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?

Holiday Shopping Suggestions

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment

flame box elder penNo, do not fear. This is not a post to try to get you guys to buy my stuff (but, still, buy my stuff *coughcough*).

This is a post to draw your attention to a couple of my friends who make some really fabulous things that you should be aware of. These are perfect items to include on your own holiday wishlist or to purchase for friends or relatives.

Seriously. These are great things that you don’t want to miss out on.

RowevilleRetro. Handmade pens, pencils, styluses (stylii?), and other goodies, made from reclaimed materials. The pen in the picture? All mine, baby. It’s flame box elder and writes beautifully. It’s pretty neat to know that I’ve got a pen so unique. Don’t see one you like? You can custom order one to get exactly the pen/pencil/stylus your heart desires. And for a great price! Don’t forget to like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter to keep up with latest goodies.

Brush Crush. Hannah McFadden is a terrific artist and now you can own one of her lovely pieces (I’m still making up my mind on which one I want; I want them all!). Inks, oils, pastels, acrylic, watercolor, she’s got skills in so many mediums. Check out her website for more pieces and like her on Facebook to keep up with her latest projects.

‘Tis the season for giving and if you’re going to be giving, then give something good. So, give these good people a look see, pass on the URLs, and, ya know, buy something.

 

*Full disclosure: None of the people involved in the two shops asked me to do this. This is all me, baby. I’m promoting them on the blog because I like them, I like their stuff, and I already promote them on my personal Facebook and Twitter. In my opinion, they deserve to have lots of people flocking to them to purchase their merchandise. If this blog post (or repeated sharings/likings/retweetings/favoritings/whatever) can help generate that mob, then it’s the very least I can do.

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.

Dear Twitter Followers…

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TwitterSometimes when I gain new followers on Twitter that end up being real people, I feel like I should warn them about myself. This usually comes about because it’s obvious that they’re only following me because of one aspect of my Twitter and I’m not sure they’re aware of the other bits of nothing I spew there. I know that some of them must have had the smarts to read through my timeline to get an idea of what my Twitter business is about, but sometimes I wonder.

So, here are the important things I feel someone should know if they’re following me on Twitter:

-Mute the Cubs hashtag if you’re not a Cubs/baseball fan. I cannot stress this enough and I actually remind people to do this periodically. I am ANNOYING during baseball season. I live tweet the games and usually make terrible jokes and often try to find the silver lining in every loss. Obviously, this dies down during the off season, but things will still happen like trades and Cubs Con, so it’s best to be prepared.

-I sometimes tweet about TV shows currently in production. I try to be mindful of the spoilers. If I’m going to be tweeting a lot about a show, I’ll be sure to use the hashtag so you can mute it. Otherwise, enjoy my random, sporadic commentary.

-I’m more likely live tweet reruns, though (which shouldn’t be too surprising if you read my Twitter bio because it says right there that I’m a Rerun Junkie, among other things). Right now it’s mostly Fantasy Island and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea since Addam’s Family hasn’t been on, but I’ve done it for Dragnet, Adam-12, Emergency!, The Golden Girls, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Big Valley, Perry Mason, and Ironside, among others. Just know that it can and probably will happen at some point and I don’t always use convenient hashtags to mute.

-I will favorite anything and everything. I favorite what I like, what amuses me, what I want to be able to find again later. I don’t abide by any established favoriting rules. I’m a rebel, baby.

-I’m not funny all the time. I try to be at least somewhat amusing because I’m not much of anything else (informative or political or current event-ish). So if you’re following me because of one tweet you found really funny, hold on to that tweet. Because there’s a good chance I’ll never be that funny to you again.

-I tweet about my life. Usually just the non-boring bits, but also the boring bits. I tweet when I’m going to a job or when I’m going to sleep because some people like to know why the hell I’m not replying to them. Call them health and welfare checks, if you will.

-Sometimes I tweet a lot. There are days when I tweet so much you might think I’m not doing anything else.

-Sometimes I don’t tweet very much. There are days I might only have one or two tweets. If I’m not feeling social or interesting, then I don’t force myself to be. That’s dumb.

-I will probably follow you back. I like interesting people and I’m not a social media snob. If I think we can relate, then I’ll follow you.

-I am finicky about who I @, though. I stop myself a lot from replying to people a lot. I consider this a courtesy because off-line I usually don’t take advantage of the pause to think if what I’m about to say isn’t as funny as I think it is. Also, I don’t reply to a lot of people’s tweets because I don’t think I’m cool enough to be tweeting at that particular person.

