Omg. Just signed up for NaNoWriMo. I’ve tried for two years and never made it. But I’m going really try to write every day during my lunch break this month. The novel I started is going to be WAY longer than the target 50k but since I plan on breaking it up into three sections anyway, I’m aiming to finish Book One by the end of the month.
And yes, I know I signed up four days late. But I’m going to try.
Men who look like this:
do exist in real life. I swear they’re not all just on tv. I saw one driving home from work the other day. He was real.
I think I feel a story coming on …
So I know my last few posts have not necessarily concerned writing per se, and the reason for that being, I have not written much in the past week. I’m working on that, but I’ve been stuck in a bit of a dry spell which is ironic since New York decided to honor all its residents of Irish decent and rain like freaking hell for two weeks straight. Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the green becoming greener since it really is my best color, however all the Yankee games have been messed up resulting in a 4 hour rain delay on the ONE DAY ALL SEASON I GOT TICKETS FOR MY WHOLE FAMILY!
Sorry, this event occurred a few days ago, but I’m still a bit bitter if you couldn’t tell.
Moving on the Relevant Topics, I believe I have discovered the Reason behind the Writing Rut: I’m sick of my story.
GASP! What did you say, Miss Rosemary? You are tired of Laura’s Letters, the one novel that has been with you the longest and features the imaginary man with whom you are passionately in love?
I am actually in love with this Real Man, but it brings back Horrid Memories of Embarrassment and I don't want to talk about it. Dear Friend Megan understands. Oh nights in Piccadilly ...
Well, yes quite frankly, I am. I’ve been focused on trying to finish this damn novel for so long that it’s all coming out forced. I’m forcing the story out, not letting it force me to stay awake until four in the morning because it so desperately wants to be written. My slight affliction with OCD doesn’t help; it prevents me from skipping little not so exciting scenes in the middle and jumping to the very exciting scenes in the end which is turning all scenes into forced scenes. This thing would be finished if I wrote what popped into my head when it popped into my head. I also think my plots would not change as much if I just wrote them down already instead of waiting for them to come chronologically in the story. But no, I cannot allow myself to do that, that would make sense.
So, due to this … let’s call it a Predicament … I have decided that Major Changes must be implemented.
The First Change
Laura’s Letters is being put aside for the Time Being. This Time Being may last one day, it may last one month, it may last one year. The conclusion is, I have to stop thinking about it and let other characters steer me for a while. I have three novels complete which are in desperate need of Revision.
As soon as I get home from work today, I will take up the task of finishing typing Damn Brits (a title which I hate but cannot think of a replacement for at the moment). This novel I began exactly two years ago, started revising and never finished. It is set in London, a place I do love despite their Snow Inadequacies (I’m sorry British readers. I will never be over it. Never) but I had only visited for three days when I wrote the original manuscript. Two years later I have lived in London. I know the great places. I know specific streets. I know the Underground lines. I’ve walked around the dodgy areas at night both completely clueless and completely pissed (both meanings of the term apply). What seems fake in the novel now, I can alter and authenticate.
The Second Change
When I do return to Laura’s Letters, I’m tackling it with a different approach. One of the other reasons this thing is not complete is that I have so much going on within it: two (possibly three) romances, brotherly tensions, mother-in-law problems, WWII, court intrigue, wealth vs. poverty, religious conflict, father/daughter struggles (for five different characters), kidnappings, maybe a death, 20th Century royalty, villains, heroes and ex-girlfriends to name a few. I’ve come to realize that this is going to be a Big-Ass Book. Like Margaret Mitchell or Diana Gabaldon big. I can’t decide if I want to cut it in pieces or leave it. The problem with breaking it up is, there’s no good place to cut it. The plots are very continuous and build too much to be fragmented. Big-Ass Book it is.
See? Big-Ass Book
This means that I have to keep my storylines straight. Since I don’t write first drafts on the computer, but rather in journals, this presents a problem when one storyline is progressing more than another. Fortunately, in addition to OCD, I am afflicted also with a disease known as Impulse Buying. Many of you may suffer from it as well, and you will know that once you see THE pair of shoes you just HAVE to have them. For me, it’s not shoes. It’s journals. I believe I bought over ten journals in three and a half months while traipsing around Europe. I had to ship them home so my bags would not be overweight (they were overweight anyway, but that fact is irrelevant).
So I have plenty of journals. The New Plan is to devote one journal to a specific storyline and combine them all later, rather than attempt to write the whole thing as it will appear in novel form. Thomas and Laura’s romance is the crux of it all, hence I will write their story first. This also includes her conflicting emotions about the family who abandoned her, trying to live peaceably with Thomas’s mother, adjusting to his wealthy circle and recovering from abuse she suffered as a child. That could possibly be enough for two journals of itself so Nathan’s struggle to best his brother and eventual romance with Gemma will be a separate one. Lance’s battle to stay alive on the battlefield and battle his as of yet unnamed ex for custody of their daughter gets one too. And the bad guys just get thrown in everywhere.
