Thursday, October 27, 2005

Our old monitor blew out and we purchased a new one today( 99 dollars from Staples!). I'm cracking up because I had a suspicion that something was wrong with our computer when websites and other various things showed up in colors on the computer at my mother's job that I did not see when I pulled them up at home. At first I assumed it was the computer, that it needed a color boost, but low and behold, it was the monitor! Everything is so much brighter and more vivid. Heck, I had no clue that Lydia Joyce's upcoming release had a reddish cover after all these months of seeing it online or that perezhilton.com was red, not blue. LOL

So I was MIA from the internet for about three days and even though it felt a bit weird, I found myself more productive and more confident in what I had to do. You don't really realize how distracting and unproactive the internet makes you until you don't have access to it. I had no resource to reading blogs or seeing what other people were doing or what they were writing or anything else that takes away from writing and seeing clearly. So I'm kind of like "whatever" when it comes to the internet now--it's here, but I don't feel this overwhelming need to be on it.

Writing news, I've been working on this plot for nearly a week, just jotting down scenes and bits of dialogue and plotting twists whenever they hit me and it's grown so much, morphing and twisting into a more cohesive plot and characters. It's a bit uncomfortable for me, but in a good way because it's pushing me from my comfort zone in terms of what I've been accustomed to writing.

Also....I've got a domain and hosting space, with a design soon to follow! I don't want to entirely unveil it until it's completed, but I'm excited. It feels like a big step in becoming published, in letting it be known that I am serious about writing with the intent of publication and about writing what I'm meant to be writing.

i can be. anything.
27.10.05

Saturday, October 22, 2005

I'm reading Laura Kinsale's For My Lady's Heart.

Why am I announcing it like it's the most important thing in the world? Because this is my first Kinsale, after being afraid to read Kinsale because a) the hype b) the angst. See, I'm afraid of angst. Even though I do like writing painful character growth and romances, I am afraid to read them for fear of becoming emotionally drained at the end. Chalk it up to my accidental forays into the sagas from the 80s and 70s. So it's taken me a while to gather up the courage to read her. But so far so good, I especially like the Middle English because it forces me to really pay attention to the book.

I also added more books to my Victoria Holt collection. I love that woman's works.

On the writing front, I'm moving along with the plotting. For a moment I experienced a moment of hesitation because the structure and the plot of this WIP is unconventional. I've got the hero's POV and the heroine's POV, yadda yadda yadda, but there are some twists and turns that might be uncomfortable for some readers. But I'm sticking to it because I really, really, really like these characters and their story and I've found myself with the ability to seamlessly draw my knowledge of the setting into the story, as opposed to previously when I dumped everything in because I wanted the setting to really stand out and show that "hey, I did my research!". But I know I did it, so there's no need for me to constantly prove it--that's when the book becomes a history lesson. *g*

i can be. anything.
22.10.05

Friday, October 21, 2005

"There’s at least nine books there to write, and I know that others will come to mind. Sometimes it’s not a problem of not having an idea, but of too many ideas crowding in, demanding my attention when I need to focus on something else. Sometimes that’s as bad as being blocked, because if you have too many things staring you in the face, it’s easy to freeze, unable to go forward or backwards"

Caro(a new and wonderful blogger I've discovered) has put into words what I have felt for a long time. But I'm committed to this Edith Wharton-esque novel because it's the first plot that I've had in a long time where I actually heard the protagonists speaking to me, their movements and actions and reactions and conflicts laid right there on the table for me. Even though I do love all of the brilliant plots and characters that have come to me in flashes over the past few months, I'm going to stick with this one because it's speaking to me, a piccolo trilling shrilly over the din of the past year. But it also scares me and makes me freeze up because things have been going so dismally, I fear that this is a whim, a fluke and even if I write this manuscript and it is really great, I won't be able to reproduce afterwards. But yes, what Caro said is true, and it's kind of painful and confusing to be inside of the insidious cycle.

i can be. anything.
21.10.05

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

I'm excited about this WIP. I figured that a part of my writing style is Hitchcock meets Victoria Holt, taking the gothic and sexy feel of Holt's gothic romances and combining them with the suspense and psychological tension of Alfred Hitchcock's movies. And to cap off the finishing touches to this plot was the arrival of three Megan Chance books I won from ebay. In that bundle, I recieved The Portrait. I've only read one chapter so far, but I've heard about it and reading that one chapter filled in the missing piece of the plot concerning my hero. This book is going to be fun,fun,fun!

i can be. anything.
18.10.05

Monday, October 17, 2005

AAR is having a great discussion concerning the segregation of romances.

This is some awesome news! Not just Blair writing, but his remake of The Great Gatsby(which I love) and his roles in Tyler Perry's upcoming movie and the film adaption of Tananarive Due’s novel, My Soul to Keep.