-I will unfollow you and not feel bad about it. Sometimes there’s no hard feelings. You’re just not my type. Sometimes it’s because you turned out to be something a lot more distasteful than I initially thought. Quick route to being unfollowed: be a bigot. Any kind of bigot. Doesn’t matter. I’m a very intolerant person. I will not tolerate your active dedication to being a piece of shit.

-And finally…I’m way cooler on Twitter than I am anywhere else on the Internet or off of it. Truth.

I Went on a Trip…and Did Very Little

~ Kiki Writes ~ Leave a comment
The view from our room.
The view from our room.

Despite the con that was the purpose of our visit being cancelled, roommate extraordinaire Carrie and I ventured to Milwaukee anyway. We had four nights in a nice hotel booked cheap and it seemed a shame to waste them. At the very least, it sounded like a good idea to just get out of the cornfield for a bit.

We didn’t have a concrete plan to do anything. Oh, we had ideas and got even more from the very nice concierge in the hotel. We thought maybe we’d go to the museum or possibly walk a block over and go shopping.

Instead, we did basically nothing. From Thursday at about five o’clock in the evening when we checked in until Monday at around ten o’clock in the morning when we checked out we didn’t even leave the hotel.

And it was glorious!

After spending the day on trains (the first one being late enough that we had to run to make our second one and that was not a great time), we had room service. The next day, Friday, we were totally going to go downstairs to eat in the pub, but instead we got all caught up in a How It’s Made marathon on the Science Channel and ordered in pizza instead. Thus began our food drawer. We stashed the left over pizza and breadsticks in the dresser along with some of the snacks we’d brought along because we are experienced travelers. After that, any extra food went into the drawer for later.

Milwaukee Christmas tree
It’s very pretty for existing before Thanksgiving.

Saturday, after receiving passive-aggressive notes from housekeeping (okay, not really; they slipped a card under our door saying they were honoring our Do Not Disturb sign and if we needed anything to call them), we left the hotel room so they could come in and do a bit of tidying, which was mostly them just making the beds and putting in new towels because the room was so nice we didn’t want to do anything to mar it. We admired the Christmas tree in the lobby (which had been lit for the first time that day in a ceremony that we missed because it’s not Thanksgiving yet and I acknowledge nothing Santa-related before then), Carrie got some Starbucks, and we hung out in the lounge before finally heading to the pub.

At the pub we enjoyed a fish fry and cheese curds (when in Wisconsin!) and I had a fantastic pumpkin ale which was why we ended up going back to the pub again on Sunday. That second visit I got to watch three NFL games while enjoying my ale and onion rings and chicken tenders.

In addition to the pub and watching more of How It’s Made (that show is just fascinating; I never before contemplated unicycle wheel hubs), Sunday was momentous as I had for the first time in my 34 years a Starbucks coffee. I liked it well enough and didn’t die. It was a salted caramel mocha and I wanted to add pretzels to it.

I miss the food drawer.
I miss the food drawer.

Monday, we bid goodbye to our now empty food drawer and our fabulous view and the seemingly endless episodes of How It’s Made (we watched several episodes before leaving that morning, too, as our love had grown so strong), and trained on out of there, making a stop at Union Station for lunch with my amazing friend Harry, before finally arriving home to find the cornfield really friggin’ windy.

I think most people would find our vacation to be incredibly dull and a missed opportunity to see all sorts of Milwaukee things, but to Carrie and I, it was relaxing. For me, it was the equivalent of floating in a warm pool for several hours. Refreshing.

So don’t knock it until you’ve gone someplace else and done nothing.

I’m Going on a Trip!

~ Kiki Writes ~ 2 Comments

mapAs you’re reading this, I’m probably on a train bound for Milwaukee. And if you’re reading this sometime after five o’clock on Thursday evening, then I’m in Milwaukee, hopefully snug as a bug in my hotel room, possibly chowing on delicious food that was delivered to me after a long day of traveling.

If you’re reading this at any point between Thursday evening and Monday morning, then I’m still in Milwaukee, but maybe not eating and possibly not in my hotel room.

If you’re reading this after about 11 in the morning on Monday, then I’m back on a train, this one bound for my cornfield home. Also, you’re way behind on your reading and you should put a little more effort into being timely.

