Currently...Mediating

Another entry for my "Currently..." segment, in which I let you know what I'm currently up to on a number of highly important topics.

I AM CURRENTLY...

READING:

Novels: Shadowland by Meg Cabot, the first book in The Mediator series. I've been dealing with Restless Reading Syndrome again, but when I suddenly thought of them I got really excited - even though I've already read them twice. ;) I've been trying to get through Defiance by C.J. Redwine, but I've gotten to the point where I'm seething with frustration and don't want to pick it up anymore. No idea why, but it's the characters, for some reason.
Manga: xxxHolic series. It was time for another re-read. So good. Highly recommend.

WATCHING:

TV: Person of Interest Season 1. One of the best shows ever - can't wait for the 2nd Season to start later this month. Also Castle Season 4, the other best show ever. :) And for a little splash of comedy, Hot in Cleveland Season 2. Don't judge.
Movies: Just finished Mirror Mirror, which if you overlook the stupid beginning and ending (a Bollywood musical number to close, seriously?), it was pretty good. The set and costumes were amazing, and the mirror world and puppets were original and awesome.

WRITING:

Fell out of the habit of writing (so easy to do) and couldn't get back to it for several weeks. I literally forgot how, which was a little scary. But happily I'm back at it, and making some progress!

Project P: It is once more in play! I am halfway through Day 1 (the middle part is broken into 7 Days), and it's going well. Am currently at just over 31K. For the next scene I am researching New Museum and climbing gear. Spoilers. ;)
Project V: I have shelved it once again. So close, yet so far. One day, one day...

PLANNING:

Aside for a few snags, my Nano2012 East Valley Region planning is coming along nicely. I have several new programs lined up for October, including a Q&A panel (which I will be on, gulp) and a Story 101 workshop I'm putting together with two awesome local authors. Breaking down the basic elements of writing is hard (especially for three discovery writers), but hopefully we'll be able to pull it off well enough. I also have four local authors lined up for pep talks (they are so awesome, squeezing us into their super-busy schedules!), so we're in for a star-studded November. ;) Thank goodness I have 100 tiny plastic ninjas helping me, though, or I'd never get it all done in time!

That's it for me. What are you "currently" up to?

Paranormal vs. Supernatural

I put this together for my writing group blog last month, and thought you guys might find it interesting as well.

Before Paranormal became the genre, Supernatural was usually the go-to genre name for out of the ordinary creatures and mysterious powers. While I personally feel Paranormal and Supernatural should be considered two separate genres, most consider them interchangeable.

Below is the basic description for both Paranormal and Supernatural from Wikipedia, to give you a better idea of how they are different - and alike.

Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation," or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure. Paranormal phenomena are distinct from certain hypothetical entities, such as dark matter and dark energy, only insofar as paranormal phenomena are inconsistent with the world as already understood through empirical observation coupled with scientific methodology.

Thousands of stories relating to paranormal phenomena are found in popular culture, folklore, and the recollections of individual subjects. In contrast, the scientific community, as referenced in statements made by organizations such as the United States National Science Foundation, maintains that scientific evidence does not support a variety of beliefs that have been characterized as paranormal.

What I believe falls under Paranormal: vampires, werewolves, fairies, monsters, aliens, zombies, ghosts, spirits, parapsychology

The supernatural is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature.

With neoplatonic and medieval scholastic origins, the metaphysical considerations can be difficult to approach as an exercise in philosophy or theology because any dependencies on its antithesis, the natural, will ultimately have to be inverted or rejected. In popular culture and fiction, the supernatural is whimsically associated with the paranormal and the occult, this differs from traditional concepts in some religions, such as Catholicism, where divine miracles are considered supernatural.

What I believe falls under Supernatural: anything "religious" - angels, demons, ghosts, spirits

So they are pretty much interchangeable, but can be separated.

What do you think?

