Friday Rants and Raves - May 30

[sarillia]

Hello everyone! It's another Friday. How is the writing going? Anything to celebrate? Anything you need to vent about? Let's hear it!

This week's picture is by Zdzisław Beksiński. He is another favorite of mine and I definitely recommend looking into his work if you're like me and enjoy fantasy and surrealist art.

Comments

[sarillia]

I'm feeling very motivated lately.

I set a goal of 5,000 words for today. I've written a thousand so far and I'm making good progress on a short story I've been working on for a while. I would love to finish it today and that might actually be possible. Then I could spend the next day or two revising and finally send it off to beta readers so I can start getting experience with getting feedback. I've been writing for years but I have almost no experience with responding to critiques so I'm nervous and excited to see how that goes.

I also picked out a pen name the other day after making my last post. I've set up several accounts under that name, including a Wordpress blog.

I have another goal for myself too. I want to start subbing a story by the time I go to my next psychiatrist appointment next month. Getting to talk to him about meeting a goal is always a great incentive for me. I always feel good about talking to people who have seen me at my worst about how well things are going.

[ljwrites]

Congratulations! Getting feedback can be scary and a bit painful if there's critical stuff in there (and there usually is in the most useful feedback), but I hope it'll be helpful to think of it as an opportunity to grow rather than an indictment on your writing. Story subbing is a great goal too, and something I just did for the first time in my life. More on that in a separate comment.

[sarillia]

Thanks. I think I'm ready to go in with the right mindset. I never would have believed it but I think I have developed rather thick skin. I tend to worry about these sort of things before I do it but then I'm okay once I'm actually dealing with them.

[ljwrites]

I've just submitted a short story to On the Premises. (Thanks to agilebrit for info on the contest.) I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted to write about, which is ironic given that the premise was difficult decisions. :) I rushed my entry too much to do the best job I could and submitted it literally at the last minute, but just completing the process gives me a huge sense of accomplishment--and trepidation.

It's scary because submitting original fiction is new ground for me; I have quite a bit of experience with writing fanfic and getting reviewed, but never showed original fiction to anyone beyond a few acquaintances. I had almost forgotten how much effort can go into creating original characters and building a world. It's sobering how much heavy lifting there is to do when I start from scratch. This is new ground for me, both scary and exhilarating.

Meanwhile, short story submissions also look like a good way to develop and maybe get the word out about my planned novel. As I get the research done and flesh out the characters and story, I plan to write shorter stories in the setting and try sending them out. I'm also considering doing NaNoWriMo in August or so to bang out the first draft of the novel. No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, recommended by sarillia, is doing a good job of selling the idea to me.

[sarillia]

Good luck! I hope you get a good response to your story. And congratulations on taking these new steps!

I will definitely be doing NaNo in August. After freezing up for the last several months, I'm finally getting back to just pouring the words out onto the page and fixing it up later. NaNo is just the thing to really get me back into that.

If you like No Plot? No Problem then you might also like Chuck Wendig's The Kick-Ass Writer. I just read it and I love it. I think a lot of the articles in it are on his blog for free if you want to check out what he has to say.

[inkdust]

Ooh I also recommend Chuck Wendig - haven't read his book but I've been on his site and his articles are both funny and helpful.

[ljwrites]

Thank you! Ooh, and another August NaNo-er! I thought the lovely summer weather was Kryptonite for writing endeavors or something, the rationale for moving the month from its original July to November. August works for me, though, because my vacation plans are in July and August is still before the start of the semester. Besides, where I live August is too hot and muggy for outdoors activities. Another possibility for me is February, but it's a short month and I don't want to wait that long.

I looked up Chuck Wendig's blog and found this article. Dude, I realized, this dude is a FEMINIST WRITER DUDE. One who despises MRAs. I don't care if his book is a stapled-together sheaf of blurry printouts of his blog, I will buy it so hard.

[caecilia]

I appreciate Wendig's tough approach to encouragement although he does get repetitive after a while (I guess everyone does). I should re-read the ebooks of his that I have.

[splinteredstar]

I'm half way through an intense summer math class, so writing is unfortunately on the back burner right now. (several days have consisted of going to class and then coming back and doing differential equations for eight hours. With occasional video game breaks so that I don't stab my textbook.)

Nevertheless, I have, mostly for the sake of my own sanity, carved out some time. It took me a bit to get back in the swing of things and figure out how words worked again, but I've started drafting out some fanfiction. And I think I've worked out one of the fiddly bits in my current original project - it was one of those "crap, who knows what and what does he think about it" moments where I had to backtrack.

So the short version, I'm kind of a corpse, but one that is slowly making its way back to life.

[sarillia]

I hope you're able to find more time for writing soon. As long as that doesn't completely overload your brain.

What fandom are you writing for?

[splinteredstar]

Yeah. Part of it is simply /forcing/ myself to make time. Otherwise I get a little bit batty after a while. I need story in my head, or else my brain stutters.

Primarily Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, which is an gem of a game. I was incredibly curious about one of the characters, but we never got a full backstory for him. So I'm writing my own. (I also have something for the new Captain America movie bouncing in my head.)

[caecilia]

I promised someone rather important I'd write something for a rather important thing and I've been so anxious about it that I can't write anything more than rambly journal entries about my dreams and I feel really guilty and bad about it, actually.

(Also the image isn't loading? Looks like the site doesn't like you hotlinking.)

[ljwrites]

I know that feeling. I need to write some creative stuff today, too, and I'm so nervous that I'm procrastinating on various journals and comms, lol. Maybe that will help me work up the nerve--or maybe the ever-approaching deadline will.

Hotlinking in general isn't a good idea for reliable image hosting. I've uploaded the image to my PostImage account, so try this code in the HTML editing window:

<img src="http://s6.postimg.org/qdfuq9wyp/Beksinski_pic9.jpg" alt="Belsinski" />

[caecilia]

I didn't really have a deadline but it's someone who approached me and says she loves my work and really wants a submission. And I just look at everything I have and feel so inadequate and everything I try to write is crap! Then I try to put her out of my mind and just pretend I'm writing for a class assignment and...still nothing! Ugh. I need to go meditate on the moon.

Ahh thank you! Saving this in my inspiration folder!