Permission to be Rubbish

One of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome with writing is the fact that I want what I write to be good. And I want it to be good NOW!

Does that make sense to anyone?

I think the reason I get so much accomplished during NaNo (6 weeks away now?) is that I give myself permission to be awful. I worry about editing and refining at the end of November, for thirty days it’s just get your head down and write.

So from now on I give myself permission to be rubbish for the remaining 11 months of the year*. Hopefully I’ll be getting a lot more writing done.

* – the idea being to mine the diamonds from the dross at the end of the first draft rather than as I’m going along.

Absolutely wonderful…

post about writing up at Ursula Vernon’s LJ.

bark Like a Fish Damnit! – It Bears Repeating

Darn it. I want to know what’s going on at Grandmother’s house now too. 🙂

Aspirational Prose

I think I find prose more aspirational than inspirational. Along the lines of – darn it why can’t I write like that! 🙂

One of my favourite quotes from a novel is from Bareback by Kit Whitfield (released as Benighted in the US).

It’s set in an alternate universe where 99% of the population are werewolves and the other 1% are given the responsibility of policing the majority. There’s a scene where a character walks across a park, unbeknownst to his death and Kit Whitfield writes:-

“He didn’t know this was the end of his life. If nobody warned him, he couldn’t have known that he should have loved those last hundred yards, that they weren’t just an obstacle to getting to where he planned, that the sounds of his feet on the pavement and the wind in the branches were all he was ever going to have.”

Immediately I am taking those last steps with that character, beautiful, spare and haunting, those lines have stayed with me long after I finished the book.

Musical Inspiration

Hmmm. I don’t think I started out with the intention of writing a series of posts on inspiration but it looks like that’s what I’m doing. 🙂

I find music very helpful to the muse. Driving to work with the car radio on usually encourages story ideas to come flooding into my mind. I think we live in such a media focused world and we are so used to watching movies and tv with background music that it almost feels natural to weave a story along to a melody.

So here are a few of the pieces that are inspiring me at the moment.

I love the following two songs for vampires.

Remember – Josh Groban (This is on the soundtrack to the movie Troy)

Forever May Not Be Long Enough – Live (I think I’m right in saying that this played over the credits of The Mummy Returns)

I am a bit of a movie buff. Most of the songs I like I tend to pick up from soundtracks.

The following song (which I think is great for when you’re stuck partway through writing a love scene) is an exception.

Insatiable – Darren Hayes

I find songs most useful when I’m stuck for inspiration on a particular point and I know what I’m trying to say but somehow not getting there.

Classical music on the other hand I find fantastic for general inspiration. You don’t get led by the lyrics and can let your mind wander.

Favourite pieces at the moment are:-

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis – Ralph Vaugh Williams – just beautiful

Jazz Suite, Waltz 2 – Shostakovich – Which for me is just the creepiest sounding waltz, and brings to mind all these strange fantasic creatures dancing. Makes me think of the masquerade scene in Labyrinth.

Danse Macabre – Saint Saens – I have loved this piece of music ever since I was a little girl and my aunt told me to imagine skeletons dancing to it.

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (Organ) – Saint Saens – Most familiar as used in the movie Babe. But if you listen to the whole thing there is a wonderful ‘chase’ section, which is great for when characters are running away from things. 🙂

Anyone have any other recommendations?

Questions, Questions, Questions

So if anyone has any questions they’d like to ask about my writing, the Land of the Fey, what I’m working on at the moment. Feel free to post them here. For example.

Will you be writing anything anytime soon? – I sure hope so.

Or if you’ve got a burning need to know why Lily is so cranky all the time:).

Currently listening to – Super Massive Black Hole by Muse

Procrastination is my Downfall…

If I had to tell you my worst writing habit it would be procrastination. Just getting my bum on the seat in front of the keyboard and screen seems to be the hardest thing to do. (Hence my 5000 word a day target for August*). Once I’m there it’s figuratively blood, sweat and tears to get anything on the page. If I’m lucky I may get into a flow but it doesn’t seem to happen that often for me.

