Tag Archives: muse

Super Quick Wednesday Stuffs

Quick, because I need to outline and write another scene before I start cooking supper in an hour. Totally not going to happen, still going to try!

ROW80 Update:

I broke 14,000 words for NaNoWriMo this morning, which was nice. I got NO words yesterday (school event in the morning, guilt over housework in the afternoon, boot-buying mission after school, “V for Vendetta” at night), so it felt good to get two scenes in this morning that I was excited about. I met a new character, too, who was a lovely surprise. Her name is Griselda Beaumage, and she’s a blond sorceress who wears high boots and leather pants. She has a French accent and coined the word “Sorchere” this morning (combination of “sorciere” and “chere”). I don’t know where she came from, but I’m kind of in love.

I think it’s because I put lipstick on to make my muse feel special. I’ll have to keep doing that.

So there we go. We’re going away on Saturday evening, so that’ll put a dent in my productivity (and my ability to participate in the NaNoWriMo marathon). But darn it, I’m going to take my computer and write while we’re away. This book is exploding with bright, shiny things, and I’m not going to leave it alone until this draft is finished.

For more ROW80 goodness, click here!

WIPpet Wednesday

I guess I should put something up, but there’s no time to edit. Ack. Here’s the first 6 paragraphs of the scene where Griselda introduced herself, for the 6th of October. Sorry for the first-draftiness, but I have Things of Great Importance to do…

The lights dimmed, allowing gloom to creep into the corners of the classroom.  A breeze whispered past my ear, and a pale apparition appeared at the doorway. Smoke at first, nearly invisible, but solidifying into the form of a bright green dragon. Every part of it was beautiful, from the arch of its snake-like neck to the way the sunlight from the windows reflected off of its overlapping metallic scales.

The creature came closer, neck and back arched, nostrils flaring, steam rising from its mouth. Bright red eyes locked on mine. It lifted a foreleg to paw at the air, and took a few more steps, until it stood nose to nose with me where I sat frozen on the professor’s desk at the front of the room. The scaled lips rolled back, baring vicious fangs that dripped with an unfamiliar poison.

“Can I touch her?” I asked.

“Give it a try.”

I reached out, and my hand passed through the steam unharmed. The dragon snapped at me, and its teeth closed together over my wrist without resistance. The dragon’s flesh looked as real and solid as my own, but I felt nothing.

“Incredible,” I whispered.

Join the fun, or just see what those crazy WIPpeteers are up to here! Thank you, KL Schwengel, for hosting even when life is hitting you hard. ❤

And with that, I leave you. Let me know what you’re up to this week! WriMos, are you participating in the marathon on the 9th? Anyone doing word sprints on Twitter? Everyone else care to share what’s happening these days? Want to lie on the couch, talk about your mother? HMMMM?

Thanks for stopping by!

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31 Day Blog Challenge Day 2

Oh, look, here we are again! Day 2, day 2, what to do with you?

blog challenge

“20 Facts About You”

Oi.

Well, I did a post about this a while back. Would it be cheating to refer you there? Yes?

Dangit.

How about a theme? Creative endeavours for $400, Alex.

1. I don’t usually write poetry, but I once wrote a poem about meatloaf while I was drugged up in the hospital. The food, not the singer.

2. My creative spirit/muse/inspiration/whatever seems like an uncomfortably real entity at times. I know he’s not, but really, he’s the only person I have available to bounce ideas off of. I know that I’m talking to myself, but it works.

3. I customize dolls and My Little Pony, but I can’t do it while I’m writing. Like, I can’t do both in the same day, or even week. My brain can only handle one form of creativity at a time. This is sometimes a problem, as it takes forever for me to switch tracks.

4. I’m always surprised when I read over something I wrote and find that it’s actually good. To me, that’s the best feeling in the world. I don’t feel proud of myself often, but I do at those times. REALLY proud.

5. My dad introduced me to Fantasy novels by way of Xanth. I had fantasy movies and fairy tales in my life before that, but those were the first novels I read with magic and adventure on that scale.

6. I blame the aforementioned books for my fondness for terrible puns. I can’t help it, they make me laugh. I try to avoid them in my own writing, but sometimes I still catch them in edits. Sneaky little buggers.

7. I really started coming up with my current world when I was in bed with headaches. I needed something to do with my mind, and reading hurt too much. I knew before then that I was a writer, but this is how I learned to find my own stories.

