella length, the .

I've been considering this topic all during NaNo November, because one of the difficulties with working on my WIP was that I have plot issues.  I think that A Lighter Shade Of Pale needs to be reconsidered some, and it's making me stick at the point where the story is supposed to be heading into the confrontation.  Things are off, and it's a plot issue.  So, unless I can figure a way to avoid rewriting the story and keep most of what I've got written, I'm going to have to rewrite the whole blankety blank thing at some point to make it work.  (But I think the ace in the hole is that I can expand the story and keep what I've got by making it a full on novel.  We shall see.)

Anyhow, this bunch of forehead-bunching think sessions has caused me to look around for information and thoughts on short story writing.  I like the three-act format, but it isn't the be-all and end-all of plot structure.  And it's not working to help me get the kinks out of ALSOP. 

Tips on constructing a short story.  I borrowed this from Kate Kelly's excellent post on the subject, here.

1. Stick to a single POV. Multiple POV short stories can be made to work, but if a story can be told from a single perspective it’s better to do so.

2. Avoid preamble. You don’t have much space so get into the story and your character’s head right from the very first sentence.

3. Make every word count – a short story should be tight.

4. Minimise number of settings – try to keep the number of scenes down – only those that the story actually needs.

5. Minimise number of characters – you don’t have the space to develop a wide cast of interesting and varied characters, so keep these to the bare minimum.

6. Keep it consistent – this goes for voice and rhythm as well as POV.

7. Finish with a punch – make your last line really memorable to that it resonates with the reader after they have stopped reading.

8. Don’t write on beyond the story’s natural end – this is so easy to do. Come back to it later and check whether where you have ended it is the best place or whether it would have more impact if you finished it a couple of paragraphs earlier.

9. Edit it – let it rest for a few days, then come back to it with a critical eye. Rewrite if necessary – I’ve been known to turn a story completely about!

10. And finally enjoy it!! Writing short stories is fun.

 And remember:

"One spectacular scene after another does not make a novel.  They must be connected."  Ibid, p10

 

Inspire Yourself for NaMoWriMo

Victoria Mixon has numerous links with which to inspire yourself and help you gear up for National Novel Writing Month.  So does Alexandra Sokoloff, in particular this one about the three-act structure, which includes links to some of her other NaNo-related and story structure articles.

Personally, I like the suggestion that one thinks about one's upcomign NaNo project, perhaps drafts it out a bit.  That way, you don't have as much superfluous junk in the first draft.  One can hope, anyhow. 

As far as how I work, if it's a new idea, I have all sorts of what I like to think of as beer froth in my early writing.  A lot is great stuff, interesting, stuff that fires me up, makes for lovely background info for the characters who appear in my story...and which is, essentially, fluff, aka beer foam you can scrape off the top of the story without missing it a bit.  It doesn't add to the reading experience, just to my authorial knowledge to help me get the story more depth.

However, as I've mentioned previously in other posts, I cheat at NaNo.  After the first couple of years, where I got a great start on two projects I haven't worked on since, I decided to pick a project that's already begun and seek to add 50k to that.  I figure that it's in the spirit of finishing a novel to keep working on one I've already started instead of derailing myself with some new and sparkly idea.

Worldbuilding thoughts and some progress being made

Been banging my noggin against a virtual brick wall, trying to get my Magus of Athlinar story down on paper.  It was the structure that was bugging me; I knew it wasn't quite working.  I liked the beginning, but it wasn't quite right.  I wanted the beginning to show that magic and tech were both at play in the world and to give a sense of where the story takes place (in a far-flung future, perhaps a milennia hence, and after a bizarre event that some called the Rapture and some an Assonance Event.*)  I also got some helpful feedback by playing the First Page Game at the Electric Spec editor's blog, which helped me to recognize (admit?) what I was bothered by.  Because, as you all likely know, it's often difficult to focus on what's problemmatic if you love the words as written; so comments are extremely useful to get past one's blinkers.  I posted a new draft of the beginning there as well, if you are curious.  Now I'm hammering away at the middle, getting it to fit with the envisioned fixes that will get me to the ending. 

