Friday Funnies

It's better to reach for the stars and land on the roof, 

than to reach for the roof and land in the garbage. 

~via my cousin, Jaime...not sure where she got it

I would never encourage anyone to be a writer. It's too hard.

~Eudora Welty

John Irving on writing and drinking:

Drunks ramble; so do books by drunks.

The first book I wrote was the best-selling book of the year, and the second book dropped dead. What can we learn from this? Absolutely nothing. But if you keep on submitting and never give up, the chances re that someday somebody will eventually buy your work. 

Unless they don't.

~ Dan Greenburg

Book Contest

I'm always a fan of contests, especially those with free books as prizes :) Head on over to Steph Bowe's blog Hey, Teenager of the Year for a chance to win three awesome books. She's taking entries until Feb 14th and there are several ways of getting extra entries (like blogging about it) ;-D

Prizes listed are The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, Liar by Justine Larbalestier and Paper Towns by John Green.

So hurry on over! 

Ode to Spam Email

Oh Spam Email, how I hate thee,

Let me count the ways:

*she takes a deep breath*
Eh, forget it - there's too many to say.

I hate how you clog my inbox fair,
whatever you're selling, I really don't care.

I hate the hope my impatient heart feels
With visions of contracts and multiple book deals.

I hate to open those emails and see
All your spam advertisements. Would you just leave me be!!?

I'm waiting for emails about my life's work,
I don't want your junk mail, you mean, teasing jerks!

When I open my mail, I don't want to see
thirty spam emails staring back at me.

The only emails I care to receive,
Are those that are not from my greatest pet peeve.

So to my spammers, I beg you to refrain,
Just leave me alone, I'm going insane!

When the Ingredients Just Don't Mix

 

Have you ever been working on a story that has it all - great idea, cool characters, interesting storyline, exciting plot....yet when you put it all together, it just doesn't look the way you envisioned? There's just something missing that you can't quite put your finger on. Or maybe the story fizzles out long before it should. Looking at each element separately, you should come up with a total that equals success. But instead, it's coming up looking like...well, a mangled skinny cat that looks more alien than furball :D

What do you do?

I've been lucky enough not to have this happen yet, at least to a devastating degree. Though I have written stories that three chapters in I've either lost interest in the story or just don't know where to go from there. And let's face it, if the author is losing interest in the story, there's probably not much hope the reader will want to read it.

Most of the time, the sad little story I'm working on gets put in a "I'll deal with it later" file and never sees the light of day again. For example, I started a book, probably two years ago now, that I started out very excited about. It was a historical romance (my favorite genre to write at the time). I had found a very cool real life story about a 13th century woman that I was going to adapt into my romance.

It had action, adventure, romance, fight scenes, chases, a corrupt high powered priest, a good guy love interest with a dangerous and criminal past, heartbreaking scenes and gorgeous imagery (if I do say so myself *ahem*).

But three chapters into this literary masterpiece, I stumbled. I knew where I wanted my story to go, but wasn't exactly sure how to get there. I had points A and Z but all the points in between were a little blurry. I had all the elements I needed to create an awesome story, but for some reason when I tried to string them together, I got the mangy cat instead of the gorgeous fashion model.

So, instead of being a good little writer and working out the bugs that were mutating my fabulous project, I moved on to something else (which, incidently, had the same problems and also got shelved.) I think I did this three or four times before I finally found a story I was passionate enough about to work through the kinks and get it finished.

And that was my missing ingredient. Passion. Sure, I had all the basic elements, but if you don't have the glue that holds it all together, the passion to stick with a story no matter what nasty hairballs come your way, all the perfect elements in the world won't amount to anything.

Writing is hard. Writing an entire novel, from start to finish with all the edits in between, is a daunting, time-consuming, goliath task and if you don't have the passion it takes to complete it, you are going to end up with a file full of half-finished stories.

