I · Wear · My · Heart · on · My · Sleeve

Okay, I'm sick and tired of being whiny and dull. Gonna say something interesting now. 'Sides, I've got fresh lychees. Were $6/kg, when usually they're $25/kg.

A few thoughts on my NaNoWriMo novel.

So I'm writing a Regency Romance with magic and I've been putting some thought into my character development.

I'm at work at the moment, waiting for a download to download. While I'm doing that, I'm staring around at the library, twiddling my thumbs, when I come across a poster for Twilight.

It's got Edward and Bella on it. Edward's hovering protectively, almost possessively, over Bella and she's got this "Oh help me, I'm young, stupid and need protection" expression on her face.

I've heard a lot of commentary the past little while concerning the dynamics of Ed & Bel's relationship (blah, blah, her need for him, blah, blah, his need for her, blah blah, is it all influenced by the author's culture, etc) and I've given thought to the dynamics of my two characters and their culture.

So: Regency England. Yes, feminisim had been well and truly born by now, but was still quite young; the majority of women were still functioning under the established patriarchy. For most of them, it had never occurred to them that there could be a different power balance. Or if it had, it was often expressed in a, "I wish I was a man so I could deal with this issue, because the men in my life have fallen short."

Now, meet Alexander, Viscount of Something and soon to be the Earl of Whatever, and the Honourable Miss Merrybelle Lastname, daughter of the Baronet of Somewhere. (As you can tell, I'm not very good with names.)

ETA: did a thimbleful of research today, and they now have names. More on this later, as it's dinnertime.

They are very much products of their society. Now, I've given them a few character traits that I find appealing, and that weren't too far out of whack for feminist agendas of the time, but other than that, they are very much affected by their culture. Al's got a bit of lording about he must do and MB has been brought to London for her first Season.

Al's family are titled, impoverished nobility, and he's got a bastard half-brother running around. Al's father has charged him to go out and find himself a bride, preferrably one with money, as the Earl's pockets are very much to let.

MB's family have wealth, and she comes with a very nice dowry. MB has been raised to be the ideal lady of the ton--a sparkling hostess, squeeze out an heir and a spare, and to keep up appearances.

MB's goal is to find a good husband.

Her definition of a good husband is very different from a 21st Century woman's definition of a good husband. She has been taught that she wants a husband of the same (or higher) social status, preferrably with a title, lands and a good reputation. Love doesn't really figure into it.

All of my characters (members of the ton or London's nobility class) share this sort of view and it dictates their actions and motivations.

And while many a Regency Romance involve MCs flaunting or breaking the rules without severe repercussions, my characters are doing their best to "avoid scandal".

Makes for some interesting dynamics that are well out of place for the 21st Century. Alas, for the first few chapters, my characters are coming off as shallow and avaristic. Oh dear. I shall have to figure out how to temper this.

I want them to remain true to their culture (and maintain a degree of historical accuracy) yet appeal to a C21 reader. This will be a song-and-dance.

Hope I haven't broken too many rules the wrong way.

It's waiting time. Am waiting for many, many things. Feels like those last two (overdue) weeks before the birth of First Ladyship, when I was on maternity leave. Lots and lots of time to spare then, and absolutely no drive to, um, drive those things I could have done with so much spare time.

And now, its nearly the end of the year, and I'm waiting for that, and the holidays and the end of school, and our paperwork for Kneale Manor, and for all those other things I'm waiting for but can't remember what they are.

It's waiting time. I hate waiting. It makes me feel powerless. Sometime I have the zen to endure, maybe even enjoy waiting, but most of the time I don't.

1. I'm behind on NaNoWriMo, because I have lots of stuff I'm doing during the day, and then my nights were taken up by various rehearsals. Those rehearsals have since been cancelled, and now I have some catching up to do.

2. As much as I don't want to, I will have to take up more music students, to ensure a touch more income to help with the impending money crunch that's gonna come after we take on the Killer Mortgage for Kneale Manor, and before we sell [crackerbox] House Kneale. The repayments on a full mortgage (don't ask how much; it's an obscene amount) are a killer. We're hoping House Kneale will sell quickly. Really, we're pretty confident it will, at the right price.

