L. K. Knight - Novelist

Writing Goals for 2011

2010-12-22T14:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, goal time again. I accomplished one of my four writing goals from last year - finishing the family cookbook. And really, that was the most important goal. Now, for next year's goals.

Rewrite and edit my End of the World book in order to publish it through Lulu this year.
Finish writing my Dragons of Aneirin book.
Update each blog once a week: so if I update on Mon, Wed, and Fri. I'll be good to go.
Work through a book such as Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.
Start a new novel.

I always go into the new year with lots of hope that I'll accomplish all my writing goals that year. So, here's to hope and the ability to turn hope into success.

NaNo 2010 Winner!

2010-11-30T01:04:00.001-06:00

Ugh! Those last 500 words were the hardest to get out! I ended my novel-writing-month with 50,177 words, according to the NaNo site's word verification application. While this year's story did not go as planned (that villainess I really wanted just didn't pan out)I reminded myself that yes, I can write thousands of words a day. However, I think 2,000 is the maximum amount of words I should write per day - having one day of 10,000 words, one day of 7,600 words, and one day of 5,800 words is not the proper way to do this thing, but it is done!

This story will not get developed into a real book. It was an idea that needed to be fleshed out, but it just didn't turn into a creature worthy of seeing the light of day. But I have fond memories of creating it and it will now join several other creatures that will never see daylight in the recesses of my hard drive. Goodnight, dark world.

NaNo Stand Still

2010-11-23T16:39:00.000-06:00

I'm working on my NaNo novel and have actually gotten to a point where I'm just incredibly bored with the story. I tried jumping to a different chapter and picking up with different characters, but their stories bore me, too. I'm about 3500 words behind schedule at this point. It would only take me about two hours to type that much, if only the ideas would come. Each paragraph is like trying to get out a splinter embedded deep in my finger. I'll eventually get it, but it's frustrating work. I've never been frustrated with a story before. I have 34,600 words written of the 50,000 I'm supposed to write by the 30th. If only my characters would do something interesting, I know I could do it.

On another note, of the four writerly goals I set myself this year, the only one I accomplished was finishing the Memories and Recipes book. That was the most important goal, so I am proud, but with a better time management schedule I could have reached all four goals. I'm already working on my writerly goals for next year. The three from 2010 will roll over into 2011, with a few additions.

The Cookbook is Finished!

2010-10-25T15:42:00.000-05:00

It is such a wonderful feeling to have this cookbook in my hands! Two years of work went into this and I think the book is superb, considering I had no experience making a photo book/cookbook/history book. It ended up being over $50 once you pay for taxes and shipping, but I had no control over how the site prices their books. I chose not to add any profit for myself, since I didn't expect to sell many books and I wanted to keep the price as low as I could for family and friends.

As of today, 3 people have bought my book and a few more intend to do so soon. I'm happy just knowing my creation is bringing other people pleasure. Profit would be nice, but not for this book. I'll make oodles of profit from my fiction novels.

Now I can head into National Novel Writing Month without the cookbook distracting me. Just 7 more days until I write 50,000 words in one month!

Adding More to the Cookbook

2010-08-04T23:10:00.002-05:00

My mom was a big help with the editing of my cookbook, but now I need to add more pages to it to make it worth the higher price point it fell into. So far I've added seven pages, but I think I can add at least five more, possibly ten more. I guess this is draft number 2, which I will hopefully have finished before September. I need to come up with a few more anecdotes, photograph a few more of the recipe results (if only this heat wave will end so I can use the oven!), and revise the Recipe Index and Table of Contents to accommodate my new pages. I can't wait to have this book published!

I did start editing my novel - I got up to page 77. But then I got the cookbook back and all other projects had to pause while I finish this. I was so into reading my novel that I didn't want to stop to go to bed - that means something good, right?

Cookbook Rough Draft Finished!

2010-07-05T18:51:00.003-05:00

I am so relieved to have finished the rough draft of my family cookbook. I gave it to my mom today. She will read it at her leisure and make any corrections to facts and add in her suggestions, story-wise or format-wise, for me to consider for the final draft. Now that this piece of family history has been created I can get my focus back on my fiction. Granted when my mom finishes editing I will need to finalize everything, but I'm proud to just have gotten it all put together! My niece asked me today what book I was working on and I had to disappoint her with the news that the cookbook was such a feat that I had not done any fiction writing lately. After a week or so down-time, I will get back to my novels.