8. I’ve developed scenes for my stories while I was lucid dreaming. I can’t do it anymore (not napping much, out of practice), but I’ve had a few plot breakthroughs that way. I found it both creepy and amazing. 🙂

9. My husband won’t read anything I write. This used to piss me off, and then I stopped caring. It’s not personal, he just doesn’t like reading novels.

10. Yes, I married someone who doesn’t like reading novels. I love him anyway.

11. English was my best class in high school, followed by theatre, art, and history. I think all of those things help me as a writer.

12. I crave external validation, but I don’t trust it. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a terrible writer, but because of Some Reason (perhaps some mental difficulty, maybe a terrible accident, I don’t know), people act like I’m good at it because they want me to feel good about myself. So they pat me on the head, leave nice comments on my blog, hope I never find out the horrible truth.

13. I may be slightly paranoid.

14. I enjoy photography and would like to learn more about it, but I can’t afford a good camera, and I don’t have the time or the memory space (in my brain) needed to learn what I’d need to for me to do it well. I have a friend who’s a fantastic professional photographer, and I’m very envious of her skill. Seriously, I want to marry my husband again so we can get pictures like these.

15. Even if I did have the money for a great camera, I’d prefer to use it on laser vision correction. My eyes suck, yo.

16. Back to writing: I’m terrible at naming things. People, places, stories. It’s just bad.

17. I love writing short stories, but almost never seem to find time to do it.

18. I totally use writing as an escape from reality. I’m delighted when other people can use my stories for the same purpose.

19. I need to be caffeinated before I can write, but I have to be de-caffeinated before I can paint, because I get shaky hands.

20. If I could change one thing about myself and my creativity, it would be to increase my ability to focus. I love having so many stories and characters buzzing around in my head, and I wouldn’t change the way I see the world, but I do wish I could just sit and work without my mind wandering so much.

Whew! There, twenty more things about myself, and with an impressively low number of off-topic points. Feel free to comment, but I know you’re just doing it to be nice. Stop lying to me! *sob* 😉


I’m Happy! I’m Disturbed!

I’m using an uncharacteristically large amount of exclamation points!!!

Really, though, things are good. My husband is back safe from an overnight trip, and he gets to keep his gun for another year. I told him that if he failed his qualifications he’d have to arm himself with a bicycle bell to startle bad guys with, and that I’d have to call him Bicycle Bill.

I don’t know why. I was very tired at the time, don’t judge me.

In any case, AJ will not be going by the name Bicycle Bill, or Penny-Farthing William on fancy days. I’m almost completely happy about this.

And I had a good day while he was away. A 6,000 word day is unheard of for me, but it happened. It’s been such a long time since I could just let my muse have his way with me, since I could write whatever the hell I wanted without worrying about keeping things consistent in an established world. It was super fun, and it did wonders for my mood. We really need these Storymoons more often.

You know, Storymoon. Like a honeymoon, but with wild and crazy who-cares-about-the-consequences-let’s-try-something-new storytelling instead of sex.

It got a little weird, though. Remember that one scene I shared on WIPpet Wednesday with the blood and the cutting and the burning blood on hot rocks? I wrote something far gorier and more horrifying than that. It had to be that way, but it scares me a little that it came out of my head. Other people have written far more disturbing things, but still. There may have been a chunk of human flesh in a bowl on a counter. I say “may” because I don’t feel like reading it over yet. Nasty stuff. Necessary, but nasty.

I do like where this is going, though, and I’ve discovered another thing I really like: not having a minimum word count goal.

WHEEEEEE!

I’m never sending this out to try for traditional publication. If it works out and people want it, maybe self-published as an e-book, but then it doesn’t matter so much whether it’s a solid 80,000 words, does it? Novellas are totally kosher, as long as you warn people and price appropriately. And I don’t know whether it’ll even go that far. Maybe I’ll write it and lock it away forever and ever and ever. The possibilities are mind-boggling when you have fewer rules to worry about. That said, subplots are already trying to sneak in and there’s a lot of story to go, so who knows?

I can write my own story in a genre where people can already pretty much get whatever they want. I can set it in a place I love, but that’s not exactly glamorous and popular with readers.* I can mix comedy with the horror and romance with the mystery and say “screw you, genre divisions!”

It’s a good thing. There’s no guarantee that it’s going to keep going well, but that’s OK, too.

It’s a vacation. If everything that happens in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas, I’m fine with that, too.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend, wherever you are!

*It totally should be, but I’m biased.


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