What's so funny to me is how Ashlee Simpson's forthcoming album has helped me with my writing. After a few days of experiencing a deluge of ideas for plotting, I froze up today and everytime I looked at a sheet of paper I experienced some fatigue. But I couldn't allow this particular plot sketch to be deserted because it's been haunting me for some time. So anyways, my job was playing Ashlee's new album over the radio and since it was thankfully slow, I was able to listen to the entire thing. I loved her debut album Autobiography and have been eagerly anticipating this one, but after the first couple songs, the remainder of the album began to feel a bit trite--instead of being as great and varied as Autobiography, I.Am.Me. began to fall into the trap of "rockish ballad about a guy". And I realized that it wasn't Ashlee's fault, it was her producer. The producer and co-producer helped make Ashlee's first album really good, but based on I.Am.Me. it appears that they can only take Ashlee so far in terms of her sound and staying on top by keeping her music fresh because they have only experienced one type of sound throughout their entire producing career--which is why I really liked Gwen Stefani's album; it kept her quirky and personal lyrics, but by using producers No Doubt wouldn't have used, it made her sound new.

This surprisingly made me see that my plotting wasn't working because the romance genre can only take me so far in terms of creating characters and plotting. It's not that I'm turning my back upon the genre, but that I need to look at all my sources of influence to help me plot a romance. For the past three years or so I've only read romances(with semi-frequent forays into paranormal fiction and historical fiction) so in terms of my writing, I'd cut myself off by restricting my circle of influence--my writing began to seem trite and hackneyed because I had made myself only familiar with what I'd been reading instead of seeing how authors in other genres plotted or made a character more 3-D or how they dug themselves out of bad plotholes and then applying it to my romances to see what worked and what didn't work. What a place for a revalation huh? I can now understand why some romance authors have discontinued to read romances. Not only did I find myself plotting myself into a hole b/c of the bare bones formula to romance, I also found it difficult to create 3-D characters because there is a strong strain of character archtypes found within the genre that are assumed to be set in stone rules for creating acceptable romanceland characters instead of being the skeleton to fleshing out your own characters.

In concern to this plot bone, I started looking at it from a different angle: squinting, stepping back, moving forward and circling around it and I realized that my characters and their situations were wrong, which was why they couldn't seem to meet to even have the romance they were supposed to be having!

i can be. anything.
17.10.05

Friday, October 14, 2005

Courtesy of Mark from the Regency yahoogroup (I have yet to give this one up): Good things to know!!

Brit Speak circa 1926!

English / American

Clothes
Boot / Shoe
Bowler / Derby
Braces / Suspenders
Galoshes / Rubbers
Nappy / Diaper
Pyjamas / Pajamas
Sock suspenders / Garters
Vest / Undershirt
Waistcoat / Vest

Commercial
Chemist / Druggist
Commercial traveller / Travelling salesman
Draper's shop / Dry goods store
Fancy Goods / Notions
Hire purchase / Buying on time
Hoarding / Billboard
Ironmonger / Hardware dealer
Market gardener / Truck farmer
Men's hairdresser / Barber
Note (paper money) / Bill
Post (verb) / Mail
Press-cutting agency / Clipping service
Receptonist (hotel) / Desk clerk
Shop / Store
Shop-walker / Floor-walker
Sleeping partner / Silent partner
Slot machine / Vending machine
Street vendor / Peddler
Timber (sawn) / Lumber

Food
Beetroot / Beets
Biscuits and small cakes / Crackers and cookies
Chicory / Endive (and vice versa)
Corn / Grain
Maize / Corn
Scone / Biscuit
Sweets / Candy
Tin / Can
Treacle / Molasses
Undercut / Tenderloin

Household
Cooker / Oven
Cookery book / Cookbook
Cupboard / Closet
Drawing-pin / Thumb-tack
Dust-bin / Garbage can
Flat / Apartment
Jug / Pitcher
Paraffin / Kerosine
Tap / Faucet
Veranda / Porch
Waste-paper-basket / Waste-basket
Legal and official
Bylaw / Ordinance
Inland Revenue / Internal Revenue
Prison van / Patrol wagon
Ticket-of-leave / Parole
Witness-box / Witness stand

Sports and games
Cannon (billiards) / Carom
Draughts / Checkers
Fruit machine / Slot machine
Nine-pins / Ten-pins
Pack (of cards) / Deck
Shooting / Hunting
Touch-lines / Side-lines

Transport
Bonnet (of car) / Hood
Boot (of car) / Trunk
Coach (railway) / Car
Engine-driver / Engineer
Goods train etc. / Freight train etc.
Gradient / Grade
Guard (of passenger train) / Conductor
Level crossing / Grade crossing
Lorry / Truck
Pavement / Sidewalk
Permanent way / Roadbed
Petrol / Gas(oline)
Points (railway) / Switch
Railway / Railroad
Return ticket / Round-trip ticket
Roundabout / Traffic circle or rotary
Saloon (car) / Sedan
Shunt / Switch
Signal-box / Switch-tower
Silencer (of car) / Muffler
Single ticket / One-way ticket
Sleeper / Cross-tie
Subway / Underpass
Terminus / Terminal
Tram / Street-car
Underground railway / Subway
Van / Delivery truck
Wing (of car) / Fender

