Am I, or the others crazy?

{ July 1, 2010 @ 6:34 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Sometimes the only thing I want to do is sit down with a blank piece of paper and a fresh pen and write until my fingers break. But each time I try, lately, the blank paper has become less of a promise and more of a threat.

It used to be like a world of possibilities opened up every time I put my pen to the paper. I have all of these ideas in my head – all of these characters vying for attention, ideas that won’t leave me alone. I want so, so badly to write them down and free up some space in my head, but I can’t seem to make anything work lately. This – not being able to communicate, not being able to get my thoughts into an order that makes sense to anyone but me – isn’t an uncommon feeling for me. It happens all the time in reality. I have a hard time talking to people. But it doesn’t happen so often with my writing, and it doesn’t ever happen for as long as it has been. I haven’t been able to write anything that I don’t want to chuck out a window in months. It’s extremely frustrating, like someone hit the mute button on my brain and detached my hands from my thoughts.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to push past this soon. All of these words are pooling up behind the dam in my head, waiting for that one crack in the wall’s defenses. I’m a little worried that when I get started again, I won’t be able to stop, but it’s got to be better than this.

{ April 26, 2010 @ 2:16 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Okay, so in this meme, Cait will be talking about Petra’s novel, Second Chance, and Petra will be talking about Cait’s novel, The Michael Mackin Project.
1. At what point did you feel like “Ah, now the story has really begun!”
Petra: The opening of the prologue is attention-grabbing already, with him being drugged and all, but mostly at the end of the first section of the prologue, when Michael’s actually dying. It’s so well written, and I’m like… torn between being horrified and really sad.
Cait: When Adam died in the prologue. I was like, “Oh, man, it’s going down now.”
2. What were the points where you found yourself skimming?
Petra: Uhhh. I don’t remember skimming much, tbh. But I will say that the parts about Miranda, before we get to see the like, human side of her, bothered me, just because I didn’t like her at that point and I kind of thought she did it. :X
Cait: I didn’t, actually. I ended up reading each chapter twice: once to read and once to edit. It’s very captivating, so I didn’t end up skimming either time.
3. Which setting in the book was clearest to you as you were reading it? Which do you remember the best?
Petra: All the settings were described really clearly. And it doesn’t vary too much. But I remember the prologue the clearest, and the scene with the stain on the floor.
Cait: I remember the alley outside of the club the most. It was described very well, and I can look back at that scene like I was there.
4. Which character would you most like to meet and get to know?
Petra: Asher, because he’s sexy. And he’s Jess Mariano. Except, minus the reading. And the Rory.  But. Yep. Sexy sexy Asher. And plus he’s loveable. *hugs*
Cait: Nora. I think she’s a strong, amazing woman, and she’s incredibly witty.
5. What was the most suspenseful moment in the book?
Petra: The prooolooogguueee. You can totally see the amount of work you put into it; it really shows. It’s written so wonderfully. a;ljgiksf
Cait: Again, when Adam was dying. The scene with Nora exploding at the funeral was also very suspensful.
6. If you had to pick one character to get rid of, who would you axe?
Petra: Miranda! Or Rita! Because she’s a liiiiitttle annoying. I know she means well, but…
Cait: I can’t think of someone who needs to be gotten rid of, plot-wise, but I would like to chuck an axe at Cameron.
7. Was there a situation in the novel that reminded you of something in your own life?
Petra: Other than Asher’s broodiness reminding me of Jess (because Jess is totally in my life, what)? Not really. I haven’t been murdered recently, thank goodness.
Cait: The general feeling of “Wow, the world is really pissing on me right now”, but noneo f the actual situations.
8. Where did you stop reading, the first time you cracked open the manuscript? (Can show you where your first dull part is, and help you fix your pacing.)
Petra: I haven’t read chapter eight yet, but that’s not like “omg this is boring I’m skipping it,” I just haven’t gotten to it yet :X I’M SORRY! I keep forgetting. *headdesk*And I pretty much read as you posted, so it’s not like I lost interest and came back when I felt like it, yaknow?
Cait: Well. I had to stop at the end of each chapter because I was getting one chapter at a time.
9. What was the last book you read, before this? And what did you think of it? (This can put their comments in context in surprising ways, when you find out what their general interests are. It might surprise you.)
Petra: OH GOSH I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT I READ BEFORE THIS. D: But hey, my favorite book is Nineteen Minutes. And it’s amazing. Soooo yeah.
Cait: The last one I read before reading that was Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan, I think.
10. Finish this sentence: “I kept reading because…”
Petra: I needed to find out who did this to Michael, and I wanted to see the video thing that Aaron’s making (not like I could actually watch it, buuuuuuut that’s besides the point). And I want to hug Asher.
Cait: I kept reading because the writing is incredible, the emotions are gripping and realistic, and the characters are very real. All in all, it’s an amazing book.

