madness

"Writing is a form of madness. It must be exercised to be controlled."
Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Current Projects

aka What is Sizzling in my Brain Pan

I'm trying to write without falling into that place where I start to hate the words. This means I'm also dabbling in several projects to avoid stagnation. For some writers this is a kiss of death. For most this is probably ill advised. Regardless, these are the ideas I've slapped onto paper to call them mine.

What I'm Writing:
Pyrophage -aka Talia. 2nd Draft done, percolating between heavy edits and some large formatting issues that need to be addressed. Genre: Urban Fantasy, Dystopian Sci-fi. Series. 1st of 6. (Burn baby BURN!)

Fiends Rise - aka GIANT LIZARDS EAT MANHATTAN  1st draft 30% done. Outlines are done, (most) world building done. Hurting my brain so I'm taking a break. (Related to Pyrophage. Same world. 2 of 6.)

Anna Undying - YA Vampire Fic, Modern Hungary. (Castles+Cellphones=awesome) Hard outline done. MC fleshed out, secondary characters falling into place.

Laboratory 6 - Short story. Urban Fantasy. Underground science compound, Emus, Raptors, and science geeks. I'm panstering this. I'll probably make an outline, but it's a short, so I'm trying to see if I can wing a first draft w/out too much pre-planning. (Candy Coated Emu. 'Nuff Said.)

Pending Book Reviews:
50 Shades of Grey  (3/10 stars)
50 Shades Darker (I liked it more than I expected)

Suzanne Collins:
Hunger Games, (7/10 stars)
Catching Fire (5/10 stars)<-This may change. I want to reread.
Mockingjay (2/10 stars) (YES. REALLY.)

Chuck Wendig: Mockingbird (Really awesome. Need to re-read critically before rating)
Seanan McGuire: Ashes of Honor (<3! But needs a 2nd read.)

Twilight.... (Sigh. Yes, I may actually read the whole thing. If only to say YES, I read it, now STOP ASKING ME.)

Maybe some Charlaine Harris to round out the reviews, but frankly I already have SO MANY to do. Just... yeah. Give me time.

Also, this week was my birthday! (October 3rd) So I may be receiving even MORE BOOKS as gifts. I have been subsequently more busy as a result. Hopefully I'll be putting more work in here in the future. But first I have to plan time to sleep, meds, and all that jazz.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Intentions

I apologize for not having more new content up here. Blogging is one of those odd little activities that I wind up having a lot of feelings and plans, but I find myself juggling doubts and worries as well. It becomes one of those semi-competitive things where it isn't that I want to be better than the other blogs I read, I just don't want to be that much worse.
I'm a pantser, fly by the seat of my whimsy sort of blogger, but I started questioning that too. For while I want to maintain the freedom to just climb up on my blog and say whatever I'm thinking about, I recognize that in sitting down, typing something out and hitting send. Well... it's not the best way to present quality writing.
Then my brain starts to worry that people who read my unedited and sometimes sub-par blogging will assume that this is how I WRITE, and dear god they're JUDGING ME! What if they assume my book (which isn't even finished or being shopped yet) is TERRIBLE based on my mad slapdash approach??

This led to me not blogging, anything, because after I wrote it I'd set it down to edit 'later' and then I'd spend all my time editing, revising and writing on my MS that the blog entries just got abandoned. So clearly that much planning isn't going to work either.

So I'm going to compromise. I'm going to write my blog posts nicely, and neatly as I can in Word. I'll check my spelling and commas like a good girl, and then after a quick copy edit I will post them with the understanding that this is NOT my best work, but I am saving my best work for my actual novels. I'm not saying I'll deliberately put anything here that's not a unique idea, the writing I put here I am to have good content. I just don't have the sort of focus to regularly update a blog with perfectly polished entries.

Books are easier. Books I plan the end and middle and beginning before I start, I poke and prod and write and rewrite. My blog is more a stream of consciousness ramble that starts out with a point, eventually gets there, then sometimes continues on to a new question. It's not the prettiest most planned thing in the world.

But frankly, I need it. I need a place to write the words that are topical and important to me without having to worry about if it'll still be relevant in three weeks or a month, or a year. I want to write about what matters when it matters so I can work these thoughts out in catharsis, and maybe even spawn a meaningful discussion.

I intend to have more regular content here. I intend to link to other blogs that are relevant and interesting. I intend to do vocal, interesting, and possibly NSFW book reviews. (If I review a book with profanity, there might be profanity in the review. If I review erotica, there will be discussion of sex scenes. Don't be scared.) I intend to rant about possibly triggery subjects like rape culture, the phenomenon of 'the creeper' (related), and how to be less awkward in public (A process I'm still learning.).
I will probably discuss depression/anxiety/OCD my specific problems with those, how they relate to writing. I also hope to use this space for occasional musings on things that I love, things that inspire.
It's very likely that I won't hold myself to any sort of specific format, some posts might be long, some short, others might simply be a link and a quote to something I think is thought provoking.

All said and done, my goal is to use this space, to add to my scope here, and not just limit the freedom of my thoughts to twitter. This will be me, uncensored and not super focused. It'll be me trying to gather my thoughts, internet wandering, writing, and reading to one place so anyone interested can join me. Hope you enjoy that.

Additionally... this is like a New Years Resolution. I really hope I can stick to it. :-)
Liz