I Can See the Finish Line...

2010-06-22T19:42:00.002-05:00

I am almost finished with the rough draft of my Memories and Recipes book. I plan to finish the rough draft in the next two weeks and then print off a PDF copy for my mom to review to make sure names and dates are correct and the stories ring true. Then, I will polish it and link up with Blurb to print off a book that hopefully many family members will like - this IS our heritage after all.

Once that is finished, I will devote all spare moments to my two young adult novels - these characters find moments to scream at me and demand to live on paper and not just in my head. Usually those moments are when I am in the middle of something else and I have to shut them up so I can focus. I hope they're still screaming in about a month or so when I can give them my full attention.

Changing Genres

2010-04-28T16:54:00.002-05:00

I am considering changing my fantasy romance novel to a YA novel. It wouldn't require many changes at this point because my heroine is young anyway, I'll just have to make her 17 instead of 22. I only have one real sex scene which could easily become a "behind closed doors" scene. Actually, making the heroine younger might make everything a bit more interesting. Her decisions would be more difficult and so would the hero's. I already have most of the second book in that story written - it would focus on a bunch of young adults, too. I think I've just talked myself into it.

I'm also considering offering some sample chapters to some friends to read if they want. I had considered putting them on my blog, but I'm still paranoid that some other writer would come and steal my idea, which is high concept. These characters have been in my head for years, just waiting for my writing ability to get to the point where I can do their stories justice. I think I'm there.

Memories and Recipes

2010-01-18T08:21:00.001-06:00

Working through Blurb dot com, I am creating a book I hope will be passed down through the generations. It could even be a series of books, but I have to finish this one first. I have quite a few photos going back through the 1950s and further, even some as far back as the early 1900s, of my mother’s side of the family. I also have many handwritten recipes from my grandmother and her mother. And then there are those stories that family members have shared over the kitchen table. I am combing all of these into a book tentatively titled, Memories and Recipes.

Over the weekend I finally figured out a layout that will work for just about all of the recipe/story pages. Creating those pages will go much quicker now. The time-consuming part will be in testing the recipes and photographing the results. So far, I have only photographed one outcome. Winter is the best time to get all this cooking done, though. My goal is to have the rough draft completed by April. If I do at least one page a day, that will be no problem.

I’ve been trying to find a book similar to mine that has already been published, but they aren’t set up just like mine. Most focus on much more of the storytelling than mine does, only throwing in a recipe every few pages. None of them combine a family photo, recipe, and story all on one page as I’m doing. Most of the stories I have are just anecdotes, slices of life, not fully fleshed stories, which I think is more indicative of what people know of their families anyway. But my book will be something my daughters can hold in their hands and say, wow, I would have loved to have known my great-grandmother - she seemed feisty, like me.

Writing Goals for 2010

2009-12-31T16:24:00.003-06:00

Finish creating the family cookbook/story book and have it ready to publish by summer.
Do final edits on "End of the World" and publish on Lulu.
Finish writing "Dragons of Aneirin" with the goal of finding an agent and publishing through a brick and mortar publisher.
Post more frequently to my blogs.

This list is shorter than last year's since I did not accomplish all my writing goals in 2009. This list is much more realistic. Here's to a profitable 2010!

Trying to Google My Name

2009-12-10T17:48:00.000-06:00

Because of these three women, you will never find me if you Google my name: Laura Knight:

Photographer

Dame/Painter

Genealogist

Therefore, I must develop a different name - L.K. Knight (The "K" is actually from my maiden name, not my middle name, cuz my middle initial is a "B" and I just don't want to be known as LB, or "pound" Knight. Besides, "K" is a cooler letter than "B".)

If you Google "LKKnight", this blog comes up 4th on the list. And my website, Realms of Knight, comes up midway down on the second page. So, now I just need a reason for people to come visit my sites. I'm letting my NaNo novel chill for a bit, while I read the backlog of magazines I have. Then, come the new year, I will get back to my novel - I actually have a plan on what needs to happen first with revisions - yeah for me!