The Prompt List

{ April 23, 2010 @ 1:31 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Petra and Cait are going to do something new: We’re going to do flash-fictions every day, based off of prompts that we give one another. This is where you can find all of those prompts, along with links to the short stories that come from them.

1. Petra: Adam. The moment he realized he was in love with Nora.
2. Cait: Asher. The moment he found out Michael was dead.
3. Petra: Adam.  Describe a time where he had a physical accident, and how that affected him. This could be anything from a paper cut to a car wreck.
4. Cait: Michael. A fight that he had with Asher (because I’m sure they had a fight at some point in their friendship). What was it about? Who started it? Who made peace?

writer’s meme.

{ April 23, 2010 @ 12:12 am } · { Uncategorized }
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What’s your favorite genre of writing?
 Petra: realistic fiction, mostly.

Cait: I like drama, and I like to write with teenagers as my main characters. So, I guess my writing could be filed under “Young Adult”. :) I tend to put elements from several genres in my work, though. Or I at least try to.

How often do you get writer’s block?
 Petra: erm, depends on how long I’m working on a project. If I’m not working on something, I tend to want to write more, but the longer I work on a certain story… the more I get blocked.

Cait: Uh, roughly every other day. It’s pretty frequent.

How do you fix it?

Petra: Oh gosh. Uh. It depends. Sometimes I read, sometimes I’ll try writing opposite from what I am (i.e. if I’m writing on the computer, I’ll try writing in my notebook, or vice versa), or work on something else for a while.

Cait: I’m not sure. I just end up going OH HEY! HOW ABOUT THIS? and then write.

Do you type or write by hand?
 Petra: If I’m at school, I write by hand, but if I’m on a roll I tend to type, because I can get the words down faster. Sometimes writing by hand is refreshing though.

Cait: I do a little bit of both. Sometimes I can’t write on the computer, and sometimes I can’t write handwritten. I like to switch it up.

Do you save everything you write?
 Petra: No, not everything, but like, 90% of it. And considering a lot of it is posted online, that’s a space saver as well.

Cait: Most of it. I have tons and tons of notebooks full of half-baked ideas.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
 Petra: Sometimes. :)

Cait: Occasionally. It never tends to end well.

Do you have a  constructive critic?
 Petra: I do, that would be Cait. ;)

Cait: Well, I have Petra. And my friend Sandra.

Did you ever write a novel?
 Petra: I’m working on it, ha.

Cait: Yes. My first completed draft was the first draft of The Michael Mackin Project. I’m working on completing the second draft, while will be my first official novel.

What genre would you love to write but haven’t?
 Petra: Umm. Horror. Or fantasy.

Cait: Fantasy. There’s so much that you can do with it. I’ve had a few ideas, but I’ve never really gone anywhere with them.

What’s one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
 Petra: Probably historical fiction. I kind of hate history. A lot.

Cait: Uh, porn? I can’t think of any other genre I would never try. I guess romance, as the main genre. Because I’ll add romance to my stories, but it’s never the main plot.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
 Petra: Actively? One.

Cait: Dear God. I have TMMP, Stromdell, psychic story, crazy story, time travel story… So…five?

Do you write for a living? Do you want to?
 Petra: I do not, but I would love to. That’s my goal, ha.

Cait: No, not so much. But I would definitely love to.

Have you ever written something for a magazine or newspaper?
 Petra: My school newspaper, yes. :)

Cait: I was published in my school’s literary magazine. The short story was “Of Silence and Skipping Stones”; you can find it on my inkpop account.

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
 Petra: I won first place in a poetry contest in sixth grade, if that counts for anything, haha.

Cait: Nope.

Do you ever write based on your dreams?
 Petra: My first major project was based off a daydream I had, if that counts. And so was Second Chance, actually.

