Happy Halloween!

Today, I plan to clean the house, eat chocolate until I get sick, and catch up on all the little things that need doing before NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

It's here! Okay, almost!

This week,I've outlined (but only a roughly.) I've talked the story over with several trusted people. I've put together a play list. I've warned the family that things will probably be falling apart for the next month. I think I might be ready for the mad frenzy that will be NaNoWriMo.

I don't know how I'll get everything done. There will still be the family, the job, the house. And I'm adding in close to 2000 words a day? I just don't know if I will make it, but I'm sure gong to try!

How about you, friends? Are you doing NaNo? What have you done to get ready? And as a bonus question for me, what songs take you back to high school or the emotions you felt back then?

Obvious to You, Amazing to Others

One of my good friend, Krista at Mother, Write. Repeat., hosts a contest every once in a while, called An Agent's Inbox. The basic idea is that writers with complete, ready to submit manuscripts can post their query letter and first 250 words. The Agent reads the entries just as if it was in their inbox and responds accordingly. I like to read the entries and the commentary because it gives me things to look at for honing my own work.

This time, it left me feeling a little down. And it's kind of silly, and obvious, but here's why. The agent said that things that are similar to my idea (not in essentials, but in general themes) were really getting overdone. It's the "ordinary teenager discovers something amazing and unique about themselves and has to save the world" kind of thing. But also, different. I read comments about how frequently that theme is presented and it left me wondering what I had to offer. What is unique about my idea? How is it going to stand out in the midst of all the other similarly themed books?

I mentioned it to my husband. And he sent me this:



And I felt better. I hope it helps you, too.

More than the Sum of its Parts

So, I have a job. It's a part-time, online job. Basically, there's this company that sells video clips to people. They hire contractors to assign search terms to the clips and write descriptions of what the clip is about. It stretches my writing mind to find just the right words to describe a 10 second segment of video. But that's not the point of this post. The point is, lots of different companies supply clips to the company I work for. Like Sony. And Paramount. And BBC. And Discovery. A lot of the time, the clips are just random, but sometimes, I recognize where they came from. Like today.

This morning, I worked on some clips from a very memorable popcorn summer disaster movie of 2009. And I could tell that the clips came from this movie. They were all chroma key. (There was a blue screen behind many of them to add special effects later.) There was even a couple of shots of a toy boat being capsized in a puddle. (Does that give it away? I probably shouldn't give it away.) All of these shots had been unimproved. They were completely raw, as they might have been sent to the editor. And I couldn't help but think of my writing.

What I saw this morning was pretty random. Unpolished. And if you added it together as it was, you wouldn't have much. But, with some polish and flash, a bit of editing and storyline, you end up with something that is so much more than just a collection of images. And that's what we are trying to do with our writing. We want to bring everything together, with some spit and polish. And then have the readers bring their experience and expectations to it. Together, we make our stories more than what they would have been.

Pushing through

Last year, I had a story idea. It was beautiful. And different from everything else. And I tried to write it. And failed miserably. It was devastating. And in a way, it contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for writing for a long time. I lost some of my confidence. After having two great stories that I had finished drafts for and worked on revisions with, and loved to pieces, it was hard to have something that I felt had failed completely.

Well, a year has gone by. I've pulled out that idea and dusted it off. I've bounced it off some people. I've honed the concept. Switched it around to something more workable. And I still love it. I still want to tell that story. And that is what I will be doing during NaNoWriMo this year. I believe that I'll be able to get more accomplished on it this time. I think I might make it all the way. It should be really great.

What about you, friends? Have you ever lost your confidence in writing? Have you ever had to put aside an idea that you loved? How did you pick yourself up again?

For a friend

There's nothing new from me today. All of the family has a horrible (and I mean horrible) cold. My brain is kind of absent because of it.

But, there is news in the blogosphere. One of my first blogging friends, Shannon O'Donnell, announced the best news today. She's got an agent! I love it when my friends succeed. Congrats, Shannon, and best of luck getting your book out there!

Go and congratulate her at http://shannonkodonnell.blogspot.com/2011/10/announcement.html

Gearing up

We're at t - two weeks and counting down to Midnight, November 1st. So what, you say? It's the start of National Novel Writing Month! Are you signed up? I've been a participant twice now. I finished once, but was pregnant last year, and that interfered with my writing time. This, year, I want to do it or die!

I've got two weeks to prep for the onslaught. Plan out my daily schedule. Figure out where the story is going. Plot. Characters. Settings. You know. All that stuff that makes a good book.

So, here's my question for you, friends? How do you develop your stories? Do you use the character interview? The Snowflake method? Do you pants it? And do you have any suggestions for me?