There you have it. Major Changes and a Big-Ass Book.
What do you do when you want to finish a story but just can’t? How do you keep your intertwining storylines straight?
My good friend Ollin Morales has inspired me (again). He has recently mentioned the importance of freelancing and how he will begin focusing more and more on his freelancing services. And I thought to myself: that’s a great idea.
Building platform is critical for aspiring writers, particularly nowadays. Publishers are extremely reluctant to even glance at your manuscript (which is OBVIOUSLY outstanding) if you have never previously been published elsewhere. They want to know that others like your work. They want to know if you have readership. They want to know you can do what you say you do: write.
Now I know freelancing doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as actually being published, but it for sure counts as something. Becoming a successful freelancer means that someone hired you. They liked your samples, they enjoyed your style and they want to put your material to good use. Do you write on their terms? Duh, they’ve hired you. Do you sign away your rights to the articles? Most of the time. But one thing freelancing can do for you and you alone is build that platform you need to step up into the publishing world.
I used to view freelancers as mediocre writers who couldn’t make it in the real writing world. I have since matured and come to the realization that freelancers are not mediocre. They are struggling. And when have any of us ever not struggled? Starting out is a royal pain in the rear. You have to make connections. You have to throw yourself out there. You have to do things like freelance.
Putting freelance work on your resume shows you have what it takes. It’s that one step forward you need. It’s that one bit that puts you over the edge. It’s that something that shoves you forward and gets you a byline.
Since my maturing I have edited and written a few commercials for a friend of mine who is starting up a business. She’s also hired me to write and edit the material for her website. I’m going to look into freelancing postings online. Why not? It’s something. Plus, once my internship ends next month and I don’t have full-time employment (more on that in another post) it’ll be something to do. I could even make a little money off it. It’s an all around great plan and I encourage others to do the same. Just in different regions so we’re not in competition.
In creative writing news, I’m completely stuck on Laura’s Letters. I’ve tried to force myself to just power through it, but it simply won’t come. I’m going to take a break and possibly re-edit The Golden Spoon (formerly Ensnared) or Wounded Soldier. Maybe the break will be what I need to just write.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I haven’t posted in a while. There is a Long Story as to Why this is, but I won’t bore you. Be satisfied with Things Happened including but not limited to School and Employment, and I haven’t had as much time to blog as I normally would like.
So, since I’m here now, I will deliver as promised, my aforementioned Screenplay. It’s quite short, but it’s me and I enjoy it. I hope You do as well. Please CLICK HERE to read.
I also would like to let you all know that I am working on an Extremely Exciting Project that has the potential to Benefit my dear friends who categorize themselves as Writers and Artists, so do continue to visit me if you are Intrigued.
(I’m in the middle of The Three Musketeers which accounts for my Seventeenth Century style of Capitalization).
That’s all I’ve got for now. Be back soon.
Thank you for that indulgence..
This idea for this post came to me last night when HBO was being annoying and not letting me finish watching Game of Thrones online. That part of the idea was actually an old idea I had when I encountered the same problem with True Blood.
I’ve got to stop watching TV.
Anyway, the ideas morphed into one and are presented to you as such:
How do authors feel about relinquishing their characters to TV and screenwriters?
For any of you who follow True Blood or Game of Thrones you will know that both series are based off Books (I respect Books so much that the word now warrants a capital letter), ie the Sookie Stackhouse novels and A Song of Ice and Fire. I had never heard of the Books before I watched either of the shows, and now I own both (I’m half way through the first Sookie and have just purchased Ice and Fire the other day). What I realized is that, though the central plot contains the same skeleton factors, there is so much that is completely off track. Since I’m not finished with the book I have not seen Tara (Sookie’s best friend) and at this point having her show up would be stupid. No one give me any spoilers but I’m wondering if Tara even deserves to make an appearance. Did HBO invent her? Did Harris want her? I’m confused.
And it made me wonder, what does Charlaine Harris think about all this? She is an author just like you and I. She poured over her characters for hours. She loves them. She planned out the plot and researched Southern life to make her story and setting leap off the page. How does she feel when producers take her babies and run in directions she did not want to go? HBO owns all the development rights for anything related to Sookie. Um… WHAT? How does she stand it?
