Category: Writing

Writing–March Projects

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

green flowerYou may have noticed the lack of blog posts in the month of February. Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe you didn’t care. Whatever the case, the point is that you can expect random and fewer blog posts to be the norm for a while. My world is in a bit of transition at the moment, sort of like when I had the existential crisis last year, except it’s less crisis, more change.

Anyway, that doesn’t mean that I’m not doing writer stuff. My goal to clear out my backlog of projects remains intact.

Last month I finished making notes on (Vampries) Made in America and it has all been put to the side for the moment. I’m sick of looking at it. I also finished revisions on Odd Section of Town and Firebugs and Other Insects. I’m satisfied with how they turned out for the most part and I think the next step for them is beta and minor tweaks/polish. I also wrote “A Ride in the Country”, which was actually less writing and more taking a chunk that didn’t make it into Night of the Nothing Man and revising it into it’s own little stand alone bit that will go into one of the anthologies.

Speaking of…

This month, I’m going to be working revising short stories that I’m going to use for future anthologies. I’ve already finished a revision on “Nadie Has a Dog” just a few days into the new month (productivity, what?). Also going to be revised this month “People Are Terrible”, “Cover Up” (a rough draft that I found that I think will go nicely in one of the anthologies), “The House Down the Road”, and “The Seaweed Man”. Of these four, it’s “The Seaweed Man” that’s going to take the most work. It’s going to be more of a rewrite than a revision.

Slowly, but slowly, the backlog decreases.

Writing–February Projects

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

roseThere is no love here.

Well, maybe a little.

The (Vampires) Made in America saga continues. I will continue to assess this disaster area and attempt to rebuild.

However, in decidedly more productive ambitions, I’m going to put The Odd Section of Town and Firebugs and Other Insects through their first revisions. I’ve already given The Timeless Man it’s final polish (see, some good things did come out of that (Vampires) debacle last month), so working on the other two Ivy Russell novellas makes sense. I’m fairly optimistic that these revisions will not cause me any eye twitches, but I don’t want to get my hopes too high. I’ve got a great ability to jinx myself.

I’m also planning on writing a new short story called “A Ride in the Country”. Don’t panic! This story will be for one of the in-progress anthologies, so it totally counts towards my objective of getting all of the old projects completed.

And, of course, I’ll be publishing something this month.

Look for it around Valentine’s Day.

Writing–I Think This Manuscript Is a Disaster

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

flame box elder penThe revisions on (Vampires) Made in a America continue to drag on, mostly because the more I work on it, the worse it seems to get. Like a knot in my sewing thread. The more I fuss with it, the tighter and more impossible it gets.

I thought I had it figured out in December. I thought I knew what I was doing and what needed to be done. And then I got a third of the way through the manuscript and went, “This is utter shit and it’s a total mess and this fix don’t fix it, son.”

And that’s how several other smaller writing things got done. Because I was needing to work on something while I tried to figure out how to salvage this manuscript. It’s not the story that’s bad. It’s the execution of the story that’s god-awful.

After a few days of thought, I realized that my biggest problem was that I needed to see the forest and at the moment I was looking at nothing but trees. I needed to get a sort of aerial view of the forest of this story to see if I can’t figure out where all the dead wood is and how best to rearrange the trees before this whole grove burns in a tragic wildfire of my own frustration.

So, I’ve been going through chapter by chapter, writing down a summary of each. Sort of like a map I guess. I’ve only been doing a chapter a day, though, because I’m pretty frustrated with this story and to do any more reminds me of what a disaster this manuscript is and makes me more likely to throw it all out. And I don’t want to do that. I want to keep a level, logical, objective, non-burny approach here. I’ll let you know if doing this helps because MY WAY is always the HARD WAY.

Thankfully, I have so many other writing projects that need attention so I don’t feel guilty about not doing enough during my day. I just do a quick chapter summary and then move on to something else that has the potential to piss me off.

I like to keep that writing frustration moving, kids.

Writing–Happy New Year! January Projects

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

fireworksA new month, a new year, a lot of old projects that I need to finish up with.

Revisions on (Vampires) Made in America continue. I got about half-way through the latest round of revisions when something clicked and I realized what I really needed to do to make the story work. Which meant I had to start all over. Fortunately, I’m no stranger to such stupidity, so this prolonged round of revisions doesn’t bother me. Much.

I’m also going to do what should be the last round of revisions and the polish of Hatchets and Hearts. Then I can be done with that novella.