So I felt almost encouraged in a way when I happened to read Wen Spencer’s blog at the weekend. Wen Spencer is one of my favourite authors. I think she’s incredibly original and has tackled a number of genres and (for me) has never once written a story that didn’t draw me in. I could only hope one day to write half as good as she does. (Bad grammar – sorry! 🙂 )

Wen Spencer’s livejournal – Squatting Rights

It was her post of May 9th that struck a chord. I was sorry to hear she’d had to stop writing due to medical problems. But her image of chipmunks on crack frantically spinning a hamster wheel is one that’s going to stay with me. I obviously have lazy non-addicted chipmunks, possibly I have a guinea pig that is too fat to even get onto said hamster wheel. Hopefully by the end of August I will have a lean mean guinea pig writing machine. 🙂

* – the point is not so much to hit the 5000 word target every day, but to get as close as possible and hopefully maybe hit it once or twice. If I can get any of the rewrites or first drafts completed I will be supremely happy.

Geez…

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted.

:sigh: I suck at blogging. But will be doing my best to start posting again. As Xena would say – don’t apologize, improve.

In August I’m hoping to write 5000 words a day, so currently ramping up to that.

WIP’s at the moment – Demon’s Touch – first draft, rewriting The Bargain.

Writing Universes

As Brief Encounter (1) was from a different universe, I thought I’d post today about some of my worldbuilding rules.

I’m currently writing/plotting in four (I think 🙂 ) universes. Where each universe is a unique time and place with its own worldbuilding rules.

Call For Submissions : Samhain Publishing Space Opera Anthology

*Permission to repost granted. Please repost on your blogs, yahoo groups, shout it from the rooftops, hire sign twirlers, get an airplane to do a flyover with a banner, or even better, get your favorite alien to do a flyover in their spaceship with a banner…*

Get your outer space on! Intergalactic wars, space battles, alien cultures, and love (and lust) across the cosmos.

I’m very pleased to announce an open call for submissions for a new, yet-to-be titled spring 2010 space opera anthology. I’m looking for fast-paced, action-adventure space opera romances. Don’t know what space opera is? Think Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica or my personal favorite, Firefly/Serenity. For more information on space opera, you can check out the entry on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Opera

I’m open to M/F, M/M, or multiples thereof, and any sexual heat level. The only rule is the story should be set mainly or entirely in space and the romance must end happily ever after or happy for now.

The anthology will include novellas from 25,000 to 30,000 words in length and will be released individually as ebooks in April 2010.

Submissions are open to all authors, published with Samhain or aspiring to be published with Samhain. All submissions must be new material—previously published submissions will not be considered. Additionally, manuscripts previously submitted, whether individually or for past anthologies, will not be considered either. Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor.

To submit a manuscript for consideration, please include:

The full manuscript (of 25,000 to 30,000 words) with a comprehensive 2-5 page synopsis. Please include a letter of introduction/query letter. Full manuscripts are required for this as it’s a special project.

As well, when you send your manuscript, please be sure to use the naming convention SpaceOpera_Title_MS and SpaceOpera_Title_Synopsis. This will ensure that your submission doesn’t get missed in the many submissions we receive, and makes it easy for me to find in my ebook reader.

Submissions are open until August 10, 2009 and final decision will be made by August 31, 2009. Please send your submission to editor@samhainpublishing.com and include Space Opera Anthology in the subject line.

Questions can be addressed to Sasha Knight sasha@samhainpublishing.com

Thoughts

Not really a WIP update as such because that’s a little in limbo at the moment.

But I’ve had a serious think about my plans. I have got so many stories I want to write that I need to gain a little focus – lol.

Therefore the plan (currently) is as follows:-

The Land of the Fey was originally conceived as a Trilogy so I’m going to stick to that. Book 2 – Lily and Darvan and Book 3 to lead off Book 2. There are potentially lots of other interesting 🙂 , side stories to follow (Genys and Reynard especially) but I’m going to try and stay strong and hopefully there will be time to squeeze those stories in, in the future. Lily and Darvan’s story will be up next, I have an outline though it needs some reworking following feedback from my crit partners. However, the main plot is down, it’s just a little of the nitty gritty that needs sorting.

The Bargain (working title). I am so looking forward to working on this story and getting it as good as it can possibly be.  There are definitelyother stories in this Universe that I’m just dying to tell. So after I have a working version of Raven, I’ll be looking to write another story leading out of this one.