The other thing is that this intended short story has blossomed into a full-on world, merging with a nubbin of an idea I started several years ago.  The world itself has taken on a lot more texture and a full explanation for how it got the way it is.  And I found myself making it a science fantasy by adding a tech base and magic, along with an explanation of why.  And that idea is what I really wanted to share:

Let me explain my fictional world's basis.  (I know you care!)  The world is around 1,000 years post-apocolypse, post an event scholars term the Assonance Event and old-style Christians call the Rapture.  This event takes place somewhere in the mid 22nd century, when global warming has already caused sea levels to rise and other changes to take place, but which hasn't created total environmental disaster because of scientific advances changed the way mankind does things.  

Then--rather like the wrath of God--the Assonance Event occurs, and things are forever changed.

No one clearly remembers the Assonance Event, where it's theorized another universe collides and merges with our own; but the aftermath is clear:  4/5 of the Earth's population disappears; certain basic natural laws (and the technologies that depended upon them) no longer work; and 'magic' reappears in the world.  In the chaos of the ensuing (and brief) nuclear war, a new race of beings arrives, a powerful, enigmatic race that stops the escalating war in its tracks.  Called angels by some and reviled as demons by others, these beings may be alien spacemen or they may really be the children of God come to redeem mankind as they claim.  No one knows, and the angelae provide no proof as they settle in to 'fixing' mankind; but their existence helps solidify coexistence between warring factions of muslim, christian and other cultural/religious groups who believe them to be lying.  

Almost one thousand years later, the resulting world is a cultural blend of Hindu, Muslim and Chinese culture with a steampunk-esque combination of magic and technology (primarily because the large populations of India and China, along with their existing tech base, primed them to fill the power void caused by all the chaos.)  Air flight by zeppelin; sea travel by sail or magic; land by train or the old-fashioned cart or riding beast (elephant, donkey, horse, camel.)  A few bastions of pure tech that stick with electric cars.  There's also a culture clash that's a three-way combo of post-Rapture Christian, the Eastern cultures (Hindu and Muslim, Buddhist and lingering communism) and a third group that is dedicated to serving/worshipping the angelae.  Afrika is also important, but doesn't play a role in the present story.  But Afrika, while still strife-torn, is a bastion (along with Normerica, aka North America) of the so-called angelae and their plans for mankind.

*The Assonance Theory:  Assonance is essentially "the repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words" and I extrapolate the term to refer to 'vibrational similarity'-- an explanation for how the natural laws of the world could have suddenly altered and of 4/5 of the population go missing.  Because, according to moi, what occurs is a collision of universes that results in a complex result:  Two universes merging to change ours into a composite; and other 'baby-verses' splitting off (with, it's hoped, the missing people, because consciousness--'mental vibrations' or some such--has an affect on where one ends up. This point is still hotly debated at the time of the story, as you can imagine.) Overall, I'm relying on the present M-theory that's being debated among the theoretical physicists as the basis for the concept, as well as my own hunch that translation from one universe to another would result in changed natural laws.

When editing makes more work

You ever have one of those aha! moments that give you something new for your fictional world, something that changes the overall plot scenario for the better...yet makes more work? 

Yeah, I just had one of those.  Blood Shot might now be science fantasy with vampires instead of a straight urban vampire fantasy.  I managed to borrow an idea from a fantasy novel I have sketched out, waiting attention, and I think it works for this story as well.

To mention shoe brands or not? Oh, and it's my birfday...

I'm 48 today.  You may congratulate me for evading Fate's shears thus far; other than getting good wishes from friends, though, a birthday is a non-event for me.  Am I the only person who, once I got out of high school, found dealing with my own birthday more a tedious bother than an excuse for a party?  (Sue me; I'm not a big party or fuss person.  I really hate fusses being made over me; always makes me feel like a fraud.)  Mom wants to do something special so I said make me a pineapple upside down cake.  (Hey, I'm always up for sugary stuff.) 

Anyhow, I have been working on the approximately 1/3 complete Blood Shot, and what I've been doing is pruning, because volume-wise it's about half done.  You can see I am still experiencing the problem of both plot and prose bloat and it makes a quagmire of the middle regions of my  longer works, making it very difficult to impossible to proceed.  So I've broken out my own version of Fate's shears to rein in the galloping verbosity that is me.  So many elegant turns of...flab.  Bleh. 

I like this little story.  I'm starting to like it so much I might have to make it book length; but we'll see.