I figure that will be good enough to start the year.

I also need to figure out a self-publishing schedule for the year. Putting out three things last year worked out pretty well. They were pretty evenly spaced out and such. I’d like to do that again.

It’s just a matter of what and when.

And I currently have no idea about either of those things.

So, yeah. Off and running, kids. Off and running.

Writing–Reading Goals 2014 Achieved

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

booksIf you’ll recall, my goal was to read 24 books this year at an even pace of 2 books a month and only four could be re-reads. I’m happy to say that I hit the end goal of 24 books, but that reading at least two books a month…that wasn’t always so smooth. I got behind a couple of times so that I was really cramming at the end of the month to make sure I got two books read. I also totally failed at it entirely two months. September and November I only read one book. Not exactly happy with that part of my goal-accomplishing.

(I thought I was going to have to read three books this month to make sure I had my total, but then I checked my list and realized that I didn’t. I did have a period earlier in the year when I read like 2 1/2 books a couple of months so I think that little edge saved me. It also made me realize that while I can do algebra, apparently counting is out of my league.)

So here is the last 12 books I read in 2014. The list of the first 12 books can be found here.

13. From the Holocaust to Hogan’s Heroes by Robert Clary

14. Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

15. The Game from Where I Stand by Doug Glanville

16. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

17. On Writing by Stephen King (re-read)

18. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (re-read)

19. The Thirst Within by Johi Jenkins

20. Coroner’s Journal: Forensics and the Art of Stalking Death by Louis Cataldie MD

21. Christine by Stephen King

22. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

23. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

24. Coffee at Midnight by Brandon Ford

Looking back on the whole list, content-wise, I have to say I’m pretty proud of the fact that I read some “classics”. I never thought I’d ever even consider reading one after Honors English. Good job, self.

Good reading year, too.

Writing–Now I Don’t Feel Like It

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

flame box elder penI don’t really feel like revising (Vampires) Made in America right now. Oh, I know I said I would and I know that I will, but I just don’t feeeeel like it.

Part of the problem is I have this kind of problem this time of year, with all of the holiday stuff going on and making Grinchmas and preparing for the middle niece’s birthday next week (I still haven’t gotten her present yet, oops, need to work on that) and then the day jobs and chores, I tend to feel a little tapped out in the energy department. I don’t really enjoy a lot of the writing work I end up doing in December because I feel like it’s just more work. While I normally enjoy doing revisions (even the crappy, hard ones I feel a certain thrill that comes with spinning straw into gold), it’s a struggle for me to like them in December.

I think the other part of the problem is that I don’t feel like I’m doing any good with these revisions so far. I know I need to add a section, possibly a chapter, and I have yet to see the perfect spot to put it. I feel like all I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks is dialogue tweaking. I did a major overhaul of the first two chapters and after that, everything has just been speeding right along with minor little changes here and there and I feel like I’m slacking.

This in turn makes me feel like I don’t wanna.

The problem with me is that I’m acting like this is the big and final revision of this manuscript when it’s actually just the first. Yes, that added section needs to go in now. And that last third of the book will probably be seriously worked over (at least that’s what my notes say…actually my notes say “the last third of the book needs work, good luck with that”). There will be another revision or two (probably three) after this. Hell, I’m not even sure whether or not I’m going to change the location yet or not (not a huge change, just going from real city to fictional-city-that-might-resemble-a-real-one). So, yes, this isn’t the end all be all of this book no matter what oogy feelings my brain is giving me right now.

But my brain doesn’t listen to reason. It’s worse than my heart in some respects. And my brain says I’m not working hard enough, apparently missing the point that I’m not supposed to be working very hard this month. It’s a real drag. I’m doing my best to press on, knowing that I am actually doing work, laying the groundwork for the next revision, even if it doesn’t feel like. This is all just a fleeting bit of stupid and I will get through it.

Right now, though, I just don’t feeeeel like it.

Writing–You Guys Would Watch My TV Show, Right?

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

Rainbow paperWhenever I’m writing a story and I end up writing a huge chunk of dialogue (which happens often, I know, you’re shocked), I can hear my mother in my head saying, “Why don’t you just write scripts? Your stuff is mostly dialogue anyway.”

The woman is not wrong. I’ve always had a natural tendency towards dialogue and a hundred years ago, a lot of my stories were pretty much all dialogue.