5 Writing Tips from Chelsea Cain

This article was just so good I had to share it. The original can be found here at Publisher's Weekly, and you can find the amazing (and colorful) bestselling author Chelsea Cain here.

5 Writing Tips from Chelsea Cain

Writing tips are like mini skirts. Sometimes they fit perfectly, sometimes they make you cry, and sometimes you can reuse the material and sew yourself a pillow or something. Maybe a few of these will work for you. I hope so. Personally I think you’d look very nice in a mini-skirt.

1. You won’t make a living writing until you learn to write when you don’t want to. A lot of writers wait for the muse to seize them. These writers don’t get much done. Here’s a secret: writing is not always fun. If it is, you’re doing it wrong. I love to write just about more than anything, but there are times I have to force myself to sit down and work. I want to play with my daughter, or watch a movie with my husband, or go outside on the nicest day of the year. But if writing is going to be your job, you have to treat it like a job. And that means that you don’t get to take the day off just because you’re “not feeling it.” This is what separates the writers who make it from the writers who don’t. Get your butt in your chair, and make yourself write. Do it every day.

2. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Don’t be afraid of clichés. Write the book you want to write. If you want to write about an alcoholic cop with an ex-wife and an insubordination problem, do it. If you want to write about a haunted hotel, or a woman who finds herself through a journey, or a teenage amateur sleuth – well, awesome. Your book will be different because you’re the one writing it.

3. Always remember that you are the boss. Don’t let your characters tell you what to do. They can be pushy. Some writers say that they create characters and then just sort of follow them around through the narrative. I think that these writers are out of their minds. I tried this for years. I would create characters based loosely on people that I knew, and before long that character would be talking back to me. “I’m not sure Stacey would do that,” Stacey would say, when I tried to convince her to go into the scary basement alone. And she’d be right. Stacey wouldn’t do that. No one would, really. I didn’t bloom as a fiction writer until I figured out how to make up characters out of whole cloth (not based on anyone), and I stopped worrying about what they’d do in real life. My characters have to do what I tell them. And if I need Stacey to go into that scary basement, then that’s what she’s going to do.

4. Write the stuff that makes you feel nervous. Sometimes, when you’re writing, you will get to a scene that makes you feel profoundly uncomfortable. You will think you’ve gone too far. You will imagine your relatives reading this scene and your face will get hot and you will clear your throat a few times and you will be very, very tempted to delete that scene. Don’t do it. Finish writing it. Leave it in. Tell yourself that you can always cut it out later. Because I promise you – that scene -- it will be the best scene in the book. When writing feels dangerous, that’s when you know that you’re doing something right.

5. Details are not created equally. Writing teachers go on and on about the importance of using details to flesh out a scene. But not all details are created equally. When you write thrillers like I do, and suddenly your main character is running for his life from a serial killer who is chasing him through the woods, slowing down the action with a bunch of descriptions seems counterintuitive. Why would the main character be noticing the pine needles on the ground when he has a killer on his heels? But I’ll tell you a secret, the more detail that I unpack about that woods, the night air, the sky, the sounds of his footsteps, the more tense that scene becomes. I read a study recently. Some professor wanted to look into the experience that time slows in life or death situations and he tied some graduate students to Bungee cords and pushed them off a ledge, and studied the results. His conclusion? In normal circumstances our brain culls details. In tense situations our mind stops culling – it notices everything – because you don’t know what detail is going to save your life. This is what creates the experience of time slowing—lots of details. The next time you’re writing a tension filled scene – maybe there’s a serial killer in it, maybe your character is asking someone out to prom – remember to stop culling. Notice everything. The acne on her forehead. The buttons on her shirt. It all becomes important. It’s the ordinary moments that fly by. With those, the brain does cull details, so the details that your character does notice become all the more important and revealing. An object accrues more significance every time it’s mentioned. Notice the vase on the table once in a scene, and it’s a detail in the room. Notice the vase on the table three times and it means something to your character. It becomes a prop you can use. It starts to tell a story.