I'm also faced with a section at the beginning where I know what I have to do structurally to reduce and fix the scene; but I'm not sure how to do it yet.  So I have to proceed ahead without making it 'perfect' or at least revising my ever-lovin' vision of how it needs to be.  That is a lesson for me in letting the early drafts be less than perfect.  And I have a very difficult time with that!

Simultaneously, I'm working on Magus of Athlinar and it's sticking because my original idea lacked the details of the world and my tiny brain has to blend the two together and come up with all the stuff that makes the idea function, make sense.  For me it's sort of like banging my head against the wall until something (hopefully a useful idea) rattles loose.  Gonna finish this one, though; it's an idea that I wanted to use in a book some day. 

Lastly (and getting back to the title of this post) I'm trying to decide if I should mention shoe brands(thus maybe labeling Blood Shot's protagonist as a shoe-fixated goofball a la chick-lit.  I'm thinking I'll keep to the simple "those ridiculous sandals" phrase instead of "those ridiculous Prada knock-off sandals."  (By the way, an excellent site for shoe material is LoveToKnow, their shoe page.)

Site update update #2 & other updates

I think I've got all my links in place now, and I've added a few.  New link lists (top right of the blog) are  Wyrdd's Writing, Writing Resource Links, and Wyrdd's Favorites.

These lists include links to my publications credits (limited as they are!) and lists of lots of publication sites, writers' groups, magazines that publish spec fic/sf/fantasy/horror, and sites that provide support/critiques/news/info for writers.  And of course links to the blogs I visit and the various amusing time wasters that I love to provide. 

I'm thinking I ought to add a list of favorite posts from blogs I read, but that would be even more crazy making. 

However, if you can think of anything else you would like me to add to the link lists, let me know.  I really don't mind becoming a one-stop-shopping site for writing information!

Also, I updated my WIPometers to reflect the actual word count.  I had underestimated two of the three, and I've worked on Mage of Aplinar a wee bit.  Additionally, I've placed a new one up there for Iron Maiden, a Beauty & the Beast reworking as a horror (hopefully).  Those are the four stories I want to focus on this year.  I particularly want to get Blood Shot done, and I'm thinking it's more likely to be a novel length, unless I prune out a strong subplot.  If this were a 'straight' novel and not erotica, the subplot would be the main plot.  But since it's erotica (and the erotic elements should be the main thing), and since I wanted it to be a strong piece of writing with an actual interesting story, the subplot should remain, lol.  But my primary focus this year is going to be on finishing the two short stories and Blood Shot.  I want to finish Lighter Shade of Pale, but it will wait. 

A comparison of drafts for y'all...

My blather post yesterday showed what I felt was a promising start to a new short story.  For comparison purposes, here are the revised first three paragraphs as they exist today.  Voila:

When twilight brought sirocco winds sweeping through the mud brick alleys of ancient Aplinar and clawing through the crevices of her tiny flop, Meida roused from a fitful and sweaty doze to prepare for the evening.  She gathered her damp curls into a braid and donned the local fashion, a loose-fitting salwar tunic and baggy kameez pants in the plain linen of the working class, then draped herself in a dark blue chadri of a different caste entirely--one to which, ironically, she was entitled, although that was not her reason for the choice.  Made of silk and embroidered with a pattern of leaves and vines forming glyphs intended to guard her virtue, the chadri was stifling, both because of heat and the magical cloud it settled upon her aura.  It would go down the nearest midden as soon as she was done with it, and good riddance.  But for now it masked her power and the various charms, gris-gris and mundane weaponry she carried on her person.

She checked her gear one last time, made sure all was ready for a hurried departure, and sketched a glyph of aversion across both possessions and the rickety door.  Then, in a ritual as old as her freedom, she checked the rubies at forehead, wrist, ankle, neck and navel, ensuring they remained bound against her skin, protecting her.  As prepared as she could be, she pinned the chadri to hide her face, and, with a sigh, donned the last necessary discomfort, the fingerless gloves which hid the one body part women habitually did expose in Aplinar, their plump and hennaed hands. 

Immediately, heat filled Meida's palms like damp, hot coins to match the sweat pasting curls against her nape, making her grateful for the wind when a moment later she stepped outside.  Discomfort, however, was the least of her worries. She had a commission to fulfill and this night to fulfill it. And all was in readiness except for the acquisition of a single item.