I’ve experimented with script writing before. I participated in Script Frenzy one year before the program closed down and I tried my hand at adapting one of my novellas into script form just for the practice. I even wrote my own TV pilot for shits and giggles (it was mostly the shits).

I find myself drifting back into that script territory once again.

I got an idea for a TV show over the summer and to amuse myself, I’ve been jotting down idea for it in a notebook, something to do when I need something to do. And over time it’s sort of took on the shape of an actual thing. A decent thing. And I think it might be fun to run it out as far a it will go in my spare time. It’s sort of a black comedy murder mystery thing. In my head it’d be like an anthology series, each season would have a different murder and different people solving the murders, but it’d be set in the same town and you’d see a lot of the same faces. The first season is a couple trying to solve the murder of a man they found on their doorstep for the reward money.

See? Fun!

I’m doing a similar thing with another idea, only it would be more like a TV movie or a mini-series (seriously, I feel like we could do with more of those; remember when they were on the Big 3 networks every week, sometimes multiple times? Yeah). Originally, I figured the idea would be a novella, but I sort of like the idea of hashing it all out in script form. Maybe I’ll end up writing it out as a novella after the fact, but for now, I like doing it this way. It’s fun.

See? Even more fun!

Logically, I know that nothing will come of either of these things in script form. I can’t make anything come of anything I write in my other forms. Scripts are an even tougher sell, particularly when you have absolutely no connections and you live in the middle of a cornfield. I love my corn, but it doesn’t network well.

As far as I’m concerned, though, anything I do that has to do with writing has value.  This isn’t a time waste. It’s a good, productive thing.

At the very least, it just furthers my crusade to clear out all of the ideas from my brain.

But, you guys would totally watch my show if on the very, very off-chance it ended up on TV, right?

Right?

Writing–December Projects

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

SnowflowerThe only thing I have on tap for December is revising (Vampires) Made in America. That’s it, that’s all, and there ain’t no more.

With the holiday gauntlet I run and the Grinchmas practices I observe, time and energy are in short supply in December. I’ve found that having one big project to work on during the month usually yields better results than trying to obliterate some huge To Do List. The lack of pressure lends itself nicely to me getting the thing done and then getting more things done. It tricks me into being more productive than I intended to be.

So far I haven’t caught on yet.

If I do get my revisions done quicker than anticipated (and that’s quite likely), I’ll probably pick another project to revise, most likely the Zak novella (still no title) or one of the other stories that I want to put into the People Are Terrible anthology.

I’m actually looking forward to revising (Vampires). When I first wrote it, I didn’t like it all. After re-reading it, I find that it’s actually a lot better than I thought it was. It’s got potential.

Revising it should be an interesting time.

Writing–NaNoWriMo 2014 Done

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

nanowrimoI  hit the 50,000 word mark and finished my projects last Friday, so it only took me two weeks. Which is great. It’s done. I’ve got two more novellas ready and waiting to be revised and that’s all just peachy.

But I have to admit, I feel like a cheat.  And I’m not talking about doing two novellas instead of a whole novel, either.

This year I think I only had a couple of days in which I struggled to get the words down, but even then, it wasn’t too horrible. The word count still got met even if it did take me a little bit longer than what I would have liked. I think part of the reason why it was easier was because I was writing about characters that I’d already written about. Ivy and the gang have been in two novellas already. I came into NaNo already knowing what the tone was going to be and how the story needed to be told.

I also had a much better time-use game plan. I work two day jobs, which can be time consuming, but I almost always have my weekends free and Mondays and Fridays are lighter days for me. Because of alllll of this time available (it helps not having much of a social life or social obligations) I was able to do several 4,000 word days. Last year, working three jobs, I wrote as much as I could on my days off, including doing a 12,000 word day. Then it felt like a mad scramble. This year, not so much.

Finally, this is NaNo number 11 for me and win number 8. I think that NaNo has become so habitual for me, that I have such a groove when November 1st rolls around, that the default playing level here has now been set on easy, just through the years of repetition.

So none of this is really cheating. I just feel like it is when I see many of my fellow NaNoers struggling to get to their word count goals. I have fast-finishers guilt, I guess (minds out of the gutter on that one, guys).

I should also remember that I used to be one of those struggling NaNoers looking on in awe at the people who could rack up awesome word counts in short amounts of time. What I’m experiencing is just the result of several years of conditioning.

You could say I’m NaNo fit.