Digging In This December

I'll be brief – good thing I write flash fiction! -  because I'm still struggling with my novel/novella draft, and I am determined to be done by the end of the year. 

 

This holiday post is short on words, but it is long on gratitude. As 2023 draws to a close, I am grateful for so much in my life, including all of you. Thank you for reading my dark, weird little stories. Thank you for stopping by this blog. Thank you for all the comments. Your encouragement and support, humor and information are thoroughly appreciated. 

 

*** All of us here at TSR wish you 

a wonderful holiday season and a new year 

that exceeds your dreams and expectations!!! *** 

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream . . . Forever

Ah, fall in Florida! When the "excessive heat advisory" drops to the regular old "heat advisory", and I defiantly keep eating Key Lime Pie ice cream even as pumpkin flavored everything rolls in. 

WRITING

Novella/Novel – I didn't achieve my goal of finishing the first draft by the end of the summer. I did make a ton of progress, though – scene cards sketched out, scenes written, an ending that makes me both happy and sad. Maybe another month to go . . .  

 

Mailing List – Um…. Nope. I'd like to say I'll do this in September but by the end of the year is more realistic. 

 

A great post over on Writers Helping Writers - "Do Your Characters Have Agency?" - got me thinking hard about my characters in general. 

 

PHYSICAL HEALTH

Way back at the beginning of 2023, my goal had been to lose some pounds. That's not going very well (see Key Lime Pie Ice Cream above), but I am exercising more consistently, slowly amping up the duration and intensity. I hope to get outside soon – it's still too hot for me – to walk and ride bikes.  

 

READING

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell is a mystery/suspense/thriller that takes you on a wild, wild ride, one definitely not for the faint of heart. 

 

And for the first time in a long time, I'm ahead in my 2023 Reading Challenge.

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How was your summer? Did you make progress on any projects? Read anything that blew you away? Are you a fan of pumpkin flavored everything?

The Summer of Making Strides

For a lot of people, the summer is about relaxing and vacations. But since doing anything "normal" would be too easy – and easy stands no chance against my overthinking ogre of a brain – my husband and I mostly spend this sweat-storm of a season with our heads down, trying to get stuff done. 

 

WRITING

Novel/novella – a draft WILL be done by summer's end. I will write through a hurricane if I have to (but, please, let's hope and pray I don't have to!)

 

Mailing List – a mailing list will – hopefully! - be set up by summer's end. I know, I know, I should've done this so long ago. Part of the delay was laziness, some just procrastination, but most of it was that overthinking ogre brain again. 

 

This post - "The Thing That Sticks Out" – by Austin Kleon reminded me how uniqueness in a story should often be cultivated, not squashed. 

 

WATCHING

Movie – "Knock at the Cabin" (2023, directed by M. Night Shyamalan) – I really enjoyed this. It was suspenseful, unnerving and unsettling, all things I love in a story. 

 

READING

Two recent favorites for you:

LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle (historical fiction/horror) 

CROW MARY by Kathleen Grissom (historical fiction) - I was lucky to get my greedy hands on an ARC of this one. 

 

TORTOISES

The tortoises celebrated their 14^thbirthday! Banana was enjoyed by all! 

 

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What are your summer plans? Any suggestions or tips for setting up a mailing list? Read or watched anything you enjoyed? Celebrating anything?

 

Is That Progress I See?

Lately, progress is like some elusive legendary creature slinking around beneath the sea. I catch glimpses of it, only for it to then flick its tail at me before disappearing back into the deep. 

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WRITING

Published - My 400 word story, DEAD LINE, up at Dread Stone Press.

 

Novel/Novella - I had to rethink and redo so much of it these past couple of months. I really hope it will be worth it and a better story will result.

 

Two fun and inspirational posts for you:

"10 Things Lego Has Taught Me About Story-Building" by P.A. Cornell, over on the Writers Helping Writers blog 

 

"Are You Giving Yourself Writing Credit?" by Jessica Conoley, over at Jane Friedman's blog. 

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WATCHING

Movies - We really liked "Jerry and Marge Go Large" (Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening, and Rainn Wilson.) Sometimes, the dark corners of my mind need some light shone into them. 

 

TV – "The Night Agent" on Netflix was great! My husband said it reminded him of "24" (the original series), which is one of his all-time favorite shows. So enjoying "Not Dead Yet" with Gina Rodriguez – funny, quirky, heartwarming and heartbreaking, all in 30 minutes! 

 

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Have you seen progress – on anything! - lately? What keeps you going when the glimpses of it are few and far between? Have you watched anything you'd recommend?

The More Creeped Out You Are

I am socially awkward at the best of times, but I usually manage to come up with a coherent and interesting (hopefully!) answer to the general question about what I write - something along the lines of short fiction, dark fiction, horror. Now, if you ask me specifically what my novel is about, you get this -

"Um...."

Doesn't that just sound deliciously creepy and like something you're dying to read? NOT! Napping tortoises are more interesting than that. (And definitely cuter.)  

Literary agent Janet Reid wrote an excellent post - What's Your Book About? - about her experience at a conference speaking with authors and what happened when she asked them about their work. I absolutely recommend heading over and reading the whole post, but here's the biggest takeaway for me:

"You simply MUST be prepared to tell people, in a compelling way, what your book is about. . . . First thing to remember is start NOW. No matter where you are in the publishing cycle: querying, sold, pubbed, you need to be able to say what your book is about."

I'm working on it!

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And speaking of Ms. Reid, I entered her Writing Without Rules Flash Fiction Contest last month, and although my story didn't win, her comments on it (below, in blue) made my entire month.  