Currently...Spellbound

On the recommendation of web-buddy Gina, I am starting a new segment entitled "Currently...", in which I let you know what I'm currently up to on a number of highly important topics.

I AM CURRENTLY...

READING:

Novels: Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins, the 3rd (and final) book in the Hex Hall trilogy. While not exceptionally original, they are easy to read, well-written, and entertaining enough to keep my interest. Just finished: The Unnatural Inquirer, Book 8 of the Nightside Series by Simon R. Green. Blatant infodumping and the sloppiest plotting I've ever seen, but his description of the world (and the world itself) just keeps getting better and better.
Manga: Kamisama Kiss vol. 10 - aside from Skip Beat, my favorite manga series to date. Just finished: 5 Centimeters per Second, a melancholy romance about people who love too deeply. A beautiful story, but what is it about Japanese endings that it isn't worth telling unless it makes your soul hurt?

WATCHING:

Leverage Season 4, one of the best shows ever. Although if they were to replace Nate and Sophie, it most certainly wouldn't be the end of the world (Elliot, Parker, and Hardison totally make the show). Also watching the last season of Eureka - loved the "Smarter Carter" episode. And then I'm re-watching the 2nd season of White Collar, the 1st season of Human Target, the 2nd season of Sherlock, and random episodes of the 1st-3rd seasons of Leverage. Just finished: Warehouse 13, another awesomesauce show. Gotta have some variety, and television is my movies. :)

WRITING:

Project BW: I have a huge stack of research books from the library, the first few chapters are written and the first 3rd sort-of outlined, most of the main players are in place, and the world is coming along nicely. I'm even generating a few ideas for the 2nd book.
Project V: Finally called for my attention again, so I printed out what I have so far and am reading through it to see if my interest truly sparks. So far I'm pleasantly surprised with how good it is. I really would like to pick it back up, so fingers crossed it sticks.

PLANNING:

Nano2012 for my East Valley Region! I've got bigger plans this year, especially for October. I let time get away from me, though, so now I'm in a bit of a mad rush to get everything moving. Never put off today what you really should have done a month ago.

That's it for me. What are you "currently" up to?

Choose What to Leave Out

Yet another installment from Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon (you can find him and his awesome book here)! This chapter falls under Rule 10: Creativity is Substraction:

Choose What to Leave Out.

In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what's really important to them. Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying.

The way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. Write a song on your lunch break. Paint a painting with one color. Start a business without any start-up capital. Shoot a movie with your iPhone and a few of your friends. Build a machine out of spare parts. Don't make excuses for not working - make things with the time, space, and materials you have, right now.

The right constraints can lead to your very best work. May favorite example? Dr. Seuss wrote The Car in the Hat with only 236 different words, so his editor bet him he couldn't write a book with only 50 different words. Dr. Seuss came back and won the bet with Green Eggs and Ham, one of the bestselling children's books of all time.

"Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want - that just kills creativity." --Jack White

The artist Saul Steinberg said, "What we respond to in any work of art is the artist's struggle against his or her limitations." It's often what an artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting. What isn't shown versus what is. It's the same for people: What makes us interesting isn't just what we've experienced, but also what we haven't experienced. The same is true when you do your work: You must embrace your limitations and keep moving.

In the end, creativity isn't just the things we choose to put in, it's the things we choose to leave out.

Choose wisely.

And have fun.

Writer, Know Thyself

Guess what? I'm dropping Project MS.

I know, I know - you are shocked. Me, drop a project? Unheard of!

So what's my excuse this time? The simple fact that I am ruining it.

As explained in my previous post, Project MS is technically the 2nd Draft of a finished manuscript. But it needed a complete rewrite of the first half, and a complete overhaul of the Main Character, a woman who had no life.