2a. I've had a few of my more onerous "don't wanna be here, but mom's making us be here" music students depart for good, and am now replacing them with impressionable young students. These replacements are young enough that I may be able to brainwash warp enlighten their little minds that music is easy and fun. If I can get to 'em early enough, I'll establish good habits and a love of music so that they'll belong to my delightful student clan and not my painful students coterie.

Am wondering if I should specialise in teaching the very young. I quite enjoy it and am successful at it. There's a trick to teaching young children, and not all music teachers have it.

2b. Four more years until I get my AMusA, and can charge ridiculous amounts of money for lessons.

3. My house is never clean. I can never get it clean enough to keep ahead of the chaos. It's mostly because I must share my workspace with Their Ladyships. And now I can't afford to pay someone to clean it for me, because all our spare money is shoring up against the day when Killer Mortgage comes around. Interest rates are rising in Australia at the moment, and it's giving us some serious willies right now. Meanwhile, house prices are rising, which works well for us. We've already locked in the price for Kneale Manor, so that won't rise on us, but between then and when we sell House Kneale, we're hoping property prices will rise by about $20-30K. The more we can get for our wee li'l crackerbox, the more equity we'll have to dump onto Killer Mortgage.

3a. When one is about to move, it's amazing what one will consider junk. Stuff I would not have dared throw away when I was permanently rooted to House Kneale, suddenly becomes expendable at the thought of relocating to Kneale Manor. I am so sick of having to clean up stuff. Am thinking that if get rid of stuff, then it won't fall on the floor and I won't have to clean it up. Could I dispose of pretty much all of Their Ladyships' toys? They don't really play with them, except for a token few. They won't miss them. I threw out half of First Ladyship's art box the other day, and she doesn't miss it a bit. In fact, I think she prefers the cut-down version.

NaNo aside: My MCs are arguing at the moment, but not the passionate "we'll end up in bed soon" sort of arguing, but the stubborn one-up-man-ship that ends up with bruised egos and tears. Not quite the way I want them to argue.

4. I really want some cake right now. Alas, nothing that sells cake is open at this time of night, and it's too late to bake.

5. The times I wish I had more time to write and to do music are the times I'm doing those very things. Already I've cranked out three thousand words today, and wish I had time to do more. Yesterday I spent an hour practicing piano, and wish I had more time, not just for playing, but composing.

Sometimes I wish I didn't have to clean and sometimes I wish I didn't have to sleep.

Yahknow what the worst part of this entry is? I can't count these words towards NaNoWriMo. Blah.

From pjthompson via mnfaure.

Give me the title of a story I’ve never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got submitted to magazines, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I’d been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

Regency Romance with Magic (functional love charms, etc).

So...

a. Ooh yes!
b. Frell no!
c. Depends on how well you execute it, Your Grace.

So thanks to kmkibble75, I present to you the following 1600-word story,

( 'You got me into this,' the wife said. 'You're getting me out.' )

And thus endeth the series wherein I am motivated to write. Gotta few commercial things with deadlines looming now, so I'll prolly disappear for a few days.

Y'all have fun and tell me some good jokes in the comments.

Gotta writing project.

It's mostly done, barring a few bits.

I hates it.

This is a very blah project. No, I cannot abandon it, as I have a deadline. No, I cannot start again, rework it, redo it, reimagine it, because I've been trying to do that for the past month.

It sucks. Of all the projects of this nature that I have done, this one sucks the most because the parameters given were bad to start with.

Not my fault, and I was never in a position to change the parameters.

There's simply not enough space for me to stick in the comedy I desperately need. I must rely on caricature and cheesy sit-com stuff, and that's making me go "ick". My trademark comedy is sorely missing. This is due in part to one of my source materials seriously lacking in any benevolent comic potential (as any attempt to turn the source material into comedy will backfire in a very ugly way) and one of the other source materials isn't quite compatible with the first.

However, the music rocks, especially the character solo at the end of Act I. (Can I write a tearjerker or can I write a tearjerker?)

Song in Act II isn't so crash-hot, and the closing song is a recap of the opening song, and nothing spectacular. Opening song's a spectacle, though.

My only comfort is that I know the other writers with other projects in the series will suffer the same agony as I.

