Musings of a Hopeful Author

So, while I have continued to think about writing and various stories and plotlines, I have not been able to work on them as much as I would have liked over the last several weeks. Summer is generally a busier time than most, and I've fallen victim to its draw of outings, family & friends, the outdoors, and just being away from the keyboard a bit more.  It's been a fun summer so far! I've been to several concerts, a handful of backyard BBQs, outings & meals with friends, and the occasional small trip. And while I have one more trip home planned for this weekend and another in September, I am planning to get back to writing and focusing on moving some stories forward! I will say allowing some of the story points that have been causing me a little difficulty in deciding how best to move forward have gotten some time to marinate and mature a bit so that I now have a better idea how to handle those points and make a stronger story for it. Let's just hope I can execu...

"The Hook" is such a loaded phrase when it comes to writing. You have to hook your reader within the first few pages, or arguably the first few paragraphs or even sentences. And that ain't easy. But more than that, you have to hood an agent in your 300 word MAX query letter selling said book with a hook. And you have to do it while also including other important stuff about yourself, the potential agent, and the book itself. No pressure. I mean "it is a truth universally acknowledged," that writing ain't as easy as we think it is or should be. Not only does a story have to make sense, but it has to have likeable characters, compelling narrative, and tie in all the loose threads that are woven throughout the book. Or at least it should. But does any of that even matter if you don't hook the reader right away?  I know I tend to have a problem of telling rather than showing when I want to explain some background information that doesn't exactly fit into...

While I would have loved to be writing and reading like I have been throughout the winter and early spring, late spring and summer bring with them quite a list of chores and commitments that must take priority. So far, May has been full of such things. And while I loved the time with family for trips, weddings, and general get togethers, the chores of adulthood regarding yardwork and annual checkups, etc. have been filling more time than I'd like. That said, so far all my checkups look good, so here's to another year of hopefully healthy living. As for the yard, that's a whole other story. But since I'm sorta in the story writing business, let me bend your ear a bit with the fun I've had so far this year.  Hedge trimming - yep. Doesn't that just sound like the most fun? Well, it's not. Haha. But it's better to do it a few times a year and stay ahead of it rather than letting it run wild and free and trying to deal with it all at once (a lesson I learned ...

 Just got the results back from the second round of the short story challenge and it looks like my spin on a Sci-fi story about a jockey and heartbreak came up short in the larger group. Of course I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm happy I tried and stepped outside of my comfort zone to [hopefully] grow a bit as a writer. Here's hoping the feedback is helpful and something I can apply straightaway! Best of luck to the writers advancing, and here's to future competitions and stories that are bound to be in my future.  Now back to my novel and wherever it might lead. Fingers crossed it's somewhere great!

 I am not someone who is laugh out loud funny. My humor is more in the makes you chuckle through my sarcasm, wit, or play on words. My dad was someone who could make people laugh out loud and once he got warmed up, watch out! I just don't have that knack, but that doesn't mean I don't have a good sense of humor and laugh a lot. I do - on both counts. Just not usually at my own jokes, haha. Self-deprecation? Well, that's something else and possibly the topic for another blog (that likely won't get written). So, it is with all of this in mind that I put before you an instance that took place the other evening where I was legitimately laughing (or giggling, as the case may be) at a scene I thought up in the shower after I had stopped writing for the night. Apparently the stopping place I had reached just minutes before wasn't actually the stopping place my creative mind had in store for me. No, I was stuck coming up with a scene that I found highly amusing in the o...

Anyone not familiar with the concept of the slow burn romance? If not, this should help. If so, this is still entertaining. So, I have been avoiding writing the next section in the story I'm currently working on because the series of scenes taking place require more care than most. This is where the romantic tension is turned up to the next level, but not so far as to actual start the full-on romance. This is just supposed to show the characters and the reader that there's more there than the characters want to admit or more than they want to deal with. It should be fun to write those scenes, right? I know I enjoy reading them, so they should be fun to write. Well, they're friggin' tricky! At least for me. Haha. Quick bit of back story - the first story I ever attempted to write for myself beyond kid stories, school assignments, etc. was supposed to be a slow burn romance with a historical character I had loved in a book I had just read (but disliked the fictional femal...

The short story challenge prompts for round 2 have been released! And have made me a touch anxious. Fortunately, I was able to think about them for a bit and landed upon the rough outline for a story rather quickly, which is key since I only had three days to turn out a story based on those prompts. What were the prompts? Genre: Sci-Fi Subject: Heartbreak Character: Jockey Yup. Silence met that set of prompts. Then finally, my mind kicked into gear and the creative juices started flowing. But it was a slow trickle until I was able to write with any consistency. Add to that quite a number of concept revisions and you had a bit of a panic this afternoon. How did I combat said panic? Well, I am incredibly lucky to have a small but dependable group of reviewers that help beat me into shape and provide invaluable input and feedback. Some contribute more than others, haha, but they all have their piece in the bigger picture. Afterall, it could be the most creative thing in the world, but if ...

