Friday Rants and Raves - March 7

[sarillia]

It's that time again! Made any progress lately? Anything exciting happen? Got something to vent about? Let's hear it!

This week's picture is from an artist known as De Es Schwertberger. You can click on his name to visit his website and see more of his work if you're interested.

Comments

[sarillia]

I was recently reminded that Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up next month. The Camp months have never gone as well for me as the main event but I keep signing up anyway and I'm looking forward to next month. I have an idea that I'm really excited about.

But until then I have another idea that I'd like to try to finish by the end of March. I've already mentioned it to some of you who are waiting to read it. I'm working on it.

[splinteredstar]

Ooo, is this the "rebellion against an oppressive government" one? Because I'm a sucker for a good revolution plot.

[sarillia]

No but I'm still outlining that one. I'll get to it eventually.

This one is a lesbian retelling of The Little Mermaid where she's a siren who willingly gives up her voice so she can win the object of her affections on her own terms instead of using her enchanting voice.

[splinteredstar]

Ooo, I like that idea! Classic fairy tale or Disney?

[sarillia]

I guess more Disney because there won't be any tragic ending and I'm not planning on making it painful for her to use her legs. Nothing about her not having a soul either. The ending is different from both of those versions though.

[agilebrit]

I swear to Dad, I am going to beat this story to death with my bare hands. It's now on its third iteration, I'm having to murder darlings I adore, and I'm afraid it still sucks. Plus I want to write something to sub to the UFO3 anthology, and I have a vague idea for that, but nothing is coming together for anything.

I'm at that writing stage where I think everything I do is terrible and I feel stuck and dumb and like I've been spinning my wheels for the last three months even though I finished two stories and am nearly done with a third.

And I know what I need to do--I need to open Write or Die, put on a soundtrack, and just start scribbling. And yet I don't. Gah. Someone kick me.

[sarillia]

*kick, kick* Go write! Do it now! No thinking! :p

But you should be proud of what you've accomplished. You've done much more than I have in the last three months at least, and I have friends who tell me I'm prolific.

I know that feeling though. I hope you find a way to get through it soon and feel happy with your work.

That anthology looks interesting. I am very intimidated by the idea of writing humor though. It's hard.

[agilebrit]

Thank you. My year got off to a bad start because I've been sick no less than three times already. So I've had a severe case of Failure to Launch. And it doesn't help that this is a story that I've wanted to write for a long time, and now that I'm sitting down to do it, it's not coming together like it should. *sigh*

Humor is hard! I can do it, but it tends to devolve to slapstick comedy of errors pretty fast, and not everyone likes that, apparently. I'm still looking for a home for the story I wrote to try to get into the UFO2 antho. Eesh.

[splinteredstar]

*threatens with boot*

[agilebrit]

Eep! *scribbles madly*

[splinteredstar]

This has been a frankly awful week due to irl things, but I did some brainstorming on an old idea. I've always been fond of it, even as I swore violently at it. But I did stumble on a potentially brilliant change to the idea, which also opened up a potential philosophical challenge. Which I will post on here, later tonight, probably. (short version: sometimes I freak out over writing female characters)

[sarillia]

I love reworking old ideas. I've done that a lot. I have two in particular that I want to write soon. A lot of the changes involve changing male love interests into female ones though.

[splinteredstar]

yeah, that's sort of what might happen here. changing one of my main characters from a tiny passionate young man to a tiny passionate young woman. Not a love interest, though, as far as I know.

[sarillia]

I'm just changing a lot of love interests because everything I write has to be gay now. :p

I even have one story that I started writing and I'm excited about it but part of me is disappointed that the main character is straight (and I don't think it would make sense to change it). There are other important gay characters but it's not the same somehow. I'm just being silly though.

[lunabee34]

My writer's group meets tomorrow, so I finished a short personal essay I'd written about being a shitty Tooth Fairy for my kid. LOL I've read and responded to two of the four submissions and will finish reading those tonight.

[sarillia]

You're in a writer's group? What's that like?

[lunabee34]

Pretty great actually. It's composed of two fellow professors and another woman who is a beginning writer but is proving to be pretty phenomenal at it. This will be our first meeting a couple years; with work stuff and three new babies among us LOL the group kinda took a back seat.

I can trust their suggestions and advice. It isn't the useless circle jerk that college workshops often end up being and it keeps me accountable. I have to write something to turn in.

[sarillia]

From what I've heard, you're really lucky to have found such a good group.

Part of me likes the idea of that sort of thing but I'm still working on getting used to people commenting on my writing. I need to take it slow. It's not thin skin exactly. I'm fine once I actually hear what they have to say and I can respond to criticism, but imagining it beforehand and worrying about it is awful.

I've had psychologists tell me that anticipatory anxiety is often the worst and that's definitely true for me.

[lunabee34]

I can understand that. I have that kind of anxiety about other things. I think because I am a teacher by profession and so much of my job involves writing and having other people read and comment on that writing in a variety of contexts (whether it's students reading material I've written for a class or an editor reading a lit review I wrote or my chair reading the narrative I wrote about how awesome I am and need tenure LOL), I lost any intense anxiety about feedback on my writing early on and out of necessity.

I know I am lucky with my group. They are awesome. Two of the four of us have MFAs in creative writing, I have a Ph.D. in Victorian lit, we all have BAs in English, and one of us has an MA in Library Science. Three of us are published in some capacity, one of us prolifically so, and I've held several editorial positions. I am surrounded by awesome. But we self-selected so that helps. We weren't stuck with each other.