So tell me: are the following lines a sign of hope or a sign of doom if I say they're the funniest ones I could come up with?

HYRUM
Wait. You're Super Mum? THE Super Mum?

MUM
Oh, good heavens no! I was "Somewhat Marvelous Woman"!
Super Mum was far too good for her own good. She
tried to do everything and in the end, she couldn't.
None of us will ever forget what happened at the
School Fundraising Bake Sale.

(Mum and Hyrum bow their heads in "A Moment of Silence" for 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...)

While illness and busyness have kept me from cranking out stories for some last lines, I am working on them.

maradydd's last line inspired a big world-building story. This is a first draft, and I don't know if I did the idea in my head much justice. It's a 3K story, rather long for an exercise of this kind, more of a character piece than a plot piece.

Still, hope you enjoy ( what happens after the war. )

Today's submission stats (according to Sonar):

Pieces out on submission: 5
Pieces currently not out on submission, but will be come 31 Aug: 6
As of 31 Aug, pieces shy of my goal of Number of Pieces Out: 1
Words written yesterday: 0 Alas.

I may have a replacement laptop pending, dependent on many things, such as His Grace having one knocking about in his Computer Science Lab. He'll have to see.

Meanwhile, I managed to pull most everything off poor old cindery ItsyBitsy yesterday (mostly music, as one of my music students had stuck a couple of her sonatas on there), and I suspect there's a couple of things in My Documents that I'll have to move from there to Shared Docs before the monitor dies completely.

Alas, requiem for a dying laptop. It'll probably function very well as a desktop, assuming that as long as the lid is closed, the laptop will not issue forth Magic Smoke.

Meanwhile, I look forward to a solid-state mini computational device in the near future.

Today I have only three things pending: chiro appt, an audition for something I don't know I really want to do, and a bit of much-needed Visiting Teaching assistance. And then the rest of the day is mine. I've already practiced the piano for an hour this morning (tho may squeeze in a bit more before Sacrament Meeting tomorrow) and I shall have time for writing.

Will report back later with details.

1. I'm sick. Again. I had only juust got over six weeks of horrible coughing (spent one blissful cough-free night), only to catch a headcold from Their Ladyships. Argh.

2. This week has been super-busy, with the exception of last night. All my music students cancelled, and I was soooo happy abt it. I took the night off and crashed in front of the TV for some much-needed healing rest.

3. I have written a grand total of 1K words this week. That is more than I expected to write. The reason for so much wordage when my week has been crazy-busy is...

4. His Grace has had to be at work every day this week by 3am. This means we've been putting the whole family to bed at 8, sometimes 7:30. (Ladyships normally go to bed at 8:30pm). We'd all sleep well, then he'd be up before 3, and I'd snooze in until about 4 or so, then get up in a fit of insomnia, so I'd go into the front room with the unnetworked laptop and write until the battery went flat.

5. Will post story later when finished.

6. Have come across a whole buncha anthologies with themes I tend to write, so I've got a bit of work to look forward to over the next couple of weeks.

6a. I must get my act together and work harder at cranking out wordage. One cannot win a Hugo if one isn't writing stories in the first place. I have only myself to blame.

7. Am going to experiment with making angel food cake in the crock pot. I have no idea how it will turn out. Made macaroni & cheeze yesterday. May attempt that again after I adjust the recipe.

8. I have recently learned that the relationship one has with one's fans is a professional one, and should be treated as such. While one's fans may adore one, and would like nothing better than for the relationship to become a personal one, really, it's best for all concerned if such a relationship remains a benevolent professional one.

9. I am no longer taking any new music students. If a current student chooses to leave off lessons, I will not be replacing them with a new one. I acknowledge that this may mean I might end up with no students eventually, and I'm fine with that. While I would miss the extra money, I am in desperate need of the time. I will put that time towards my own piano practice or writing. In the future I may change this policy, especially after I earn my AMusA (in abt four years' time).

10. I know some Young Women who need to earn money for a big convention coming up next year. I wonder if I should offer to pay them to come do light household chores about my place? AU$20/hr if they're interested. (YM also welcome too. M'lawns need mowing and th'garden weeding.)

And that means trying to market some of my work.

Recently had a "this story is good but not for us" reject of a short story that, I confess, is a difficult one to place.