Winner of NaNo 2009!

2009-11-29T18:30:00.002-06:00

I had fallen behind, but yesterday I wrote about 9,000 words and today I wrote 5,000 words to finish at 50,323 words!!! I love the first half of the novel. The second half will probably end up on the cutting room floor, with maybe a few tidbits pulled out and plugged into the first half of the novel. I drew a map, set up genealogy for dragons, and got creative with my naming system. I love the world I have created, I just need to figure out how to fully develop the characters who inhabit this world. But, right now, I'm going to read some blogs I have neglected this month.

Next month: figure out how to keep up this writing schedule permanently.

Too Easy to Procrastinate

2009-11-24T17:19:00.002-06:00

I am wonderful at procrastination! I've baked cake mix cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies, pineapple-upside-down cake, and vanilla cupcakes in the past week or so. And all this time I should have been writing. I am now 7,000 words behind and don't know where to take my story. Must stop baking, must stop reading blogs, must stop checking Facebook, must stop Googling irrelevant info, and I must stop reading my backlog of magazines. Tomorrow will start a 5-day blitz of writing as much as I possibly can to get caught up by Monday. UGH!

NaNo Day 16

2009-11-16T16:55:00.003-06:00

To catch you up on the first two weeks of National Novel Writing Month:

I started the Steampunk novel and kind of floundered with the story for 3 days. On the fourth day, I went to open my file and it was empty. My 5300 words were no where to be found. So, I started a fantasy novel I had thought about a few years ago. This story flew from my fingers. I love the characters and the world. So long Steampunk, welcome back fantasy. Then my husband copied my Steampunk file to his computer and was able to open it, even though I still could not open it on my computer. He copied the version he opened back on to my computer and I could open it and see all 5300 words, but by that time I was well into my fantasy novel. The muses work in strange ways.

Things are going well with the fantasy novel I'm currently calling, Dragons of Aneirin. I am up to 27,032 words, still on track. Only now my story is no longer writing itself - I'm having to actually think about what's going to happen next and how to go back and add in events and dialogue that are crucial to the middle and end of the story. I don't know what direction to take the last half of my novel. Hopefully it will come to me soon. It still feels better than trying to write Steampunk. Still looking forward to the Steampunk convention in April, though.

Tarot as a Writing Tool

2009-10-29T16:34:00.004-05:00

Only 3 more days until National Novel Writing Month and I only have a vague notion as to what my novel will be about. I had thought about using Tarot cards to help me and then I came across this post of how specifically one could use the Tarot to help write a novel:

Write to Done

I liked the simple method of drawing 6 cards to represent the protagonist, antagonist, theme, beginning, middle, and end of the novel. Here's what I came up with when I used the Faeries' Oracle:

The protagonist is a person who recognizes her/his own good qualities and stands on her/his own feet. The antagonists are the faeries who bring the light back to the dark sky, or in this case, they will destroy the machines that are polluting their homes. The theme is freedom and self-expression. The Beginning shows us one of the oak men, a wise, old, wild man in the woods and he's gnawing on a root. He knows things are changing and he wonders if he'll fight or step aside. The middle shows us the faery waters that are less and less pure as they run through the stressful, civilized towns of the humans and the faeries who are trying to purify that water, whose jobs are becoming more and more difficult. The end shows us that by giving and receiving love, we heal. (Not sure how we get from the humans destroying their homes to love, but that's the joy of the noveling journey.)

The really interesting thing will be in seeing if any of the above actually makes it to the final version of the novel.

Steampunk Inspiration

2009-10-23T16:54:00.002-05:00

More Steampunk research:

This has a few ideas of note - I might stop here if I get stuck.
Steampunk Random Story Generator

These cakes are cool:
Steampunk Cakes

Always looking for some cool jewelry to inspire me:
Steampunk Jewelry

Need a name for your Steampunk characters?
Steampunk Name Generator

My Steampunk name came up as Baroness Bethany Spencer - interesting.

Finding a Soundtrack for NaNo

2009-10-19T13:50:00.003-05:00

I just found a couple of bands that might do the trick.