Let me start off by saying, I am shocked that I made it to the next round of the short story challenge.  I really didn't have much confidence in my entry because the prompts were really hard! I did the best I could with what I could think of, but was it enough? I really didn't feel like it was. So, you can imagine my shock when I saw my entry listed among the top five for my group.  This is how I felt when I saw my group's finalists! And once I got over that initial shock, I was THRILLED! And I wanted to share that excitement by sharing it with my support team straight away, in spite of the hour. Sorry for the late calls and texts, but I was excited!  Then today, I received the feedback from the judges on what they liked and what they thought I could do better on this (and future) story(s). They liked my characters and saw humor in the situation, the handling of said situation, and some of the phrasing that was used to really drive it all home. I was really pleased with t...

 Yup, distracted again. BUT I think it's in a good way, haha. I mean, isn't it important to know the type of fancy conveyance being used/referenced in a scene if it's not in the normal run of things? Or is it me procrastinating in a sort of helpful way? I think we all know the answer...  So, first up is the Catalina 315.  "At just under 32 feet, the 315 feels like a much bigger boat. Little touches make significant differences. Take the split backstays for the lofty, double-spreader rig, which open up the space in a cockpit that’s already wide, workable, and ergonomically balanced. Or the extended settee in the main saloon—to starboard, opposite a spacious U-shaped settee, dining table, and galley—which wouldn’t be out of place on a boat 8 feet longer and which maximizes the interior space by doubling as the seat for the aft-facing navigation station."  - Cruising World  (for the full article: https://www.cruisingworld.com/sailboats/boat-review-catalina-315/) I ...

 As I mentioned in the last post, the good idea fairy is both a blessing and a curse. And I have to admit, this latest visit from that fantasy creature has left me at a bit of a loss.  I don't exactly know how I want to move forward. I had a pretty good idea at the outset, but since adding in those improvements I've gotten myself into a bit of dilemma on how to get to the end and have the outcome I want, haha. Guess I'll just have to write through it and see what happens, but so far I've been nervous about putting pen to paper. Just something about writing down the next stages makes them seem like the only path forward even though I know I can always go back and rewrite or just delete it all and start over at this same part. The problem is I can't just erase it from my mind so will I remember things that never happened in the new draft but happened in the last draft? Hopefully it won't come to that, but who knows? Only time and typed pages will tell.

 I'm sure I'm not alone in visits from the good idea fairy, many of which result in horrible ideas that cause us to expend far too much thought and effort in trying to realize the craziness thought up in those visits. And while many of those ideas lead to nothing substantial, there are those rare moments when they yield good ideas that you actually want to do something with. And thus starts the fun... sorta.  I was struck by the good idea fairy a week or so regarding a possible new plot enhancement for the story I'm currently working on and I have to say it checked a lot of boxes and helped neaten up a lot of loose ends I wasn't entirely sure what to do with just yet. BUT it also caused a bit of a dilemma in that it didn't fit the overall flow of the story as I'd envisioned it up until that point. And it also put a line I thought was going to be pretty key to climax of the story in question. So, what do I do? Do I take the net gains of adding in that new plot el...

It's a  bit of a joke between a friend of mine and myself regarding my somewhat random obsession over clothing for certain characters or scenes in stories I write. It's not something I get stuck on in every story and it's not for every character or even every scene, but there are those few scenes/moments and those few characters where the clothes really seem to matter to me. Ironically, I don't always describe them in great detail, and rarely (if ever) brand name drop, so the fact that I look up clothes that would be in the character's price range is even more random. But I do it, and I enjoy it.  The first story I really caught myself getting a little more into fashion than I would have expected was my angel story when I was thinking of what one character would wear. I wanted it to be in contrast with the internal makeup of the character I was describing. A bit of devil in disguise or wolf in a sheep's clothing, as it were. And I think seeing those different ou...

 I think I might have talked about this before, but even if I did, it's totally worth mentioning again. I think chapter titles are a ton of fun to come up with and can be fun/helpful for readers. They give you a bit of a teaser of what is to come, and a lot of times can be a play on words that might have the reader expecting something different form what the chapter is actually about, which can be nice as the writer. You don't want your readers to think your work is too predictable and sort of subtly setting them up to expect one thing and then hitting them with something else (that also makes sense when you think about the heading again in the new context), it can be a nice little gotcha moment.  I think it's also helpful to have chapter titles to help readers more easily navigate a book if they have moments they want to go back and revisit based on future chapter revelations. Numbers just aren't that helpful in that regard. I know I don't pay attention to them or ...

