Current strategy and using the lunch hour wisely

I made myself a contract. The idea of rewarding myself with something else to write didn't originate with me. I got it from Holly Lisle. At this point, I'm willing to try anything to get my ass into the gear I think it should be. It didn't use to be like this. I used to be able to write whenever I had a free second.

Now I can't even use my lunch hour wisely. My brain doesn't want to work on writing--except that seems to be the story of my brain at all times during the day. But today I'm not listening to the lazy part of me, I'm going to write.

And it works. So why do I have to force myself to the page. I feel like such a failure when I must do that. It would make sense if I stared at a blank sheet for the entire time. "Ah! I'm blocked, that's the reason for the reluctance." Nope, story starts flowing just fine. So what the hell is up with the reluctance?

Will return to this topic with an answer hopefully.

How Do You Really Do It? Project

Introduction:

Let me preface this whole thing with one statement--I am a writer. Too many writing books assume the reader is just starting out and needs advice on everything. Creating a novel advice may come up, but what I'm interested in is trying to integrate all my metaphorical hats onto my head: the writer's hat, the state worker's hat, the homeowner's hat, the girlfriend's hat, the hobby/business owner's hat; all the hats the other books assume you have already packed into hat boxes and stored in the attic. I like to hope the writers of those other books have messed up hats too, just carefully edited from view.

It's not easy being a writer. Once you think you have one thing figured out, it changes. Like thinking up titles. How hard should it be to come up with a title? Usually, I can't come up with one good one, so my current novel is still being called "Zy's Novel." For this project, I first came up with "How Do You Really Do It?" followed by "Trying to Live as a Writer" and then "Living the Writing Life." Now that I'm starting it in Discipline Under Fire, I think that makes a zappy title. I finished my first story on paper at age eleven, and it hasn't gotten any easier. I'm hoping that by chronicaling my struggles, the zen of a writing life will become easier.

Regardless, you're invited along.

Contract

I, Kindra Coates, pledge to complete the following:

a). five-minutes free writing practice session everyday.
b). once scene out of Zy's Novel.

Once the scene from Zy's Novel is completed (no matter how long that takes) work on one scene from Strix as a reward.

Kindra L. Coates
03-22-2007

A changeling story

Modern setting. A boy discovers he is actually fae and sets off with his best friend to find his fae parents.

Alien Worksheet

It's not complete yet. I want to get stuff on alien societies and language (the next two chapters in Aliens and Alien Societies by Stanley Schmidt) before filling out. But this is what I have so far. The stuff in italics is to remind me of points from the book.

Blank Alien
Name of their home system star:
Class of star:
Mass of star:
Luminosity of star:
Insolation homeworld receives:
Name of homeworld:
Distance of homeworld from star:
Period of revolution (local year length):
That time in IGA Standard years:
Axial tilt:
Length of day (local time):
That tine in IGA Standard time:
Length of months (local days):
The time in IGA Standard month:
Short description of the seasons:
Ecology of homeworld: Who eats what
Biology of alien:
Unicellular or Multicellular?
Size: Remember the Square-Cube Law
Maximum of species:
Mininmum of species:
Respiration:
Eating:
Getting Around or Not (limb design):
Body shape: Evolution selects body shapes that are well suited to the way an organism lives.
Structural support: Endoskeleton or exoskeleton, what holds the organism up?
Growth: How does the organism mature (exoskeleton and complete metamorphosis issues)?
Reproduction:
Warm-blooded or cold-blooded: Internal mechanism for keeping warm or dependent on environment?
Senses: How does sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch work?
Frills: Extras an organism can have but doesn’t have to.
Self-Modification: Genetic manipulation, cybernetics, etc.

Germ of an Idea

Out of all the ghost reading I did yesterday, this story is still sticking to my mind. http://www.torontoghosts.org/transport/qew1.htm

I don't know if I want to do anything with it yet.

Strix Post 7

Damn the ideas are coming! I know this is a delaying tactic for Zy's novel, I know it.

1). Bad vamp wants to take over city since Robert is to busy trying to pretend to be a human to rule it like an autocrat should. Over run the city with vampires loyal to bad vamp is his tactic. Vampire hunter and Strix are both trying to stop the tide of vampires, and the Vampire hunter is trying to kill Strix the vampire too. And the bumbling vampire and his ghoul are trying to stop the bad vamp.

2). Robert never had a choice with embracing Peggy. She went into labor while visiting someone, rushed to the hospital, and died because he couldn't get to her and embrace her. He never expected to lose her, and that's why she ended up staying with him as a ghost to counter that guilt. Also heavy motivation why he didn't want to raise their dhampir child; she still too human.

3). Bumbling vampire is named Ferris. Actually after "Ferris Bueller" but it also sounds like ferrum, Latin for "iron." His theme song is "When Your Heart Stops Beating" by Plus 44

Strix Post 6

Actually notes for rewrite Forget the Sun sequal to Strix.


In other writing news, I want to create a vampire. He's actually been popping up in my head for a bit. I think it's probably due to the Hellsing fan-comic orgy I just experienced, but I might be able to work the vampire and his ghoul into my secret project.

So the vampire that's haunting my head wants to be different from the stereotypical vampire. Not inhuman monster; not sauve, sexy man, he wants to be a bumbler. He doesn't much like being a vampire and living forever and watching everyone he knows and loves dies. But he has a strength too, thinking the best way of getting rid of his undead life is to kill off his amoral/immoral sire. And his ghoul really didn't want to be his ghoul, he slipped her some of his blood so she could save both their asses. And he loves his ghoul even though she's exasperated by him most of the time. He offers to turn her because she'd make a much better vampire than he does, but she wants kids and grandkids if she could ever pick up a guy to settle down with while she's stuck with a whimpy vampire master and his sire that could kill them both.

I toyed with the vampire as being a friend of Allie's and Allie as his ghoul. I loved the dynamic, but he needs something beyond fanfiction and a ghoul who is fixtated on the hypothetical because of a lack of pulse yet there's still a possibility of something deeper between them. Then I thought about my special project, which concerns a world of vampires that I keep feeling wishy-washy over because it is so stereotypical. The world as I have envisioned to this point is very circular, dealing with one family of vampires and how it is connected with a family of vampire hunters--narrow focus. And then I got the idea of throwing the bumbling vamp and his exasperated ghoul into this world, with his battle against his sire. I think the world has just cracked open.