Bat For Lashes

The Birthday Masssacre

Of course, Abney Park is still cool, too.

Abney Park

And Tor is having a Steampunk month in October!

Tor

It seems Steampunk is gaining steam! Hopefully I can do it justice in the novel I will write for National Novel Writing Month! November 1st is almost here!

Steampunk Research

2009-08-23T21:38:00.004-05:00

I've been researching Steampunk and came across a very cool magazine called, oddly enough, SteamPunk Magazine. You can even download issues for free here:

Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness

I also came across a fictional e-zine of steampunk erotica, which has some well-written stories:

SteamyPunk

After reading these publications, as well as some short stories from H.G. Wells, I am convinced I will be able to write a Steampunk romance novel for National Novel Writing Month this November. I still want to do a bit more research, find a few more movies I haven't seen, re-watch some favorites, and do more research on the Victorian Era, but this delve into a new genre won't be as intimidating as I thought it might be.

One of my favorite romance writers is even working on a Steampunk novel now, too.

Steamed

And, as I work my way through this new novel, I'll be thinking of the first Steampunk costume I will be creating for myself for the convention in April!!!

The Emotional Truth

2009-07-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

I’m de-cluttering my binders, the ones that hold interesting articles I’ve ripped from magazines. I tackled the writing articles first. Re-reading those articles made me want to write again, really write, not just blog or e-mail. But I’m currently working on creating a book with old family photos, recipes, and anecdotes. The anecdotes will only require fluffing to make them more readable. With a few of the anecdotes, I’ve written down the story from two different people - two people who remember the event just slightly differently. My job has been to meld the two together to reveal the emotional truth, only I didn’t realize that’s what I had been doing.

I just read an article on writing the emotional truth of your own memories. We each remember things through our own filters so that none of us remembers any event in exactly the same way. One person will even remember snow while a friend remembers rain. When dealing with personal stories, the factual truth matters only a little. The emotional truth is the whole reason for revealing the story. If you weren’t emotionally affected by an event, then there would be no point in sharing it.

Realizing that emotional truth is the only truth I need to remember has freed me to start work on my own memoir. I don’t need to be bogged down with remembering if the weather had been hot or just warm, if the event had come before or after the 4th of July party, or even if some people had truly attended. It’s how my memory has processed my life that shapes who I am today, and who I am today is the real truth of my life.

Procrastination

2009-05-29T16:13:00.002-05:00

Procrastination - it has been my friend and my enemy. Right now, we're holding our breaths, wondering who will win this round. I had until June 1st to submit my winning NaNo novel to Createspace.com for a free author's copy of the book, and I waited until Memorial Day weekend to finish the edits in order to submit. Now, I'm cussing out the site that is not working right and having me re-do items that are perfectly fine. Ugh! I have only 3 days remaining to get that submitted - will I make it?

Steampunk

2009-04-18T16:53:00.006-05:00

I just added a new blog to my list - it's on steampunk! This is the newest interest of my husband and myself. There's a steampunk convention coming to St. Louis in April of 2010 and we're on the search for costume pieces! This is such a change from my Renaissance Faire hobby - it should be really cool! I'm even thinking of new plot lines for new stories - delving into a world I've only skimmed before. I did love the series Firefly and Dark Angel, both dealing with a sort of post-apocalyptic-like setting, but in very different ways. And I love the movie Howl's Moving Castle.

Disney's site for Howl's Moving Castle
You Tube Trailer

Castle in the Sky is cool, too.
You Tube Trailer of Castle in the Sky

And there are so many sites on the web to visit that I've only just begun.

Six Words - Spring Cleaning

2009-04-08T16:29:00.001-05:00

Spring cleaning?
More like
Spring makeover!

4 Degrees C Warmer

2009-03-08T22:19:00.003-05:00

This little doodad can help me in planning my fictional world after humanity is gone:

4 Degrees C Warmer Map

I'm finding plenty to fuel my story - too bad my story may not be as fictional as I intended.

2012 and Old Ideas for a Novel

2009-02-26T15:46:00.004-06:00

I've been trying to decide what unfinished novel to work on next. This is constantly working in the back of my mind - which novel can I make magnificent? Which novel will engage the reader? I hadn't been able to make that decision until a few days ago when I watched a few TV shows: The Lost Books of Nostradamus, How the Earth was Made, and Doomsday: The End of Days. Then I did a bit more research on-line on polar shifts, 2012, and a new Ice Age.

