Tuesday, May 20, 2008
I joined a new shorts queue today. I need to crit! There is another Okie in the group, it's nice to finally have someone from my area at CC!
I also submitted 3 pieces to Miss Snark's first victim. I think dialouge is my strong suit. Narration is where I get tied up!
I need to work on 3 different stories.
First, my baby, A Bringing of a New Day, I've been working on it for dang near a year. I have 11 chapters done, so what does that average? A chapter a month? Not as bad as I had thought. I'll get it done someday. I've edited it more than I've written it. Does it ever seem like that? You keep editing and it's just never good enough? And so you just push it away. I have oomph for it tonight, for once.
Another reason I don't have the oomph to work on it is that I keep running into this realistic idea of marriage being useless. How can you write about something you aren't sure you believe in? I used to believe in Happy Endings. Honest to God happy endings. The first time I even identified that I believe in "happy ever afters" was watching Enchanted. The witch said, "A place where happy endings don't exist." and I was like "What!?! There aren't happy endings?"
Well, I guess it's true. At least in relationships. I read on thegoddessblogs.com a long time ago that one of the best tidbits of advice they've been given is something to the effect of "All relationships require work, but if you get equal back it doesn't feel like work."
Don't get me wrong. I'm happy. Most of the time. But the idea of marriage just doesn't work out for me. The idea of spending my life with one person for the rest of my life is easy. When I'm in love I'm devoted. And it's not that I've never been in love. I have. I've had more than my fair share of love stories. Heck, the men I've been in love with have lasted no shorter than eight months and going.
So why can't I write about romance? Because one thing ties me up. How can anyone deal with the fights for that long? How can anyone work through the fights that are inevitable when being with the same person for so long?
People that are supposed to be "happy couples", aren't. I don't see one marriage, one relationship that is truly happy. Okay, I'm sure I'm going to be crucified for this, but it's relevant to writing because how can you write about something without cynicism permeating when everywhere you look relationships are falling apart or should be?
Last night I started on a Children's book, or Mid-grade. Right now it's tentatively titled The Grasshopper. So far it has spark that I can't put into romance right now. It gives me back the passion to write, but the only problem is I don't know where it wants to go. I kinda let it take me and I'm not a "pantster" I need to plot from here on out and I don't know a thing about it other than the 4 main characters are Jared, a grasshopper, a squirrel, and a buffalo calf.
So hmm...should I plot, sleep, or write on Day?
Day?
What happens at a picnic under a tree with a 6 year old, a man, and a woman?
The six year old takes center stage of course. So the goal of the next scene is to bond Annie and Jacob, the conflict is internal within Abigail, so that means it needs to be in her POV, and the outcome is she sees that it's a good thing that Annie and Jacob are bonding. They bond over grapes, and laughter. To draw this out and make it relevant you need to show the questions this arises in Abi's thoughts. Does she think about her own father? or just the jealousy that reigns? (Wow, I can type with my eyes closed. I might be a bit tired. The dogs decided to sleep with me last night. 4 interrupted hours of sleep. I must be getting old. This used not to affect me at all.)
Batteries in the camera died or I would post pics of them, and I have a video to show! Soon!
Brain flash! She remembers when her father was a good father.