If you compare the two, notice that, though the same general activities and ideas are expressed, there are a lot of different things going on.  The prose is broader, for one thing, and the actions better described and blocked out.  And I've added in more clarity about magic, the heat and mention some amulets that become important later. And the original third paragraph has been excised as indulgent and not relevant. 

Admittedly, it's about 120 words longer now (333 versus 220ish); but I like it much better. 

You can call this draft 2 for the purposes of examination, but I am only 2500 words into a 5000 word story.  It's still the first draft.  Now you see why I don't write that fast; I tinker until I am reasonably satisfied before I move on.

I'm certainly not the only person ever to develop this style of story construction.  But it is what satisfies me.  I have to rework until I get the details settled.  I battered my  head against a mental wall yesterday, trying to get the kernal of an old idea (which I'd already started as a book at this character's childhood, believe it or not) trying to get it to sprout.  Once I managed that, I could move forward, letting my back brain feed me ideas.  When I got stuck again, I started boring my coworker at work today with the details of the story, and that got me to the middle.  Now I'm sort of stuck in a conversation, trying to get it right before i can move on from there.  The biggest problem is the twist that makes the story hasn't come to me yet.  Because I know I'll find the kernel of that solution in teh conversation I'm struggling with, where one character is trying to convince our protagonist to let him help her kill him, that it really isn't a trick.  Meanwhile, he does have an agenda he's trying to hide...it's just not what she suspects!  And the ending must be a surprise that is well laid and thus  not such a big surprise.  (I'm not asking much here, right?) 

Meanwhile, I'm terribly afraid this won't work when it's done, so my fingers are crossed.  I hope this gets easier with practice.

And--color me surprised--I think I'm beginning to like writing short stories. 

A few thoughts on bad (or compulsive) habits

I'm a chronic bad habiter.  By that I mean I absorb bad habits like plants do CO2.  I seem to need them to go along with my obsessive-compulsive brain and the related tics.  Bite nails, tap fingers, count things, etc.  Mostly people don't notice, but I have little mental rituals I go through all the time, too, things that (usually) don't keep me from functioning but serve to soothe the anxiety  monster. 

But some weird mental tricks DO bleed over into my writing.  I might not have to count every corner in an imaginary room until it's an even number like I do in my real room, but I have a compulsion to do certain things to fall back into a writing project, even after just a brief separation.  Things like rereading everything from the beginning (or at least the chapter beginning) which leads me to tweaking or making lists of things;  or the irresistible compulsion to edit what I've already decided should be best left alone.  And there are other 'soothing' yet non-productive things besides those, the big two.

Then there are the habits within the writing itself.
Writer Unboxed has a post by Kathleen Bolton regarding her writerly bad habits.  We all have them, and they can either stall us before we actually write, or, as in the article, keep us from writing as well as we possibly can. 

Perhaps you might jot down things that you catch yourself doing, then refer to that list periodically as a reminder.

Or, when your friends beta read, ask them to point out the writing habits that they notice--because, if they notice them, they aren't really good habits because whatever they are they draw the reader's attention. 

My habits.
As for myself, I tend to use a few set gestures and apply them to all characters.  A hiked eyebrow is one of my favorites, mostly because Mom used it to devastating effect, and I tend to rely on it myself so much in the real world. 

My solution to that particular issue is to consciously develop different characteristic gestures for the characters, so that, when I need to express their feelings via stage business (usually woven around dialog patches) the gestures, like the way they speak, gives a distinct sense of that character.

Self-Editing for Writers also has a list that you can refer to for things to avoid or to examine upon revision. 

Learn by doing

Can I just say that writing the Boetha the Electric Zombie tale has been enormous fun?  It's also taught me something.  See, I know I tend to overwrite, but I also tend to let myself do it so that I can worldbuild during the first draft.  That's all well and good, but I've wondered it it was an excuse for having flabby prose. 

Conclusion:  I think it is more of an excuse (and a poorer one) than I wanted to believe.  Because, writing the 500-word increments of Boetha's story, I discovered more about tightening up what I write than I'd learned in all the years previously. I mean, I know how to edit and trim, but to the bone?  Hadn't shaved it that close to the bone before. 

And I can see the writing is better for it.  Hmmm....

(Don't you hate things that make you go, "Hmmm...."?  Because then you have to get all philosophical and self-exploratory and examine your feelings and all that crap?--Sorry, I think I'm flashing back to therapy!))

Anyhow, I'll be continuing Boetha's tales for the forseeable future.  Because I like her.