I have a novel I started writing in 1997 about a unique way that human civilization would be wiped off Earth, but I never finished it. With all this new information, mostly theoretical, but with quite a few interesting facts, I can complete the novel with enough facts that I can make it believable. Now, on to the major task of finishing and revising my novel.

Six Words: Valentine's Day

2009-02-11T16:48:00.001-06:00

Valentine's Day -
Poor poet's
Favorite holiday.

Bookstores Should Take More Responsibility

2009-01-29T13:19:00.002-06:00

I just read an interesting article about why bookstores should not be allowed to return books that don't sell. I agree 100%. This is from Angela Hoy of Writers Weekly.com.

Books should be non-returnable

24-Hour Short Story Contest

2009-01-25T18:10:00.003-06:00

I just entered a contest which WritersWeekly.com holds quarterly. You write a short story in 24 hours. They give you the topic and the word limit at noon on the day of the contest and you just have to touch on the subject in your story. This was Saturday's topic:

"The small wood stove kept the tiny chapel warm and their
snowy footprints had already melted by the door. The dim
light from the candle nubs played on the faces of the
minister and his wife, and made the bride and groom's
shadows dance on the empty pews.

The minister’s monotone continued, "If any of you can show
just cause why they may not lawfully be married, speak now;
or else for ever hold your peace."

All four turned abruptly when they heard a cough by the
door..."

And I think I wrote a pretty darn good story with this topic. It will take them a month to judge and then I will most certainly blog about it here when I win! (Must think positive!) 1st through 3rd place winners receive cash prizes, some e-books, and are published on Writers Weekly's website. Here's a link:

http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php

April 25th, 2009, beginning at noon, is the next one. They limit it to 500 entrants, so sign up soon if you want to try it out. The entry fee is only $5.00. I had fun and will definitely sign up for the spring session.

Six Words: Megan

2009-01-23T16:45:00.002-06:00

18 weeks'

Pre-natal love

Transcends death.

Reference Book Review - The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing

2009-01-11T16:14:00.003-06:00

I'm in the process of editing my NaNo novel. In order to take a little break from the work, I'm reading some of my reference books on how to edit and re-write. I just finished the Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall. If ever someone were looking for a step-by-step guide book on how to write a novel, this is it. It tells you how long your book should be by genre and how many sections and chapters you should have, what major events should happen where, how many chapters to devote to each character, where you should have your 3 big surprises, etc. It's a very formulaic guide. If you like a precise pattern, this is the book for you.

I am not quite so rigid in my writing style, but I was able to use many of the tips/suggestions/rules that are in this book to help me write and re-write. I'm more of a relaxed writer - sometimes I start writing with just a character and an event and other times I will write a pretty detailed outline that I end up following loosely. Trying to keep everything as tightly placed as this book suggests would annoy me to no end. But it's always nice to see things from a different perspective and to be able to pick and choose which advice I'll use.

I wrote a few notes that pertain to how I write from the book, but this book will end up being donated to the library and hopefully someone else will be able to get more from it than I did. Good book, just not my style.

Six Words: Ruining America

2009-01-08T16:47:00.001-06:00

Lead testing

Gone extreme

Ruins America

New Year Writing Goals

2008-12-31T13:46:00.002-06:00

Here are my writing goals for 2009:

Create a Family Stories Recipe Book
Edit my 2008 NaNo novel in order to send in for the free proof copy
Write 3 other rough drafts of new novels
Edit one of those novels for publishing
Post to my blogs a few times a week
Read through my Novel and Short Story Writer's Market to find markets for my novels and short stories
Write essays for my three daughters' scrapbooks

2009 will be a very busy and successful year - I can feel it!

My Mac Spoke to Me

2008-12-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

I was playing around with my System Preferences on my Mac and found the Text to Speech software. I chose the newest voice, "Alex", which is a huge improvement as far as computer voices go - he almost sounds human. Then I created a shortcut command to have highlighted text be spoken by Alex. I chose some text from my NaNo novel. Having my words read by any voice other than mine is a bit of an ego caress. And hearing it from Alex let me know what words my readers might stumble over, like a few of my characters' names. All in all, it's cool.