Is it publishable? I believe so.

Where is it publishable? Hmmm... that's the hard part. What does one do with a Science Fiction Inspirational Romance?

(I only just learned the difference between Christian and Inspirational Romance and have determined that this story is indeed more an Inspirational than Christian.)

Hit the Christian/Inspirational markets? Well, you'd think that'd be the best place, but trying to find a paying Inspirational Romance market for short stories is nigh impossible. Plenty of book publishers out there, but short stories? Pfft. (Ditto for Romance, although there are more short story markets out there for Romance than Inspirational. But nothing like SFF or Mystery/Crime.)

This is no to say there aren't lots of Inspirational Romance stories out there. It seems that the big thing among Christian/Inpsirational authors is to post their short stories on their web sites.

Now, there is a writer's marketplace book called Sally Stuart's Christian Writer's Market Guide, but I have been unable to find general market listings online devoted to Inspirational short story markets (the Inspirational versions of Ralan, Duotrope, Spicy Green Iguana or Quintamid). I have no desire to go out and buy a writer's guideline to a genre I really don't have much interest writing in. The fact that I came out with a short story that's strongly Inspirational is probably a one-off thing, even so, it sprung from a Skiffy premise.

(Okay, I did find a magazine (just one, though) that would publish SFIR, but it's currently closed to subs. Shame, as the editor had a story published in an anthology I was also published in.)

Am wondering if I am better off marketing this story to the SFF genre. Sure, it has heavy Inspirational elements, but that's simply the worldbuilding.

I'm afraid that SFF editors might see the heavy Inspirational-based worldbuilding and be turned off. (The SFF world, while normally a lovely, open-minded bunch, tend to get a little closed-minded when it comes to scents of Christianity.)

Ah well. Let's see if I can get an SFF market to bite. If not, it will buy me enough time to research somewhere else.

The line given me by mnfaure gave me a great story. I only hope this first draft does it justice.

( You'll need a bit of luck on the moon. )

I received some very good last lines.

So, despite being wracked with a lung infection which has caused me to hack out my internal organs, pull muscles and cause me to lose sleep, I've been able to crank out a few stories.

dorianegray's ( closing line inspired this story. )

Inspired by two sequential posts, one by martinlivings, the other by ccfinlay.

When people look for inspiration, they often ask for opening lines. I've seen it in writing groups, workshops, brainstorming sites, etc.

Instead, I want you to give me the closing line of a story. I'll see what I can do with it.

So I'm sick. A chest cold, yesterday thought to be mild, but what has worsened during the night. Also, plagued with PMS.

Interesting thing, though. My brain is working and I am inspired to write. Normally, I'm horrid at writing during PMS, pregnancy, or any other hormone-related condition, and yesterday was no different.

But when I'm ill, I get creative.

I don't know if it has something to do with my neurochemistry, or the fact that when I'm sick I tend not to do other things (like exercise), thus freeing my attention and time for writing.

So this afternoon when I am doped up on all all sorts of chest cold-relieving drugs, I shall sit down and a computer of my choice and crank out some wordage.

See if I don't.

raecarson wrote an excellent post on Writer's Jealousy.

(Just for the record, I've always loffed Rae. She is Teh Awesome.)

The post and the comments are all very interesting read. Go read it if you haven't.

Got me to thinking--that self-introspection type of thinking. I once experienced Writer's Jealousy. And the bitterness against publishers that often goes along with it, and the sour grapes and so on...

It was early on in my career, and shortly after I'd moved to another country where the social structure wasn't what I was used to, blah, blah, and I had a hard time adjusting and coping. I wasn't having as much progress in my career as I wanted, and instead of picking up my game (which is what I really should have been doing), I started laying blame everywhere but me.

Yet I kept slogging on in my apprenticeship, because I had The Dream, and The Dream had already proven its resilience through Grad-course writing classes (talk about an incestuous hive of jealous go-nowhere writers!) and almost-but-not-quite television scripts.

I hung out with the local band of writers, I went to the local writers' festivals, and I maintained my ties with previous writer orgs I had from my home country.

