Writing Status: Anarchy

My muse is in full anarchy mode. I'm pulling my hair out. I got a sense she was starting to revolt when I posted my Veered off the Main Road entry, but it's official. Sadly, I don't think she even knows what direction SHE'S going in.

Last night was all over the place. By the end of the evening I'd given up any hope of working on Damarion, blurted out 3 horrible story ideas, 2 "maybe has potential" stories, and 1 "what the Wisconsin?" idea. Then I thought I'd try my hand at the rewrite request but found her refusing to speak to me.

I swear this Muse is going to take what's left of my sanity. I'll end up a babbling, old, grey-haired crazy woman with an imaginary parrot on her shoulder.

Good writing all! (May your Muses be better-tempered)

Veering off the Main Road

I met my goal, not quite in the direction I meant to go, but I met it. By Sunday I had about 3000 words. Almost 1000 of them are now tucked tight in Damarion's story. However, the other 2000 are on a project I'd meant to hold off on.

I guess writing is writing. When it comes down to it, I have to go where my muse takes me. Some people can really focus and drive their creativity. I can persuade her to a great extent, but when it comes down to it, she still drives me.

It's not that I mind this. Truthfully, I prefer it. There's a reason my subconscious is taking me in a certain direction and towards a certain story. A writer has to learn focus, but also instinct. Maye the story isn't working for a reason. Or maybe there's a little piece that's missing, and if you work on something else for a bit, that piece will fall into place.

Who knows. It's all a guessing game, but such a fun ride. I'm just glad I've started writing again.

Good writing all!

Writing Progress

Progress is a subjective word. That statement may be a diversion tactic on my part, but I'm sticking to it.

All right, all right. Writing hasn't been very good last three days. You won't find me listing the many excuses. It is what it is and I was not focused enough during what free time I had. I've managed to cut 2200 words from Damarion (about 4 scenes). I've added 1400 words to complete one chapter and 2 scenes. That's what I like to do in a day, so I'm very disappointed.

I'm going to crack my own whip on this and set a goal of 3000 words by Sunday.

Good writing all!

Moving On

Wow. It was a revelation evening for me last night. I sat working on Damarion's Voyage and watching Modern Family through the magic of DVR and realized I'd moved on from Galileo.

Galileo Wars was finished recently, as you know from a previous post. I've tucked it away and totally let go. The original concept of Galileo has been with me through everything. It was my first novel ever and I've been reworking and reworking and reworking it for almost two decades. It's matured with me. Its characters have evolved with me.

And now it's done. This is whether publishing-wise it's a bad story, okay story, or something agents/publishers will drool over.

I know I've probably posted that I've completed it...but it hit that along with that completion I've closed a chapter in my writing history. I feel released and free to take on any idea without the flittering thoughts of Galileo in the background.

Okay, internal moment over. I'm off to finish lunch and continue work on Damarion.

Good writing all!

New Project

With Galileo complete and on its way hopefully to be published, my attention has turned to my newest large project. For those of you unfamiliar with my writing structure, I work one large novel or novella and a few shorts/flashes at a time.

That is unless my little muse has drunk a virtual Red Bull, in which I'm sporadically spewing out loads of outlines, scenes, and idea blurbs. Most of these will be looked at by my muse later in shock and horror...then ceremoniously crumpled and tossed into the recycle bin.

But right now she's in a zen moment and really digging the next project in the queue. Damarion's Voyage is slated to be a novella with a goal word count of 35k-40k. Damarion started out life as three different stories.

Yes, I know what you're thinking, "What the Wisconsin?!"

I dreamed the main storyline and feverishly wrote it into a novella in two weeks. Then I sat back and realized it was emotionally void and one dimensional. Pissed off, I stuck in in my halted folder and moved on in disgust.

Then I dreamed this really wonderful floral planet and wrote a flash out of it. Or, I thought it was a flash. I even sent it to a magazine only to be told, "Um yeah. Nice visual of a world but no actual story included."

In the meantime, I had this older story in my back pocket (not really there, figuratively speaking) about a transcription of a found space voyage recording. The story is one of my favorite but missing all character dynamic.

So, all these pieces and each missing some main element or two. Busy thinking about Galileo on my way home one day (enter 1950s upbeat jingle here) and a car honked it horn...wait, I hate when people say it that way. The car does not honk its own horn. A person in a car honked their horn (there, much better). Any-who, the horn scared the jeepers out of me and for some reason I realized that the voyage story and the cardboard space journey were the same stories.

Don't ask me why, it must have been subconsciously floating right below the surface.

I hurried home and laid out both stories. The two seemed like a perfect mate to each other. I merged them into a generational storyline that bounces back and forth between father and daughter journeys.

After this first breakthrough I'd fiddled a bit and then realized one of the planets they visit (in their respect time) is this floral planet.

Who-ala, three stories into one. It's how my brain sometimes works, I don't know what else to say.

Well, good writing all!