Monthly Archives: March 2015

New Starts

Career, Dear Diary, Out in the World, Writing, , , , , , , , , ,

HAPPY HUMP DAY!!!!!!

So, this is the first place I am officially announcing this news: I GOT A JOB! A REAL FULL TIME JOB!!

*insert squealing girl here*

*clears throat*

Anyway. This company was the only one to even ask for an interview since my December 2014 graduation. I’d gotten PLENTY of rejections (not unlike my publishing attempts), but they asked me for not one, but TWO interviews, and two days later, I received a job offer, making MUCH more than I’d expected and will great benefits.

By the time of the follow-up interview, I was recovering from a Smoky Mountain Writer’s hangover and in the middle of a Book 3 mini-coma. Once that retreat had ended, I had a L.O.I. (Loss of Inspiration – see previous post), and felt absolutely drained. And don’t go thinking that the retreat was terrible for me if I got these aftereffects. That retreat was AWESOME, so no one can criticize it. I got a lot of wordsmithing, brainstorming, and networking done in those short seven days. If you EVER get a chance to go on a writer’s retreat or even a literary convention, GO!G&G 60th 149

Anyway, I was readjusting to normal, routine life, which consisted of an hour of staring at a blank computer screen, unbelievable amounts of time on Facebook, and having deep conversations with my dogs because I had no one else to talk to. Don’t look at me like that. It’s not weird. What is weird is having a majority of days filled with silence after seven days of having 18 other people to talk to.

The job offer made me so excited. I was bouncing off the walls for days! Yeah, I crashed once, and started freaking out about what I might screw up, or how I might come off to fellow employees, or how people’s first impressions of me would be (positive, negative, creative – the worries were unending). Then, I realized that I can only do the best I can. They had to know I would be a good fit for the job; otherwise, they wouldn’t have offered me the job. I may doubt myself during my employment, but I had to be worth something to end up there.

In writing news, I still am stuck on my SMW WIP. However, I took a detour, and decided to venture into the past of the characters in that series, much like I did with my ToTV series and The Protektor’s Reality [Still available for purchase on Amazon, along with the ebook short story saga 😉 ]. One of these prequels is a roleplay that I’m doing with a friend, coincidentally the one who gave me the idea for this series to begin with. It’s pretty much just a GoogleDoc that both of us can edit, and we each post a paragraph or so focused on a single character’s actions, and then we put some sort of separator (for instance ” *** “), and the next author/character can post their bit. The second is one I’m doing on my own, but has helped me to create the background and behind the scenes of my current WIP series. And BOY, is it fun!

Until next time, interwebz, Keep Faith. Like I’ll have to, in order to not go insane balancing my work life and writing life. :p

WB vs. L.O.I.: Post-Writeathon Blues

Advice, Fiction, Ramblings, Writing, Writing Process, , , , , , , , , ,

So, for once, two blog postings in a week. This should make up for forgetting February, right?

Anyway, this post is one that is rough for me to admit, but I feel that people could relate to it, so why the heck not, huh? I mean, if that retreat taught me anything, it’s that finding other writers who have faced similar situations is an eye-opener, and they can give advice for the troubles you might be having, because they might have gone through them themselves.

This week, my struggle is my inspiration. It’s gone on vacation. For who knows how long. I spent a straight 7 days writing about 8 hours a day, with breaks for lunch and just because I need to step away. So, about 6 hours a day, I was either brainstorming or writing. And now I have 28,000 words for my third book in my most recent series.

The problem with that?

When I got home, my inspiration said, “Adios. Sayonara. Goodbye. I’ll be back whenever.”

I had lost all inspiration to work on finishing it. Maybe it was the draining from writing that much in that short amount of time. Maybe I missed my new friends and the snippets we would share before dinner. Maybe I’d laughed too much over the course of that retreat, and it gave me brain damage. In any case, I have not been able to get a coherent chapter out of my head for days. And it’s frustrating! Because, only about a month or two ago did I know how my series would end. And the ending is AMAZING! (Well, in my mind anyway. The rest of you will be sobbing and sending threatening letters for me to write another book to make things better).

The point is, losing your inspiration can be a scary, frustrating thing. I’ve had plenty of times when I had writer’s block, but what I’ve come to realize is that Writer’s Block and Loss of Inspiration are two separate conditions.