Cait: A lot of my ideas come from my dreams.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
 Petra: Hmm. I like bittersweet, personally.

Cait: Can I say “all of the above”? Stromdell has a happy ending, some of my others have sad ones. I love them all.

Have you ever written based on an artwork you’ve seen?
 Petra: No, but I’ve wanted to. There was a picture of a something on a writer’s block community that was kind of inspiring. Sounds like a good way to battle writer’s block.

Cait: No, but that’s a great idea.

The Beginning

{ April 22, 2010 @ 3:32 am } · { Uncategorized }
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I’ve written at least three new first chapters of three separate books this month, so I thought I would talk about beginnings.

They’re one of the hardest things for me – aside from endings, and, of course, titles. Once I get into a story, to the action, I’m generally fine – it’s much easier for me to write once I’m past the fluffy beginning – but there’s the matter of opening the story, and unfortunately, it can’t be done away with. There needs to be a solid beginning: Something that will hook the reader and introduce your characters.

I learned the hard way with The Michael Mackin Project (pause: I feel strange italicizing it! It feels so professional) that your beginning HAS to be gripping. Otherwise, people will click away, will put your book down and never look back. Even if I feel like my book gets stronger as it goes on, the prologue tended to keep people from reading. When you’re posting on inkpop, people are only going to read the first chapter or two of a book – you have such a small amount of space to prove yourself and your ability.

The original prologue of TMMP, which was written in November 2008, was not very good. It was horribly rushed, overly-wordy, and didn’t make a lot of sense. Characterization ran unchecked and unguarded. The death scene was nowhere near the level of punch it needed to be. Of course, it was the result of a bag of Halloween candy and several pints of caffiene unloaded directly into my veins (thank you, NaNoWriMo), but that was no excuse.

When I rewrote, I slowed down the pace, gave my characters better introductions, and added to the death scene. There was still the matter of introducing six characters at once, but I felt like I’d done well with it. I needed to show how normal the kids were in order to make Michael’s death stand out. I needed to show the immediate reactions of Asher and Miranda to show what would happen next. The prologue was over eleven pages long at this point; it was longer than most of my other chapters.

Eventually, I ended up cutting large sections of the prologue, cutting it from eleven pages to around two pages. I lost things that I really loved – showing Michael’s interactions with each of The Five before his death, the line that inspired the book, and a lot of context – but the prologue is stronger the way it is now.

There’s still a lot of work to be done with it (namely, fixing the rest of the chapters to give the back-story that is now nonexistent to new readers), but I’ve learned something with this. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice scenes, or words, or characters that you love in order to strengthen your work.

I’ve gotten off on a bit of a tangent here, but my point is this: Sometimes it really sucks to write the beginning of a story. For me, it’s one of the most stress-inducing things in the world. (Ask Petra: I freaked out about TMMP for weeks.) But it’s important to find that perfect beginning; to find a way to keep your reader reeled in from the moment they open the page.

Am I there yet? God no. But I’m working on it.

Writer’s Block.

{ April 22, 2010 @ 12:43 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Writer’s block really sucks. There’s nothing worse than really wanting to write and get words on the page, and not having the ability to do it. It seems to hit me randomly; there’s not really a particular pattern to the whole thing. But it always seems to happen when I NEED to write, as opposed to when it’s just something I feel like doing.

Right now, I’m supposed to be writing my story for ~ApNoWriMo, which is basically National Novel Writing Month, in April, because it’s a more convenient time than November. -_- I’m supposed to have 30,000 words by tomorrow; I currently have 10,404. I feel like some kind of… space-taking-up mass has taken up residence in my brain. I feel cluttered, and not okay. I know some people say the cure to writer’s block is to just write, but it’s harder than it sounds. Especially when whatever you DO manage to write makes you want to throw up all over the keyboard.

I wish I could just be cured of this. Ugh, it really sucks. Maybe I’ll read a little tomorrow, and do some of the work that’s actually required for school. Usually reading makes me want to write. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that I don’t have an outline from here on out. :( I like having outlines. They help, they really do. I don’t like making them, but I like having them when the writing process starts. :/ Not having them makes it so much harder, for a novel at least. I don’t bother for short fanfiction stories, but when it’s something on this large of a scale? I prefer to have a map.

If any of y’all have any magical tricks and cures to this… feel free to share. If not, wish me luck on unblocking my brain.

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