Miscellaneous
Aluminium / Aluminum
Autumn / Fall
Bank holiday / Legal holiday
Caretaker / Janitor
Council school / Public school
Cutting (newspaper) / Clipping
Dust cart / Garbage truck
Ex-Service man / Veteran
Fanlight / Transom
Friendly Society / Fraternal order
Holiday / Vacation
Lift / Elevator
Perambulator / Baby carriage
Pig breeding / Hog raising
Private soldier / Enlisted man
Public school / Private school
Queue / Line
Rear (family etc.) / Raise
Scribbling-block / Scratch-pad


The words in italics are ones that I've been clueless about whenever I came across them in books. And lazy me, I never bothered to look them up. *G*

i can be. anything.
14.10.05

Thursday, October 13, 2005

I read Alison's latest post with equal amounts of agreement and trepidation. I'm only twenty-one and have a whole life ahead of me and it's so hard to explain to my peers as well as family why I'm not going out partying up a storm, hanging out with friends, etc, etc to staying in(when I'm not working) to read and write or paint and draw or feeding my obsession with travelling and history. And part of me experiences qualms that maybe I should be out partying up a storm(I love to dance though) or making tons of friends to hang out with and that pursuing publication is going to put a halt on my "life" and make me "selfish and introverted". The other part of me smacks myself and says that being published won't end my life, instead enriching it and allowing me even more experiences that being a drudge will never allow me.

Both sides are pulling at me and combined, are part of what's holding me back from really digging down and working hard at actively pursuing publication as opposed to hemming and hawing and half-heartedly plodding in that direction. So I'm going to work hard at overcoming this and allowing the true side to triumph in the end.

i can be. anything.
13.10.05

Okay...I've decided to take Emma's challenge to dig myself from the doldroms of non-writing and related frustrations. *G*

1. I'm watching old tapes of past seasons fashion shows and realizing that I can do this--without a degree behind me or college connections.

2. I finally have a card to allow me to go in and out of my apartment at will so that I can actually you know, leave my house and go running.

3. It's cool and sunny outside--just how I like it

4. I finished reading a really good book last night.

5. I washed the dishes. It relaxes me for some odd reason.

6. Wikipedia.com has come through for me again.

7. I picked up my guitar after a year.

8. I am alive and healthy and whole and have a roof over my head after all.

9. I have a notebook full of story ideas(even if I can't pick which one to write)

10. I got an inspiring email today.

i can be. anything.
13.10.05

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Read Lydia's post at RTB.

Her post states the exact reasons why I'm going to write my historical romances the way I want them--angsty,funny,sprawling,exciting,violent,morbid,etc! I'm just here to write a damn good story, period. When a reader closes a romance they've really enjoyed, they really weren't looking for the Regency setting, or the virginal heroine, or the dashingly rakish hero and their sexual acrobatics--they were looking for a damn good romance that tugged their heartstrings and made them root for the protagonists to get together.

I'm writing fearless now because I've rubbed away the foggy exterior to see the interior of the romance genre. I think that a lot of people have forgotten the main goal of a romance because of the pressures everyone has unknowingly put on each other to perform: announcing each rejection, each acceptance letter, knowing the latest market news, sharing a new venue of getting published, and the mother of all good news--the first sale. I've withdrawn from the writing community somewhat because it seemed that writers ceased getting together to encourage and support each other as "co-workers" and instead began to gather to obsess over why one isn't published, what one is doing wrong, how Author X finally sold, why they've been overlooked, and so on and so on.

Geez louise, no wonder I was so stressed out from the summer of last year until the summer of this year. In the beginning I was content to sit at the feet of published authors, to devour every single morsel of "insider tips" they were content to toss to me, to spend hours on end trying to dig info on the publishing business, and other inane,time consuming activities. I was inspired by reading "How I finally sold" stories, but it's gets to the point where one is obsessing over trying to covertly emulate Author X and Co. and spends too much time worrying about what everyone else is doing, what everyone else is accomplishing instead of focusing on what I needed to do and what I needed to write.

It's hard to stand out. I'm going to be opening myself up to ridicule or subtle snubbings and painful separations from people I considered to be good acquaintances or even a friend of. Part of me wants to hide from that stark reality, to keep it at bay by remaining inside of the box, but the other part of me knows that I'd only end up hating myself, which in the end would also result in alienation from a myriad of situations and people. It's even risky to put this in print because it could be misconstrued in a multitude of ways. I just have to have faith in what I know I need to do, and that the chips will fall where they were meant to fall.

i can be. anything.
9.10.05

Friday, October 07, 2005

I am the worst blogger ever. To date I have at least six and I keep hopping around. I don't know, I guess it's because once I feel that someone might stumble across my blog(through my own actions), I'm not allowed to be completely honest--sanitizing the hecticness that is my real life as well as admitting writing faults and stumbling blocks. It's easier to admit mistakes and to rant when no one is looking.

>;/

i can be. anything.
7.10.05