Have you ever been camping? Like in a tent in the woods with nothing around you but nature? Have you done the slightly upgraded version where there's a campground communal bathhouse you can access when you're a bit tired of nature and want some of the niceties from home like running water and working plumbing? Well, I have done the second, but we were so far from the bathhouse it felt more like the first. And let me tell you, I was not the biggest fan of flat out roughing it. I like nature, but I don't love bugs or feeling dirty. And I certainly don't like going to the bathroom in the woods. Just not my thing.  That said, I also am not one who would want to drive or pay for one of those giant RVs that come with all the amenities. I like how fancy and nice they can be and appreciate having everything you need with you, but I would be stressed beyond belief to drive one of those things across country be it in traffic on a highway or down some small back road. Stressful!  ...

 So, in an effort to storyboard my ideas for the comic I'm working on, I thought it would be a good idea to not only write the story but break it out into cells and actually see what it would look like as a comic as I go. Best to start as you mean to continue, right? (so I mostly got the quote right... see below for the actual quote.) With that in mind, I started to think about how to approach this comic and was brutally honest with myself about some things that I might not want to admit to myself on a regular basis. I am not likely to draw this comic twice, so when I put pen to paper (be it real paper or digital paper), it needs to be the version I plan to keep. I am not likely to finish the comic if I write the storyline while also drawing it at the same time. I know I'll get frustrated with my drawing skills and knowing the story isn't done, will likely just give up on the whole endeavor.  I like drawing, but hate drawing people and am not good at quick drawings or sketc...

 It's a ongoing joke with several friends that I think in terms of powerpoint when we're talking about visuals, in excel when we're making lists or need to track things in some way, and in word when trying to compose something so I'll have proper spelling, grammar, and formatting. And it's true, I use each of those tools more often than I'd like to admit, but they really are great tools to have! Right now, for instance, I am using powerpoint to storyboard the comic idea I mentioned in a previous post. I'm using clipart to capture a general feel for what I want in each of the panels so far. Once I get the basic ideas down, then I can go back later and draw my own versions of things, but with a good reference point to get me started. I had thought about drawing rough sketches on some paper but then I'd have to do the whole thing over when I got ready to do the real thing, and I don't know that I'd do it all over again. I'm not great at redundan...

 So, a question was posted asking what comics I follow. Well, I apparently like more than I thought I did! Didn't fully realize how many until I went to my app to look them over ahead of this post. While I might check some out from time to time and have others marked to go back and look at some time in the future, there are EIGHT that I actively follow. Granted, a couple of those don't post consistently, so you only see their new stuff once every month or two (or longer). That's not a gripe, just information for you. I don't know how so many folks are so consistent with their weekly posts! Writing a story is hard, drawing is hard, writing and drawing a story at the same time just seems like a herculean effort. One that I'm glad a lot of folks take on!  I've listed the eight I follow below with some extra love for my favorites. Lore Olympus This one is my favorite, and got me into the whole web comic thing. I love the story, love the art, and love that those Gree...

 I've never been one to really care that much about comics. I like stories and I like to draw, but that never really did anything to help make comics more appealing to me. I just don't think in comic strip form. Or at least I thought I didn't until I cam across some comics in one of those digital comic platforms. I don't know if it was the layout, which seemed to flow better because you're only seeing one frame at a time as you scroll through the episode or if the stories are more appealing to me or what. But I have come to really enjoy a handful, and look forward to each new episode that is released.  Because of this newfound appreciation and enjoyment regarding comics, I've been thinking off and on over the last year or two about making one of my own. Ambitious right? Especially with my current completion rate on stories that are just words, never mind adding in a visual element. But I'm nothing if not willing to leap into yet another area of focus and see...

 So, it would appear that I have not posted since April of last year. That is both surprising and not a bit of a surprise. I really did think I had posted more recently than that, but looking back I'm clearly just sucky at properly gauging the passing of time. *sigh* Ah well, onwards and upwards!  What have I done since my last post? Well, nothing of note. Started a new story, thought through some plot ideas on existing stories, and just sort of wasted the days away in thought rather than action. The holidays were nice, and so far 2022 has been like the rest of the 2020s - disappointing. Had a Mediterranean Cruise canceled thanks to covid. And am now struggling to find somewhere else to go that's a bit closer to home last minute. Sucks a bit, but what can you do? I did enter another short story challenge, and while super excited at the prospect of getting an assignment that would push me out of my comfort zone but hopefully get the creative juices flowing I was met with a soul...