So, this trip was originally supposed to be all about a pop culture/comics con, but the con in question got cancelled. After some debate, friend/roommate/fellow trip-taker Carrie and I decided that it would be a shame to waste such cheap hotel room prices in such a swank hotel and we could probably think of something else to do in Milwaukee if we really felt compelled to do so. Really, just sleeping in a different bed and not cooking dinner for a few night is good enough of a vacation for me.

This is the first trip I’ve taken in a while. I can’t wait to see what I forgot to pack.

Let the good times roll.

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.

The Anxiety Monster

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Kiki's red hairI have a mild problem with anxiety. Back in the day, smoking is what helped me medicate it. I smoked when I got anxious. The nicotine helped when I’d get that sudden flare of what I called “fuck up anxiety”, that sure fire feeling that I had just fucked up even if I hadn’t, or if I had, it was so insignificant that an ant wouldn’t notice it because it was such a small thing. Just the act of getting the cigarette out of the pack, lighting it up, taking the first inhale, smoking that sucker down, helped take the edge off of that.

I don’t smoke anymore, but I still have that fuck up anxiety.

I’m having it right now, actually, as I type this.

It likes to settle in my shoulders mostly and ride up the back of my neck. My brain likes to replay whatever it is that I’ve done or think I’ve done until it’s so huge and wound up so tight my head would spin off if it were to let go. It makes me want to primal scream in an attempt to release the pressure in my head and drown out the voices assaulting my character.

It’s really annoying. I’ve yet to come up with decent coping mechanism in the five years since I quit smoking. Meditation helps, but funnily enough, when the anxiety acts up, I don’t want to meditate. Kind of defeats the purpose there, huh?

Now, I know that compared to some of my friends, I’m getting off easy. Their anxiety and the resulting attacks can be debilitating and that’s pretty awful. I do acknowledge that I’m lucky in that respect that it isn’t worse for me. I can actually still function despite the anxiety.

But it’s still annoying.

I don’t need any help from my brain when it comes to screwing things up. I can do bad and feel bad all by myself over legit things. I don’t need to blow up tiny seconds and non-existent moments into a disaster.

Sometimes, it’s a once in a while thing. I can go weeks and not have a problem. And then I have times when it’s basically an all the time feeling that can go on for weeks. It lightens up, but never really goes away. It’s the latter that I’ve been dealing with lately. It makes me a right irritable bitch because the constant anxiety puts me on edge and within a day I hate everything, everyone, and your mother, too.

I haven’t exactly figured out the triggers for it. I think some of it is stress. I think some of it could be hormonal. I think some of it could just be. I don’t think I always need a trigger.

I do need a better coping method to riding it out, though. Because this habit of doing nothing but feeling bad and being irritated and not meditating isn’t working.

Stupid anxiety monster hanging around the closets of my mind.

Writing–November Projects aka NaNoWriMo 2014

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nanowrimoNovember means NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo means that I write like a madwoman.

My NaNo this year is similar to last year’s in that I’m going to do two 25,000 word novellas instead of one 50,000 word novel. I am once again breaking rules, baby. But I couldn’t think of a good novel idea and decided NaNo would work just fine to clear two more items off of the To Do List.

This year’s NaNoWriMo project is The Odd Section of Town and Firebugs and Other Insects, the next two Ivy Russell novellas. Possibly the last two, I don’t know. I don’t have any ideas for this character beyond these last two novellas, so I suppose we’ll see. You know me. I’m not good with commitment.

The Odd Section of Town involves our intrepid private investigator Ivy dealing with several cases in  the Odd Section of Buddington, an area of own that seems to be plagued by a rash of bad luck that seemed to start around the same time an old friend came for a visit.

Firebugs and Other Insects finds Ivy looking for a mentally ill man during a rash of fires that are certainly the work of one weird arsonist.

I felt like it was a good idea to get these two written since I already had the ideas and the only thing holding me back was The Timeless Man wasn’t fixed yet. But with that scratched off the To Do List, I actually switched two different novellas out to write these two and finish up the Ivy series, at least for the time being.

I’m already off to a good start and anticipate being done by no later than the 16th (yes, I realize I’ve probably just jinxed the hell out of myself). Which poses an interesting question.

What am I going to do with the rest of the month?

The answer: I don’t know, but nothing heavy. Between Thanksgiving, working Black Friday, and going to my first con in about six years, the end of the month will be no time to start anything serious. I’ll probably end up doing some revisions on projects that will only take me a day or two to accomplish. I’ll figure it out when the time comes.

My brain is kind of crowded right now.