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VEDA 2013 – Day 5: Life, London and North Korea
Using my life experiences to help my writing along is something I really enjoy doing, even if it can get emotional. Also, was well-informed by Hank Green’s video on North Korea, and love all the Londoniness of Maureen Johnson’s “The Name of the Star.”
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VEDA 2013 – Day 3: Hurting My Characters
I run errands, get frustrated at “The Name of the Wind” (but that just means IT’S REALLY GOOD!!!), make goat noises, mishear lyrics, and talk about how hard it is for me to heap hardships upon my characters.
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Goodbye, Lizzie (and the Pioneering of Trans-Media Entertainment)
Yesterday marked the 100th and last episode of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. We are sad. In case you don’t know what this wonderful thing is, it’s an adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, modernized and told in the format of a video blog, with characters interacting on screen as well as over Twitter and Facebook and Tumbler, and they interact with their fans as well. And it is…was…AMAZING. The writing, the actors, the crew, everything was stupendous. And the melange of platforms drew you into the story even more than would be possible if you were experiencing it through only one medium. I’ve been sitting on this blog…
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Infusing my Writing Process with More Technology
I’m super pleased with a new plot/story organizing software I found called SuperNotecard. It’s pretty much amazing and it’s helping me organize Book 2! Also, for some reason WordPress ate my awesome entry on “The Butterfly Circus.” Will remedy when I recover from the shock ;P
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A Good Nightmare Always Begins in a Dark Cellar with a Coffin
Zzzzzzzz…. The pirate video ate up so much time that I’m finally getting back to editing Draft 3! I just felt like writing a real entry, since all I’ve done the last two weeks was tweet, make promises, break them, and eventually upload a pirate movie 😉 I have plans for other entries, but this one is getting back to the basics, where I actually write about writing. It’s been hard the last few weeks to get writing in, between visiting friends and work, so tonight I’ve started to be a bit smarter with my time. In addition to editing, I’m taking notes. Why? I live in mortal dread of…
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Writing Dialogue Tips
Had this convo with a writer friend Ben, who I’ve collaborated with on blogs before, and figured I’d post up what I told him, for anyone else who’s curious about dialogue. PS: I’m planning a new vlog for posting on the 19th! Ben: How do you handle dialogue? Me: I write it as it comes out of my head, depending on what I believe a character would say, and then read it aloud later. Often I don’t read it aloud til [someone] reminds me, but it REALLY helps you figure out how it flows [to read it aloud]. Ben: I bet. That’s a good idea. I cringe at all my…
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Getting Stuck and Unsticking Tactics
That’s probably my biggest writing hurdle right now, so close to the end of editing and modifying Draft 2 (squee!). I always get stuck somewhere in the plot, big or small hurdles. Either the character or the story or something isn’t going the way I want it to go to get x result, and for whatever reason my exhausted little bean of a noggin can’t process it correctly. It’s not exactly writer’s block, since I know what I’m trying to accomplish in the big picture, but the little picture details are getting too precise and I need to put them into some kind of logical order for the big things…
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My First Interview
INTERVIEW with writer Christina Nelson, author of The Sign of the Sparrow, first in a medieval-esque fantasy fiction book series focusing upon young teen Charlotte Imadara, who comes of age in a mysterious world filled with complex surprises. Radiating an abundance of positive energy as she approaches the table, writer Christina Nelson sits down for the interview at a popular luncheon spot. Her engaging smile highlights an attractive face, bright hazel eyes and past-the-shoulder dark hair. Raised outside of Richmond, Virginia and a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, Nelson is mid-twenty-something. For the interview, she is comfortably dressed in a simple, beige-and-brown print sundress. Silver hoops at…
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The Show Must Go On
Lots of things to do today, and the brilliant writing ideas are lacking, so yeah, good timing, actually. The ideas should come once I have an opportunity to stay pretty much solely focused on writing. However, while waiting for that, I’ve discovered StoryCasting.com, where you can draw up a dream cast of your favorite actors to portray characters in your favorite books! Sadly, they don’t have a choice of obscure actors, but it’s really fun!
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Jeanette Bennett (and Wendell Howe)
Jeanette Bennett received a new lease on life when she took a pause from a “real” job and began pursuing her passion as a writer. She’s been gaining notoriety on the web for less than a year now, which is a testament to her popular writing experiment! She’s been seeing how well she can write a story on twitter though the eyes of one of her characters, and it’s safe to say that she’s been wildly successful! A bit befuddled? Well, if you’ve never heard of Dr. Wendell Howe, the time traveler from the 27th century, then I pity your loss. But weep no more! It just so happens that…
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Writing My Heart Out (with the cunning use of smoke screens!)
The one thing I love about writing fantasy is this: I can write about whatever I want. Literally. I create my own world, my own rules, and populate it with creatures and peoples, and it’s all done to my taste. Sometimes it’s just a creative idea that comes out of nowhere, nagging at me, demanding to be put onto paper. Sometimes it’s wish fulfillment, sometimes it’s getting out emotions. But to me, it’s the greatest gift I could possess. It fulfills me like little else can. Writing is my life experience put on the page, and I pour out my heart through my characters. Still, whatever I put in, I…
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I meant REALLY listen!
I had a really great phone convo with one of my dear writer friends last night. We hadn’t chatted in a while, and it felt good to catch up. We know each others’ writing weaknesses, and she helps me so much (I can only hope it’s mutual!). We talked about life and stories, and she encouraged me to keep growing as a writer, which will lead to some necessary tweaking in my narrative. I caught a glimmer of golden truth today when I had a chance to scribble some thoughts down. It was a truth that I knew well, but it still hadn’t sunk in. I was continuing with an…
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When Characters Have a Mind of Their Own
I was talking with another writer friend last night, and he was telling me how frustrating it is when characters develop and change as you write them, and they mess up all your nice plans for the story’s direction. There can be nothing more frustrating, trust me :-), yet I like to look at it as a challenge. You really WANT to listen to your characters, or if you’d rather, your intuition about your characters. It’s so important if you want your story to be genuine, original and true. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, especially to creative types who like to plan ahead! Some of my characters start off one…
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The string around the finger
I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe […]/Oft turning others’ leaves, to see if thence would flow/Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burn’d brain./But words came halting forth […]/Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,/Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite–“Fool,” said my Muse to me, “look in thy heart and write.” ~Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil & Stella This has sort of been the story of my writing life lately. I’ve been trying to figure out certain characters, certain plots…picking my brain to shreds to come up with something perfect. I have to remember that nothing is ever perfect the…
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I’m a shockwave ready to kill
Draft two is coming along nicely: I keep coming up with better ways to do scenes, except for the fact that it totally disrupts the order I had before, and I need to figure out how to make it work all over again *facepalm* Am I just making it harder for myself, just because I want something special? Figured out some religious and mythological history about the area one of my characters was born in. It explains a lot about why things are the way they are, and why he turned out the way he did. I saw a music vid today that totally captured a slice of this same…
Artist, Author, Geek