Writer’s Block, despite the usage some people use, is when you can’t generate any ideas for projects you’re working on, which causes frustration because you had hoped it would amount to something. Loss of Inspiration takes from the (wrong) public usage and capitalizes on it. I see it as you know EXACTLY what you want to write, EXACTLY which characters it involves, and EXACTLY how it ends, but can’t, for your life, get the words down on paper/computer. Some symptoms of both of these would be:

– frustration;

– not being able to sit still for extended lengths of time;

– spending TOO much time on Netflix, browsing episodes of Friends, Supernatural, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or various, addictive anime shows;

– Talking/Rambling a lot, much to the annoyance of your family and friends.

However, a MAJOR effect of L.O.I. is one that isn’t that prominent in WB:

– Dreaming.

Being a writer is all about being an imaginative dreamer, right? Our stories are a part of us, every character has a piece of us in their looks, personality, attitude, quirks, or flaws. Each setting, plot bunny, character, world system – each and every word we have written since we wanted to be a writer – came from us. When you have WB, it restricts that dreaming ability, because we can’t seem to figure out what to write next. However, the opposite is just a frustrating to those with L.O.I.

They dream more than usual. You’d think this was a good thing, but think about it for a second. Being able to dream up every chapter, every plot point, every character development moment, but not being able to utilize it in story format? For me, that’s torture. It’s the most frustrating condition ever to have, and believe me, I know, because I’m going through it right now.

The downside? Every writer can get both of these issues at any time in their writing career. It will happen without notice, warning, or time to prepare, and when you least expect it. There’s a good thing to remember though.

There’s always a light at the end of a tunnel. You will get through it, and one day soon, you’ll be scribbling/typing at the speed of light. Just remind yourself of what you want, and remember that it will be worth it.

Yeah, having your own book in your hands, whether digital or print?

Yes, it’s ALWAYS worth the trouble.

Guess I gotta remember that myself, huh? 😉

AWESOME! – That Time In The Mountains

Fiction, Out in the World, Writing, , , , , , , , , ,

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I’ve been quiet for a while, trying to figure out what I could blog about. Now, I have the absolute BEST thing to write about.

For the past week, I have been away on a Writers retreat (Smoky Mountain Writers- SMW) with about <20 AMAZING people. When I arrived, I only knew one person, one of my mentors who pulled me into this. I was petrified, not knowing who these people are, just knowing they were writers and friends with my mentors. Said mentors assured me that these were good people, and I trust them, which is why I agreed to go. I thought, hey, it’s a good experience, and great networking. However, with my shyness and reluctance to interact with other people, I was still a bit anxious about how I would fair during an 8-day retreat in the middle of nowheresville Tennessee (The mountains in Gatlinburg, for anyone’s information) with a bunch of people I didn’t know. At worst, I’d get some writing done, get some sleep and food, and not embarrass the heck out of myself.

Man, I was SOOOOOO GLAD that it was much more than that.

My drive was difficult to say the least. I drove through a blizzard on I-81 for over 8 hours, finally stopping 15 miles from the VA/TN border on Saturday night. I continued the drive Sunday morning, and when I got there, I learned it had been totally worth it (no matter how much my mom said she was going to kick my @$$ when I got home).

Sure, a majority of our time was silent writing time (which, over 6.5 days, I’d written over 28k). At first it was hard to interact with these people, because all of them had some sort of connections with other cabinmates. Most had been to Balticon, and were planning on returning this May. Some were co-authoring works together, and others had been friends for years. It was intimidating, being the odd one out.

Then came the surprising part: they attempted to include me. Like, talking to me, actually WANTING to get to know ME, of all people. They understood the challenges I’d had in life, because all of them had been through it too. They were welcoming, kind, CRAZY people, so much like me that it stunned me for a bit. They got me to do things I never would have done elsewhere. I read some of my raw work EVERY NIGHT. I watched a New Zealand vampire ‘documentary’ (coming soon to places other than NZ- What We Do In The Shadows). I even hot-tubbed OUTSIDE in 30° temperatures!

Before I arrived, I believed this would be an amazing opportunity to network and make connections. I hadn’t really expected to make 17 new friends. By the time I had to say my tearful goodbye (Bad weather on last day, so left early), I trusted them so much, and I hope they will be friends with me for a long, long time. They were amazing, creative, spontaneous, CRAZY people, and I miss them so much already.

Onto Smoky Writers 2016!

As Stu WILL say, “AWWWWESUMMMM!”