Has Amazon Turned to the Dark Side?

2008-12-15T17:09:00.002-06:00

Amazon will turn off your "Buy Me" button unless you print your POD book with their POD publisher. Here's the first article on the situation from Writer's Weekly.

http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

It's a shame that greed tends to overcome all else concerning Big Business. I rarely buy from Amazon because I like going to bookstores and feeling the book in my hand, flipping through it before I decide to buy. But occasionally we do buy other things from Amazon - we will have to reconsider those purchases from now on.

*******
The original case:

Booklocker.com claims Amazon will now only sell POD books that were printed by Amazon's company, Booksurge. And by doing so, they are causing damage to all other POD publishers by creating an illegal tying arrangement.

http://antitrust.booklocker.com/complaint.pdf

******
Amazon's response:

Amazon states they are within their legal rights to sell whichever products they desire.

http://antitrust.booklocker.com/amazon-motion-to-dismiss.pdf

******
Booklocker's Response:

Amazon is destroying the competitive market for POD printing services.

http://antitrust.booklocker.com/booklocker-response.pdf

Six Words : Rebirth

2008-12-12T13:51:00.003-06:00

Winter death

Quietly anticipating

Spring rebirth.

Editing My NaNo Novel

2008-12-03T17:13:00.004-06:00

I've just started thinking about my NaNo novel and already have some ideas about what I need to edit.

My antagonist needs to be more antagonizing.
My protagonist needs to be more fully developed - she had a personality in the beginning and then just kind of let me push her along at the end.
I had started off thinking this was going to be a fantasy romance, but it ended up being less romance and more fantasy, so I need to go back and cut out some of the love scenes or else bring more of the romance element into the story.
I need to switch between the hero's POV and the heroine's just so we can get to know the hero better - in my mind he was much more than he ended up being in the story.

I'm reading two books on editing and revision right now to see if there are things I hadn't considered - this will be my first time editing a novel. I've edited my short stories before and they were pretty easy - cut out lots of verbiage. In the novel, while I do need to cut, I will also have to add a lot.

I Wrote a Novel in 28 Days!!!

2008-11-29T11:03:00.003-06:00

I did it! I didn't know if I was going to make it, but I did! On November 23rd I had only 33,678 words and then I didn't get back to writing until Nov. 27th. That day I wrote over 6,000 words and then on the 28th I wrote over 13,000 words!!! It is a very, very, very rough draft with almost no character development, but I'm going to try to edit it and flesh it out enough so that I can take advantage of Create Space's free proof copy - it would be awesome to see a book I wrote in actual book form!

I'm going to upload my cool little NaNo Winner icons here shortly. I've just proven to myself that I really can write novels if I just sit down and do it.

A Great Procrastinator

2008-11-23T14:31:00.002-06:00

I am a whopping 9,500 words behind on my word count as far as NaNo goes, but I've rediscovered just how wonderful a procrastinator I am. Here's what I have done this week instead of sitting down to write my novel:

Thoroughly cleaned the bathroom, including soaking my plastic shower curtain in bleach to remove the build-up; cleaned the stove-top and the oven of any baked-on foods; patched a pair of bluejeans; labeled a huge stack of photos (about 300) and put them in photo albums; cleaned the house from top to bottom to prepare for Christmas decorating; pulled out the Christmas decorations and tree and decorated everything; planted some lilac trees and transplanted some other trees; baked cookies and prepared a pie; took about 3 1/2 hours grocery shopping and misc. shopping; trimmed my bangs; picked out photos for a calendar and finally ordered it (it had been a gift two years ago); and I updated this blog once.

Now that I'm out of to-do list items to help me procrastinate, I guess I have to get back to writing my novel.

Finish that Work-in-Progress

2008-11-17T11:07:00.002-06:00

During National Novel Writing Month guest authors send out inspirational tips to those of us crazy enough to attempt writing an entire novel in just 30 days. The tip that struck home with me was the one Meg Cabot sent out. To be succinct, she advised we just finish the project we started on.