For the past month I and said MC have struggled together to create her a family, a background, a life. But no matter how real she becomes, I have no idea how she will react when I drop her into the story. Stick her into a familial situation, no problem, but fold her into the magical diversion that is the story and I find myself forcing it. And if I have to force anything, I know I am doing something horribly wrong.

The final realization that I was, indeed, forcing came with the last scene I wrote. It flowed smoothly from my fingers, but once the scene was done I stopped and thought, "Is that really how the characters would've acted in that situation?" I still, at this very second, have no idea. I have never asked that question of a story before, and so I knew it was time to give up on the book before I ruined it further.

So I am tucking Project MS back into the trunk for another time. I am determined to finish it someday, but this is not it.

Now, what am I to do with myself? I'm still not ready to tackle Project V, and I don't quite hear the call to complete Project P. I actually feel the need to take a kind of story break and focus on blogging - both my own and a new Q&A blog I shall be launching for my Nanowrimo group. To fill any creative writing itch, Project BW has been wiggling its fingers at me and throwing winks my way, so perhaps I'll play with it a bit - it always proves such enjoyable company. I also want to read more research books. I almost exclusively read novels, and it's high time I broadened my literary world a bit.

I know it seems as if I'm always dropping projects, never to finish anything. But sometimes, a person just has to go with their instincts. And so I am.

Wish me luck!

Muse, a Fickle Mistress

My Muse is a fickle mistress. And seriously stricken with a severe case of ADD. She can't keep her attention on a single project for more than a month - as she proved this June, dumping Project P as it tried to push through into its second month. I fought against her, but eventually she won (as she always does), and I am now working on Project MS.

Although I am frustrated with said Muse, I am not upset to be working on Project MS. I'm actually really excited, because I've been wanting to give it my full attention for so long. And finally, the time has come!

Project MS is an Adult Urban Fantasy about a woman with unique abilities, wizards, tons of magic (mostly dangerous), and multiple worlds (though mostly set in our own). To give you a better idea of Project MS, here are six things you should know about it:

1. Project MS is actually a finished manuscript of over 100k words (my longest finished manuscript to date). I began it at least half a decade ago and got two-thirds written before my Muse lost interest. Then, several years later (for some reason I can't recall), I took up the challenge and finished it (my first finished non-Nanowrimo manuscript). So I am technically working on a 2nd Draft, which means I am finally trying my hand at Editing. I've been dying to be inspired to truly edit a manuscript, and now I have - bring it on!

2. Project MS is my Dream Project. That one story that is your Perfect Story, with all your favorite elements and characters set in your favorite places. The one story that, even though you wrote it and it may not be all that good in spots, you can't help but re-read all your favorite scenes every chance you get. That is Project MS for me.

3. Going over my 1st Draft, I discovered my main character (female) was awful. This rarely happens to me, especially when she's female. But originally I gave her the most stupid job and absolutely no life (for a reason, but still), so there are big blocks of the book where she literally sits around waiting for something to happen. She needed a complete overhaul, right down to a new name. Now seven chapters in I still haven't quite got a handle on her, but I'm getting close.

4. In complete contrast, my main male character is practically perfect in every way. This is another anomaly for me - my supporting love-interest guy usually ends up two-dimensional and such a bore. But with Project MS, the roles were reversed - my female was boring, and my guy the perfect balance of everything he needs to be, and so sure of himself about it! I can only add to his brilliance - at the moment with a nasty smoking habit. ;)

5. My opening scene just didn't cut it anymore. This was tragic for me because I pride myself on my opening scenes. But given the new angles of the main female it no longer worked, and has now been shifted and reworked to become Chapter 3 instead.

6. The first fourth of my 1st Draft is BORING. Seriously, who wrote this, because I could not have thought it would be interesting for anyone, including me! All my favorite scenes are in the second half of the book - mainly the last part written several years later. So now I have to go back and write a beginning (mostly from scratch) that makes the end proud to be in the same book with it. Luckily, I think I'm up to the challenge.

Wish me luck!