Short-listed!

Some good news:  Got the word that a short story I submitted is short-listed.  Woot!  I am always glad to know that something was received well.  Now we just have to wait and see if it gets picked up.  I'll keep you posted if it is, of course.

What I'm writing.  I am trying to write shorter stuff, both to train myself not to over plot my writing and to get stuff out there.  You could say I am not that 'hungry' to be published.  But mostly it is just that I don't finish things.  Honestly, I can write reel gud; just don't finish the novel length stuff due to laziness, ADD attention drifting and, well, laziness.   I am focusing on the goal of being a published novelist by the time I retire in ten years...so I CAN retire in ten years.  If I don't have something else going on to occupy me full time I might just as well keep on with the job instead of retiring in my 50s and save more money. 

I will never be one of those prolific writers who can just hammer out book after book; but I'd like to get a few out there.  Considering I plan to live to at least a hundred, I might manage a few, lol.  At least that's the goal.  My other goal is getting thin again so I don't feel awful and hurt and need knee replacements.  But that's really a lifestyle change. :)

I'm working on two projects at the moment (to illustrate the attention-deficit problem at work):  My vampire novel and an erotica vampire novella/short novel.  After two weeks on the trunk novel Ellie & the Vampire, I couldn't stand the sight of it and am now playing around with the novella, which I started around a year ago. 

The problem with E&V is it has too much plot, which I am desperately invested in.  I galloped away on that story idea until I hit nearly 400k words and then got smart enough to set it aside to perk in my subconscious.  It's going to be 2 or 3 books eventually.  And I got a lot of plot sorted out, made some ruthless cuts, and now I'm sick of the sight of it.  But working on that helped my figure out how to finish plotting out the 20k start of the novella, tentatively titled Blood Shot.  Now I'm working mostly on that, and setting it up for sequels in case it sells. 

I really started Blood Shot to see if I could write erotica.  Considering how bad some of the stuff out there is, I think I might manage to get picked up.  However I don't plan on using D Lynn Frazier as my pseudonym for them.  My friend Becky and I have jokingly come up with our author names for erotica.  Mine's Turquoise LaTrelle.  I think it may actually use it, too, lol.  But I've fallen in love with the ideas in the book, the world I've come up with.  It was deliberately derivative (something I keep doing with vampire stories as a challenge: take old tropes and try to twist them) and I think I've come up with something that can stand on its own as not too derivative at all.  (We'll see how others see it, and then we'll know.)

More blather on my process.  Maybe reading writing formulae works for you guys in determining how much is too much; but for me, the gauging of plot elements and where to place things like the Act ends, the Black Moment and Climax and getting the subplots all lined up and resolved pretty much at the Climax and in the Denoument is something I've not mastered.  A learn-by-doing adventure.  Writing shorter pieces is helpful for me to get a seat-of-pants feel for what a story IS.  I learn best by jumping in and doing, not from books on how to do something.  After I get a feel for it, an instinct as it were, then I can pick up a how-to book and quantify or rethink my process a bit.  But I have to have that back-brain sense of understanding first.  (This is, you may correctly surmise, not a good process for doing home improvement. Sadly, I keep trying to apply it.)

I taught myself to paint and draw that way, though.  No classes, just dig out paint and start going.  I'm not bad, either, although I'd  never manage to be a commercial artist.  And it's how I learned to write.  But learning to write is a never-ending process.  I'm a lot better than the story bit I shared a while back, though! 

And thank you.  Everyone who has been encouraging about my upcoming gastric bypass surgery--thank you for the kind comments.  I know it's off topic on the blog, but after blogging since August 2006, I've become more comfortable with saying personal stuff in this forum.  Some of it's the online community that we have developed; we know each other to a certain extent, and it's a nice thing to share with your friends.   The bypass surgery is a big issue for me, and blogging a bit about it helps me deal with the attendant anxiety.  Because it's freaking me out, seriously.  I just try and avoid thinking about the actual surgery and focus on dealing with the day-to-day stuff, because it helps.  I am the queen of denial and it helps to deal with the worry by just not allowing myself to do so.  And so do your comments rooting for me. (I don't know the date as of yet, but early May I see the surgeon, the final pre-surgery appt, and after that it's something like 3-6 months wait.)  And then I'll be off work for six weeks.  the upside is writing time :)