Gregory, old and gnarled, slumps on his porch. His lawn, overgrown with weeds and wild things, chokes the once neat path. At the gate, nettles cling, watch deserted streets. He calls out, can only hope for more survivors.

A man and woman appear, dirty, laden with packs.

"Please help! I fell."

They hesitate, the rules different now.

Gregory is desperate. "I have food, water. It's yours."

They nod, start toward him.

He watches the lawn shiver, the monsters within slither out to feed. He listens to the screams.

Gregory is spared. Again. He stands, stretches.

The rules are different now.

Honestly this creeped me out so much I could barely read it the second time.
Thank all deities foreign and domestic that I live in Brooklyn, a place with few lawns.
Of course, the more creeped out you are, the better the writing.

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Are you prepared to talk about your novel? Or are you like me, still working on it? Do overgrown lawns creep you out? If you have a lawn, do you know what's lurking in it? 

Make Something Happen

One of my big goals this year is to take my horror novella/novel as far as I can then move to the next step . . . whatever that is. Is it sending it to beta readers? Is it hiring a professional editor? Is it querying agents? I don't know. And right now, that's okay.

What I do know is that I have to Write. This. Book.

I'm tired of not writing it.

I'm tired of whining about not writing it (as are my husband and the tortoises!)

I'm tired of complaining, crying, envying, moping.

I'm tired of watching time tick by, taking my dreams with it.

So, I am heeding these words -

"YOUR CAREER IS IN YOUR HANDS NOW.

MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN."
(Janet Reid)

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How's your writing career going? Are you in the process of making something happen? And what does that "something" look like for you? Is it getting a novel written, going to a conference, learning a new marketing/publishing/social media tool? 

IWSG: Chase the Dream or Let it Go?

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

I love writing stories and flash fiction, but I've always wanted to write novels - back when I was a kid, back before the Internet and the explosion of self-publishing options and all the opportunities we have today. 

But I struggle with writing novels now more than I ever did. And I don't know why.

It's not writer's block - I've got ideas. I've got time, a dedicated space, support from my husband and great people (I'm looking at you all!) who will probably - hopefully - read what I write. I keep circling back to the idea that maybe I'm just not meant to write full length books. 

I am meant to write. That I know for sure. But maybe I should just focus on stories, on flash, on some other form of writing I haven't come across yet? Maybe I should stop chasing the thirty year old dream of writing novels? Maybe it wasn't meant to be caught? The world has changed, publishing has changed, I've changed, so maybe that dream should, too? 

I wish I knew. 

Back to the Beginning

Last week, I asked you all about endings, especially in regards to my WiP, the Ugly Horror Manuscript, aka UHM. (I actually call it something else but, since it's really not family-and-tortoise-friendly, I'll keep it to myself.)

This week, we're going back to the beginning.

UHM started as a short story. I turned the story into Chapter One. It later became Chapter Two. Then it because Chapter One again but this time following a Prologue.(Now, don't everyone gang up on me about having a Prologue. I have no idea if it will stay or go or grow wings and fly away.) 

After working on the ms for awhile, I got stuck. So, I switched gears and worked on writing backstory for some of the main characters but I wrote them as actual scenes...which grew into chapters…chapters I really, really like and want to use as actual chapters, not as flashbacks, etc. (By the way, I've also considered using those backstory chapters as supplemental stories for when - notice I didn't say if! - I get the novel/novella out in the world.)

In UHM, the story starts twenty years ago with the antagonist's arrival and the aftermath of that moment (which by the way, is creepy and gross, and I love it!) Now, the novel could easily start there - and with a bang! - but it originally started twenty years later with the arrival of the protagonist and her disruption of the status quo which triggers all kinds of bad stuff.  

The prevailing wisdom is to start the novel in media res, but what if the backstory starts that way, too? And, if that's the case, then maybe the backstory isn't backstory after all? And, of course, maybe I just need to stop worrying about all of this right now and keep writing? 

As a writer, how do you handle beginnings? Backstory? As a reader, do you like to know things the protagonist doesn't? (No, don't trust your brother - he's a liar! Yes, believe what the homeless woman is saying - she's not crazy after all!) Or do you prefer to discover things along the with protagonist? (Gasp! Her spouse is really an alien from outer space! No! His client, who is also his best friend, really is guilty of blackmail and murder!) 

Novel Needs - Where? When?

This is going to sound like an odd question but here goes - do I need to specify the time period of my novel and the state where my fictionalized town is located?

Here's why I'm asking - I want my novel to have a "timeless" quality. I don't want to talk about cell phones or texting or specific politicians or actors or natural disasters - things that could "date" the story. Now, it would be different if any of those things were integral to the story but they really aren't, or at least not that I can see at this point in the writing. (And this could change in the future, I suppose.)

I also don't feel any pull toward putting the story in a particular state. It doesn't feel like it belongs in State A or State B.  If it did, it would go there and I would make sure all the necessary details (flora, fauna, slang, etc.) were added. The story takes place in a fictionalized town that becomes almost like a character itself but I want that town to be Anywhere, USA, to exist anywhere the reader's mind wants to put it. [Side note: I just read in Robert McKee's STORY that "There is no such thing as a portable story." Agh!!!]

Is it enough to show a passage of time? Is it enough to describe a town so it feels real?

I'm not sure it's possible to do this. I would love feedback not only from my writer friends, but also from those book lovers out there. How much does it matter to you, as a reader, to not be able to fix a specific time and place on a story?