I know I said I wouldn't post anything, but a rejection still hasn't come through so I'm freaking out at the prospect that I might actually be Published. I'll say it again because it deserves that sort of recognition; PUBLISHED.
Anyway, I've decided to at least pretend I'm a real-type-blogger-person so I will talk about this super freaking amazing article I read on Men With Pens, which I actually only just discovered through a link in an AW Thread. Anyway, it's about ways you can break through Writer's Block by sorting out your brain into a work space (And y'all know how much I love sorting my brain : D).
How to Unblock Your Writing and Create Effortless Words.
The way it explains how each "worker" interacts is really a great way, in my opinion, to think about it and it sort of helped me prioritize and just focus - by pretending it's a game. I do things like this all the time - make up scenarios and pretend how people react so I suppose it might just be me. And while I'm not mapping out the whole book but going chapter by chapter, I'm adapting the idea and turning it into my own personal writing tool - And I didn't even have to buy it.
On another note, as I believe keeping a blog should compel me to keep everyone informed, I am working on the super epic sequel to Being Evil. I know I haven't even finished off the first one, but I have to write something and this is it. I can't stand going back and seeing how awful my writing may be for BE. I'm going to have beta-reader tear it to shreds for me before I even touch it. Also the article above helped me brainstorm a new short story about my brain - featuring our old favorite like Depressed Unicorn, Kitty-Bear, and Baby Squirrel. Along with Exposition Man (remember him?) and some new characters will join together to defeat The Virus. Schweet, right?
Bye, guys! Seeya in the rejection pile! Or *gulp* in the Anthology.
-Jessie
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
My First Submission
Well I subbed it. Eep! It took me a while to come up with the best thing to write. I seriously was freaking out trying to make it as perfect as possible. And while perfection can't be obtained, I was pretty happy with the product. Now I'm just working on not thinking about it.
Do you guys ever get that way? I mean I was talking to my friend about it and she said that she was sure "they" would love it. My first thought was, "Don't tell me that!". I really don't want to think about it and I sure as hell don't want to get my hopes up. If it does get rejected than the letter itself will be hard enough to get through, without the soul-crushing despair that goes with deluding yourself into something that just didn't happen. I don't want ot tell people. I don't want to boast to them that I just submitted something (it's not exactly something to boast about either) I'd rather just keep it to myself. As it is I only told two friends and my parents. I don't want to think about the possibilities of it being accepted, because that scares me more than being rejected.
I'm not even sure if that makes any sense at all. But I just don't want to contemplate it or I'll obsess over it forever and won't get anything else done (Because I'm so productive normally). So if you will indulge me with a happy cookie dance, I will be on my way.
Thank you. That is all.
-Jessie
P.S. I probably won't post again until I get the letter back on whether I'm accepted or rejected, because I have a few ideas I need to roll around my head (to clear out all the clutter). But you never know, stranger things have happened.
Do you guys ever get that way? I mean I was talking to my friend about it and she said that she was sure "they" would love it. My first thought was, "Don't tell me that!". I really don't want to think about it and I sure as hell don't want to get my hopes up. If it does get rejected than the letter itself will be hard enough to get through, without the soul-crushing despair that goes with deluding yourself into something that just didn't happen. I don't want ot tell people. I don't want to boast to them that I just submitted something (it's not exactly something to boast about either) I'd rather just keep it to myself. As it is I only told two friends and my parents. I don't want to think about the possibilities of it being accepted, because that scares me more than being rejected.
I'm not even sure if that makes any sense at all. But I just don't want to contemplate it or I'll obsess over it forever and won't get anything else done (Because I'm so productive normally). So if you will indulge me with a happy cookie dance, I will be on my way.
-Jessie
P.S. I probably won't post again until I get the letter back on whether I'm accepted or rejected, because I have a few ideas I need to roll around my head (to clear out all the clutter). But you never know, stranger things have happened.