I’m sure she loves the publicity and the royalties she’s cashing in from the books and the show, but what does she really feel inside? What does she think that she can’t tell the presses? I don’t know about you, but if and when I ever get published and if my book is considered for TV/the movies, you can bet your ass I’m enlisting every lawyer I know to help me draw up a contract that won’t let the producers and writers kill the Laura and Thomas I know and love, altering them into people I won’t even recognize anymore. I think I would rather retain the rights and forgo the movie than have them change too much. The point of writing them is to tell their story, my story. If my story won’t be told, then what’s the point?
Image via Wikipedia
Does what count you may ask? Well blogging of course. Journaling. Making lists. Any kind of writing that has nothing whatsoever to do with your current project. Does this writing count as writing?
I say yes.
I often struggle with this idea, having many things to blog about or a ton of issues I want to record in my journal (which is a very rare occasion and when that does happen, I drop everything and just write the rant in my head, not really caring about the literary merit of the piece) but nothing to say in my novel. Why do you think Laura’s Letters has taken me almost eleven years to write? You might say my over active imagination, my inability to commit to one story line and emotional and psychological growth from a child to teenager to adult. I say all those are factors but not quite the reason. The reason is, there are often many, many other things to write about when I am stuck in the writers’ block muck. Why stress about a chapter that is not working and stare at blank pages when you could write a mock-interview with one of your characters from another story? Why stress over the description you hate because every time you take a pass at it it’s absolutely horrid when you could instead record the drama of work in your diary? Why stress over a scene you can’t craft properly when you could blog about what counts as writing or not?
Funny how I bring myself back on topic. Any kind of writing counts as writing. Even if it’s bad writing. It may not be the kind of writing you want to produce for that day/week/month/whathaveyou, but you’re still vocalizing your thoughts in the form of the written word. In one way or another, your are honing your craft.
Is this an excuse to make myself feel beeter for having written nothing creative lately? Maybe, but I’m sticking to my guns. This is writing. I’m keeping the pistons in my writer’s brain well-oiled (are pistons oiled?). I’m keeping my engine running, if not at 65 mph like I do down the Taconic State Parkway, then at 30 like I do when I’m almost home. 30 doesn’t get you there fast, but it gets you there.
I’m going to start with the goals again, so goal of the week is to have the miscarriage sequence complete. Force me to do this, friends!
So here I go. I apologize for not but I’ve had a lot on my plate lately with graduation coming up, group members withdrawing from school and pulling all -nighters, plus emotional roller coasters which I haven’t told Kristen about yet so guess what I’m doing after this post? lolzzzz
My writing’s been rocky lately. I wrote more of Laura’s Letters which made me happy but that was about a week ago and I wrote a story I hate though it has potential …
What I have been doing is basking in the glory that is Colin Firth and his Oscar Triumph.
Just love.
And I’m on an Oscar High so Gabs and I decided to make it a life goal to watch each of the 83 movies that have won Best Motion Picture. They are as follows:
2009 – “The Hurt Locker”
2008 – “Slumdog Millionaire”
2007 – “No Country for Old Men”
2006 – “The Departed”
2005 – “Crash”
2004 – “Million Dollar Baby”
2003 – “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
2002 – “Chicago”
2001 – “A Beautiful Mind”
2000 – “Gladiator”
1999 – “American Beauty”
1998 – “Shakespeare in Love”
1997 – “Titanic”
1996 – “The English Patient”
1995 – “Braveheart”
1994 – “Forrest Gump”
1993 – “Schindler’s List”
1992 – “Unforgiven”
1991 – “The Silence of the Lambs”
1990 – “Dances with Wolves”
1989 – “Driving Miss Daisy”
1988 – “Rain Man”
1987 – “The Last Emperor”
1986 – “Platoon”
1985 – “Out of Africa”
1984 – “Amadeus”
1983 – “Terms of Endearment”
1982 – “Gandhi”
1981 – “Chariots of Fire”
1980 – “Ordinary People”
1979 – “Kramer vs. Kramer”
1978 – “The Deer Hunter”
1977 – “Annie Hall”
1976 – “Rocky”
1975 – “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
1974 – “The Godfather Part II”
1973 – “The Sting”
1972 – “The Godfather”
1971 – “The French Connection”
1970 – “Patton”
1969 – “Midnight Cowboy”
1968 – “Oliver!”