One day (dunno when), I noticed a contrast between all the groups I associated with. Half the groups were a bunch of bitter whiner-babies and the other half weren't. Of the half that were, very few were published and scantily at that. The half that weren't whiner-babies? They had an increasing level of member success. We weren't talking half-baked self-publishing stuff, but some major book contracts and repeated short-story successes.

"Oh," I said to myself as I received enlightenment in a bowl of rice. "Attitude is everything."

I learned the following lessons:

1. Do not be jealous of other writers. It is not skill and beauty alone that determine success. It's a whole host of reasons.
2. Do not be bitter against publishers. It is not their job to reward a job well done, like a teacher giving out A+'s. It's their job to take a gamble on a commodity they believe they can convince people to buy. Art has nothing to do with it.
3. Ditch the whiner-babies and go hang out with the success stories. It will rub off, especially if you pay attention.
4. Ultimately, I, alone, am responsible for putting myself in the place where success will find me.
5. Writing stuff will get me somewhere. Whining will not.


What writerly lessons have you learned?

Just so you know I've written over 1200 words of fiction this week, ones I'm happy to keep for now.

Goal reached.

I promise I'll write more before the end of the week.

Time to whine about (lack of) writing again.

This week I got about five hundred new words of fixon. Granted, most of them sucked because they had no voice to them. (Do give me points for them being grammatically and logically correct.)

I hate it when that happens to me. If I'm not in the zone (for reasons usually involving hormones), I lose my voice.

So I'll be cutting out those five hundred words and tossing them into the "counts towards the million" pile, 'cause I can't use 'em anywhere else.

The other week when I was horribly sick with a cold, I had entire days of nothing but staying home and being sick. I got so much writing and editing done. My soul was happy.

Now that I've had a taste of writing as much as I can, I find I want more.

But regular life has resumed. I want to write more, am constantly wishing I could write more, but I don't.

( Several factors contribute to this: )

Now, am I doing the right thing for letting these things be more important than writing? Family and day job having a higher priority is understandable. But the rest? I'm starting to regret having so many music students, and I already regret that housework must be done.

I should make a goal to write a thousand words this week. Preferrably good ones.

I feel like a writer today, even though I haven't cranked out any words yet. (Don't worry; I will.)

I have one story rewrite request from an editor and another short story that wants to be written. I've got two on the Orkshop, but I'll let them sit and moulder for awhile.

When one is not thinking about one's writing, one is thinking about writing. I don't mean, "Oh, I should be writing," but rather, meditating upon the craft and putting two and two together in one's head.

I find my most successful stories are the ones that reveal themselves to me backwards--IOW, I know the ending first. I'm told mystery writers work this way. I don't blame 'em. When I know the ending of a story, then I can work backwards, laying out all the events that lead up to that.

But if I work front-to-back, I end up with weak endings. Why? Dunno. Once I figure that out, I will have solved another journeyman's problem.

Meanwhile, working stuff out back-to-front seems to create the most satisfactory stories. This may be because I already know what the reader needs to know.

Back later (maybe tomorrow) with a short story. Really, I'm procrastinating housework, exercise and editing those stories that need it.

Top three things I like to hear from editors:

1. "Dear Your Grace, Thanks for sending us this story. We'd like to buy it for our next issue..."

2. "We liked the story, but we had a few questions [explanation here]. If you rewrite it, we'll look at it again..."

3. "Although we won't be buying this story, we'd like to see more work from you."


Bottom three things I hate hearing from editors:

8. "Dear author, [generic rejection slip]"

9. "Dear past contributor, thank you for your interest in our magazine, however, due to [whatever reason], we're closing our doors and issue 17 will be our last..."

10. [silence]

New words written: 500
Word count of story edited: 2600 (includes the 500 new words)
Chores accomplished: 3 (dishes washed, floor under piano swept, old vertical blinds thrown away)
Television watched: 1 episode of Robin Hood The Guy of Gisborne Show. (Guy is good for my health.)
Music lessons taught: 2
Chores not done: 5
Regrets: 0
Words I wish I wrote: lots more.
Drugs taken: 2 (one aspirin, one panadol laced with codeine)
Muscles hurting after yesterday's personal training session: 600
Cats fed: 1
Daughters fed: 2
Daughters fed proper, healthy food: 0

Na' bad.