Seems pretty obvious advice, right? Well, I have so many stories hidden away in notebooks that started off wonderfully, kept me writing page after page with these new and exciting characters, and then I get to the end of the inspired writing and just stop, thinking I’ll pick it up again soon. But before I get back to that first story, another idea has me off writing page after page. I have done that too many times to count. I write until the ideas dwindle and then I move on, always telling myself that if the story was worthy enough, it would pull me back without any effort on my part.

I used to write short stories. Short stories are easy for me. I can knock out a short story in a day and have it edited in a few more days. Short stories for me are the exact extent of my inspired writing. I dare say they’re almost effortless. (Before short stories I wrote poetry.) The problem is that there is such a small market for short stories that it would be unlikely that anyone other than my family and friends would ever read my stories. And I prefer reading series novels - stories that go on for months or years or decades. I like that character development. You don’t get much character development with short stories. And the going advice out there is to write what you like to read.

So, here I am, trying to write a novel, being constantly tempted with new ideas before I finish the work-in-progress. And low-and-behold it is hard work. But I must finish. This novel. Now.

Six Word Memoirs

2008-11-10T08:00:00.004-06:00

I've known about this magazine for awhile now and have attempted to write my own six-word memoir, but I just can't sum up my entire life in six words.

Smith Magazine

The closest I've come to is this:

"It's Twins!"
"You're kidding."
"No, really."

Or this:

He recited my anonymous poem enchantingly.

They don't come close to some of the six-word memoirs on the site. The one that Hemingway was supposed to have come up with is, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Now how much more succinctly can one sum up a story so obviously full of sorrow and anguish? But I'll keep trying. I'll post them here whenever I come up with more.

NaNo Update Day 9

2008-11-09T16:48:00.002-06:00

Just a quick update on my NaNo novel progress; things are going wonderfully, couldn’t ask for better. I am up to 15,460 words, which is about 68 pages and just slightly ahead of where I need to be at this time. My only complaint could be that I seem to want to write down everything that comes into my head about this story. Of course during National Novel Writing Month that is beyond wonderful - it ups my word count without having to resort to throwing something completely foreign into my novel like flying ninjas. But I’ve never attempted a second draft of a NaNo novel before and if I have to take out chunks and chunks of this story I can see a long road ahead of me.

But that’s something to worry about in December, not November.

Anyway, I finally updated my NaNo page, so click on the link on the side bar and check out my novel summary and an excerpt.

Laurell K. Hamilton can Pace!

2008-10-31T13:48:00.005-05:00

I just started reading my first Laurell K. Hamilton book the other night and could not put the book down until page 208 (there are 658 pages). The book, Incubus Dreams, is an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel and came out in 2004. You don't have to read previous novels to enjoy this one, but it might help to understand the characters a bit more. Anyway, the first 22 pages set up the story with a wedding, then switch to a murder scene, then back to the reception. At that point I had to hold on tight because the intensity soared.

It started with some emotional intensity and then kept pulling you in until it took you to a very emotional bonding scene followed by a friendly vampire gone crazy scene where the heroes had to keep the vampire from hurting them but couldn't really kill the vamp, then as that action finally calmed down, it raced right back up and dove into an emotionally charged sex scene. My heart was literally pounding as I read. The intensity finally slacked off at the end of chapter 27 (she has very short chapters) and I could close the book and go to bed.

I don't know how she can pace like that - it drained me just reading it, I can't imagine writing it. But I know if I ever wonder how to speed up the pace of my book, I need look no further than to Laurell K. Hamilton and study at least this book, if not others.

Romance Novel Cover Preparation

2008-10-24T18:25:00.001-05:00

As a pre-published author, I am intensely interested in the whole publication process. It's something new to me, something I must learn, and therefore I glean knowledge wherever I can. On CL Wilson's MySpace page she has a YouTube of a snippet of what a publisher goes through to create the cover of a Romance novel. I always wondered about that...

CL Wilson's MySpace Link

By the way, CL Wilson is my newest favorite author - I have read all three of her novels and am anxiously awaiting the fourth one in the series to come out (it doesn't come out until February). Until then, I am catching up on other authors' novels.