1967 – “In the Heat of the Night”
1966 – “A Man for All Seasons”
1965 – “The Sound of Music”
1964 – “My Fair Lady”
1963 – “Tom Jones”
1962 – “Lawrence of Arabia”
1961 – “West Side Story”
1960 – “The Apartment”
1959 – “Ben-Hur”
1958 – “Gigi”
1957 – “The Bridge on the River Kwai”
1956 – “Around the World in 80 Days”
1955 – “Marty”
1954 – “On the Waterfront”
1953 – “From Here to Eternity”
1952 – “The Greatest Show on Earth”
1951 – “An American in Paris”
1950 – “All about Eve”
1949 – “All the Kings Men”
1948 – “Hamlet”
1947 – “Gentleman’s Agreement”
1946 – “The Best Years of Our Lives”
1945 – “The Lost Weekend”
1944 – “Going My Way”
1943 – “Casablanca”
1942 – “Mrs. Miniver”
1941 – “How Green Was My Valley”
1940 – “Rebecca”
1939 – “Gone with the Wind”
1938 – “You Can’t Take It with You”
1937 – “The Life of Emile Zola”
1936 – “The Great Ziegfeld”
1935 – “Mutiny on the Bounty”
1934 – “It Happened One Night”
1932/1933 – “Cavalcade”
1931/1932 – “Grand Hotel”
1930/1931 – “Cimarron”
1929/1930 – “All Quiet on the Western Front”
1928/1929 – “The Broadway Melody”
1927/1928 – “Wings”
Green = seen
Red = favorite
Purple = absolute favorite
I’ve decided the oscars fit in my writing blog because you cannot have a best picture winner without superb writing. Since I’ve started taking a screenwriting class I’ve been more in-tune and appreciative of what it takes to write a film/tv episode. You go screenwriters!
So that’s what I’ll be doing for a while.
Today the weather looks like this (yes, it’s over a foot and still coming. SNOW DAY TOMORROW ARE YOU LISTENING GOD?!?!?!!):
So I’m staying inside like this (because yes, Sam, it’s -7 degrees):
While hopefully writing in this (since, well, I’m a writer):
Following lunch with my London roomie and some homework of course.
Root for me, fellow bloggers/readers/writers! I haven’t written much more of Laura’s Letters since my departure to London LAST SEPTEMBER and that atrocity must be rectified! Posting chapters of it has gotten me back into the swing of things though. I’m excited about it again, brewing new ideas for edits thanks to your lovely comments and pumped because many of the comments were so lovely. Thank you 
Speaking of, I present to you Chapter Five! It’s a long one, so I hope you’ve got your reading caps on!
Yes, I know I skipped around, and not that the intervening Chapters Two-Four are boring, I just think Chapter Five is more exciting. What has happened in them is: Laura’s life as servant to her town’s religious leader, The Shepherd, is shown and quite frankly, it’s terrible. Thomas reluctantly agrees to remain in the storage room since he very much wishes to stay alive and avoid capture. He’s not pleased with this situation, being accustomed to life’s every luxury. He is however, quite pleased with the servant girl 
They plan his escape but before they can, the Shepherd’s daughter Karissa discovers him …
Copyright Rosemary O’Connor. All rights reserved.
First let me rant on the fact that even though I am not yet published I know for a fact that I write better than a Number One UK bestseller. I just finished Stolen by Lesley Pearse, and honestly wouldn’t have if I hadn’t paid nine pounds equals fourteen dollars for it.
Plot = decent. Intriguing at parts but predictable all the way through. No surprises.
Characters = awful. Completely flat with nothing interesting about them. Readers know what kind of people they are from the first page which I HATE. People change, make characters change a little, jeeze Louise. And on top of that, they weren’t even likable. Protagonist, way to sappy. Protagonist’s best friend, total bitch, right down to no sympathy for 9/11 victims. Oh and by the way, Lesley, gay best friends are more than people who care about girls and want to take them shopping and fix their hair and say “honey.” The main man also, when trying to be sincere, told the protag something along the lines of “it’s all about you, babe.” How insincere is that!?!?! It’s just a line!!!! Guys use it to pick up chicks and it gets thrown in trashy romance novels you read as a guilty pleasure!!!!! It doesn’t belong in a work of literature about a woman trying to rebuild her life after an abduction!!!!! I literally rolled my eyes when I read it.
Dialogue = good when it wasn’t being preachy, which was 73% of the time.
Writing in general = I’m livid. All telling and no showing. Like at all. Every crucial bit of information was exposed by characters remembering what happened. “And then she recalled being chased by a shark and feeling terribly scared. It was a horrifying thing to go through. She felt he wasn’t being sincere and was completely put off by his nature. She just felt he wasn’t really a good person.” – Disclaimer, not a real quote, I’m angrily paraphrasing.
GARAADFHSGHASJDJSFGH!
If you want a good book about a woman rebuilding her life after an abduction, check out Chevy Steven’s Still Missing. And no, I’m not a weirdo obssessed with abductions, I’m doing a little research for a story of my own.
Speaking of stories of my own, how about the excerpt I promised?
Well, here you are dear readers. Thank you for giving me over 10,000 hits. Remember I’m still trying to get on freshly pressed and gain a few more subscribers, so please pass me on!
Behold, a portion Chapter One of my favorite novel.
More next week!
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