Now, I still plan on finishing those stories one day. Like I said, the right elements are all there. I have what I need to make those half-baked ideas something really special...I just need to find the passion to finish them :)

Have you had this happen? Do you file them away for another day or discard them completely? Do you ever go back? How many mangy kitties are hiding in your file box and did any ever make fashion model status? :)

Ten Word Tuesday

Best advice on writing I've ever received: Finish. ~Peter Mayle

Sweet Awards

My fabulous crit buddy Christine gave me an award the other day - thanks so much!! :) And it's a yummy looking one too :D

 

I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. Soooo:

1: My kids

2. My hubby and family (my mom and sis are the world's best cheerleaders)

3. Writing "the end" and realizing I've done what few accomplish

4. Settling into my favorite couch corner with a good book, when the house is quiet and I'm the only one up

5. CHOCOLATE :D

6. Music - I love to dance, I love to sing, I love to sit with my eyes closed and just let it fill me to the core....I just prefer to be alone while I'm doing all of the above because I tend to look a bit goofy ;-D

7. My friends and crit buddies - I'd never make it through this crazy game without them

8. A really good joke - I love to laugh. I turn red in the face and occasionally snort, and if I'm laughing really hard I sound like an old car that just doesn't want to start, which makes other people laugh which makes me laugh harder....ahhh, good times :D

9. Nature - I could sit and stare at it forever (I'd be more specific, but I could fill a book with the things I love about it) :)

10. My dreams - sometimes I don't want to wake up :)

And to share the love, I'd like to give the award, first of all, to a few people who are always there for me when I need someone to make me smile (Christine, you already received this award but just wanted you to know, you'd be top of the list) :) = to my crit buddies, who are always there to support me - Bethany, Bonny, and Elana (plus a few more who I love to death but who don't have blogs).

And second of all, I'd really like to give this award to all of my followers. I can't tell you how much I love to log on and see all the lovely comments you leave me. Definitely one of the highlights of my day :) You all rawk! Thanks so much.

A Day Late and a Story Short

Okay, so have you ever missed the idea boat? Gone to jump on board a brand new ship just to discover it sailed the day before? Had a completely awesome idea that you just knew that no one else on the face of the earth has ever had before? You get so excited you grab the nearest pen or computer and madly scribble notes and ideas, you spend hours researching, you let your crit buddies know that the best thing they have ever read is on its way, you sit and you type and you type...and then you take a break. You pick up a book that everyone has been raving about - and about half way through, you realize IT'S YOUR STORY!  (and how was that for one long awesome sentence *ahem* )

Well, this has happened to me, on more than one occasion. Maybe not quite that drastically. Somewhere deep inside I know that there really isn't such a thing as a totally brand new idea. Just new ways of spinning old tales. But still, sometimes it's a bit of a shock to be reading a story and have elements of your own story rear up and hit you in the face. Especially if the similarities are strong and it's a story you've never heard of before in your life.

So what do you do when this happens? Do you scrap the whole idea and start over? Do you continue on your merry way and not worry about it all?

For me, I think it depends on how striking the similarities are. It really is possible to have almost the exact same idea as someone you have never met, whose work you have never read. It's a bit depressing when it happens, a little disappointing - but for me, I usually sit and think about how I can tweak it, how I can spin the idea to make it even more different than the story that beat me to the punch.

I mean, why did Stephanie Meyer go so big? Were vampire love stories a new idea? Not even close. But vampires that can go in the sun and sparkle like a diamond? Yeah, that's a new twist. If you give ten writers an assignment to write a ghostly love story, you are going to get ten completely different tales, even if there are very similar elements.
 
So I try not to worry about it, for the most part. Yes, I do try some tweakage, and I make it a point not to read books that are in the same story arena as the one I am working on, just in case I accidentally pick something up. I'll read YA if I'm writing YA, but if I'm working on a YA ghost story, I'm not going to read any ghost stories until my book is completely done (though I probably wouldn't go reading ghost stories anyways...I live in a very old house and have a ridiculously overactive imagination) :D

But I think the best thing you can do is just write. Chances are, you'll be fine. If not, revisions are always fun ;-D

So how do you handle it?