Merinda's Meanderings

My friend sent me this comic from Zoology, and I think it’s just about right. Click to see it bigger on it’s homepage:

Here is a contest for either unpublished or self-published novels. The first round is a 300 word pitch due before February 7th. Grand prize is a $15,000 publishing contest. Two categories General Fiction or Young Adult Fiction. Might just send my novel that way. It’ll do good to work on my pitch anyway.

2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Yep, just like everyone else I’m looking at the new year and looking at what I need to do this year. So, I’ve decided on a word for this year:

Deliberate

By this I mean to take responsibility for my actions. And to act. I’ve a terrible habit of procrastinating and letting myself just drift along in life. I know it won’t be perfect, but it’s a start. Right now I’m on vacation, so, as far as I’m concerned it really starts when I set foot back in my house, but even here there are things I can do. So, hey look, a blog post. I think I might also start posting some of my photography here too, we’ll see.

I just realized that my favorite character building list “The 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character” was on Geocities. Thank God for Archive.org

Here’s the Archive.org link:
The 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character

I’m going off to print a hard copy now…

*blows dust off things*

Wow I haven’t posted since mid-December of last year. Hrm, well those of you that know me shouldn’t be horribly surprised that it’s the rapid of approach of Nanowrimo that’s brought me out of hibernation.

*pokes muse*

I think she’s still in deep freeze. I may well go for The First Line that’s due November 1st as a way of waking her up. At least I’ve got an idea for nano, based on one of my older ideas. It’s maybe recycling, but it’s Nanowrimo, I think it’s allowed. Anyway, look for my posts sooner then 10 months from now.

Yes, still alive. I will attempt to get back to posting here more often. But today I wanted to alert you to this Query Holiday. Firebrand Literarry Agency between December 15 and January 15 will be accepting first chapters instead of query letters. Just follow the directions on their website. They also want only completed manuscripts. And they promise to read every one. So, if your looking for an opportunity, this might be it. I plan on submitting myself.

I haven’t been working a log on Norman’s story. For one thing I’ve been messing a bit with his background, trying to get a feel for the man he’s become in long years of working away from his family. Everyone else in the family is close, but because of his job he can only come home and see them maybe once a year or so.

The other thing is, in messing with the background another character has shown up. Someone whose important to Norman and Norman is important to him. Unfortunately for both of them this character is also a teenager at the time this story takes place. So, that makes things complicated.

The other reason why I’m dragging my feet is because I already started writing this once, and I liked what I had so far, but I stopped because I knew I didn’t know enough about Norman at this point in his life. Yesterday I wrote a great little argument and I know where it fits in, I just have rewrite the first chapter, and I keep putting it off. Arguments can be a lot of fun to write, especially when one of the particpants is a teenager lacking the brain to mouth filter.

So, thats my goal for today. Bite the bullet and rework what I’ve got. A lot of it can probably be used as is. Yup, just have to do it. *goes*

Last night I went to a writing group I found on meetup.com. Actually I found it via the Nanowrimo forums. At any rate I wanted to take a post and talk about how great finding local writing groups can be. Sometimes it’s a nanowrimo group that meets all year long. Other times it’s a critique group, like this one mostly is. Writing can be a pretty lonely profession, so I find that meeting with other people can be a source of inspiration and encouragement.

I know for me, when it comes to National Novel Writing Month I really need the encouragement and support of other writers. The nanowrimo chat room especially has been great for that. But, it’s also good to meet with people in real life. When we lived in North Carolina I went to a monthly writer’s group (The Cat Vacuumers…isn’t that a fantastic name?) that was always a great place to come together.

If you can’t find a local group, consider starting one. Either through your local library or something like meetup. You might be surprised at some of the people harboring secret or not-so secret writers dreams. It’s something good for both you and the people you meet.

I think most creative people have these sort of days. Days where you’d rather vacuum up all the debris from the gerbil cage then face a paragraph (and I like my gerbils, they just tend to get bedding everywhere). You want to sit down and write, but oh look the laundry needs to be put away.

Not that I’m advocating totally neglecting your housework. It’s just easy to look for anything to do besides face the page. The internet is the other great distraction. For me, I frequently have a game of Spider Solitaire running in the background.

The hardest thing is just to do it. But, I think usually, once you do get going, once you do sit down and start putting words to page, then it becomes a little easier. And I just pulled up Spider Solitare instead of finishing out this entry. So… I’m gonna wrap this up, go put the laundry away and then sit down and write. My next First Line story won’t write itself.

Everyone has different ways of doing things. Some people write to music, some people can’t. Some people need to write in a crowded place, others perfer seclusion. Me, I need a little bit of distraction (hello internet) but I also need quiet. I can’t write to music with words, or else the words get mixed up in my head with what I’m trying to write. But I can write to instrumental music or music with words in a language I don’t understand. On the other hand too, I sometimes hear a song and think that it would go perfect with a scene. For some reason I’ve had this idea that if The Unthinkable was ever a movie then the closing song as the camera pans away should be “Solsbury Hill.”

Right now it is quiet, the only sound being some birds outside and the ceiling fan. Even the gerbils have stopped chewing on things and gone to sleep, quite adorably. So, I guess I’m off to write.