Monday, August 8, 2011
The Crisis, The Blog, and The Cookie Bear
Okay guys. I think this is it. I think I'm am finally going to submit a piece of writing in hopes of getting published. Today is the day so many have had before me, a ritual all writers must eventually undergo, a strange mix of nerves and excitement. Except for me that is.
I'm trembling in fear.
It's a flash piece about an eccentric old walnut tree that is worrying whether the rains of the "wet season" will come this year. And then of course there's a twist. But I'm not going to spoil it! I figured I would work really hard on it and maybe push it through to the AW Anthology. Maybe I would get lucky. Better to fail among friends, right?
Well that time has come sooner than I thought. I now have a finished draft of my flash and then I have to go through the submitting process which, thankfully, has less rules and regulations on AW than some other places. I can follow standard formatting - my computer does all the real work for me. No problem right?
Wrong. Now I'm filled to the brim with noob questions. The guidelines for this anthology say submit it as a .rft attachment. I can do that.
Except, what do I write in the body of my email? Nothing?
Do I include my username on AW? Or do they know it from the email I have set on there?
What do I include in contacts? Is just an E-mail fine, or do they need an address, phone number, etc.?
It's mind-boggling! And I know common sense would have a play in here somewhere, but for some reason that part of the writing process has decided to call in sick. Now I'm sitting here chewing my nails to bits worrying I'll screw up my first submission and be doomed to failure for the rest of my life. Like Mac will send out a mass email to agents and publishers saying to ignore anything I submit for the rest of my natural life. (However when I become an immortal god, then we can talk.)
You see? Obviously I'm delusional. See that's my paranoid-self talking. For some reason we've all passed millions of years of evolution and in a crisis we still think the world is going to eat us alive. So I am sitting here, while the world breathes down my neck, overlooking my piece searching for something wrong that may not even be there. But I don't know anymore! I'm going insane from all this. And I stepped away and came back and still sat there and scratched my head, completely unable to tell whether what I had just written was any good or complete crap. I'm at a lost but I want to give myself the best possible chance to get this right. I wanna be published and I refuse to screw it up.
By the way, before I go that I just wanted to point you all to a post that I thought was really brilliant and it actually gave me a pretty original short story idea that I'm working with. An AW member (Bartholomew) helped me a lot with editing my flash on AW and I started browsing his blog when I came upon this article. It's pretty simple, talking about how to combine something marketable with something original and coming up with something that not only is interesting, but you can actually sell it. Which is, you know, important.
I normally suck really bad at combining ideas, but the other blog he links to in the first sentence actually helped a lot as well. I starting looking for similar ideas and themes which were mainly taking scary or depressing things, putting them together in a non-scary/depressing way by adding comedic elements. And while sometimes I veer away from this, I do notice that I enjoy taking serious subjects and turn them into something light-hearted and funny. The subject of corruption, tyranny, evil v. good, hell, heaven, death, and the afterlife all came up in Being Evil. But in the end it's a funny book that takes this serious subjects and turns them into an Adventure! story. And if that's what I'm good at, and what I like doing then I should go for it right?
Anyway, thanks a lot to Bartholomew, both for helping me with editing and his blog posts, which also helped immeasurably. I feel kind of bad sticking you at the end of a random post...
Well bye guys!
-Jessie
I'm trembling in fear.
It's a flash piece about an eccentric old walnut tree that is worrying whether the rains of the "wet season" will come this year. And then of course there's a twist. But I'm not going to spoil it! I figured I would work really hard on it and maybe push it through to the AW Anthology. Maybe I would get lucky. Better to fail among friends, right?
Well that time has come sooner than I thought. I now have a finished draft of my flash and then I have to go through the submitting process which, thankfully, has less rules and regulations on AW than some other places. I can follow standard formatting - my computer does all the real work for me. No problem right?
Wrong. Now I'm filled to the brim with noob questions. The guidelines for this anthology say submit it as a .rft attachment. I can do that.
Except, what do I write in the body of my email? Nothing?
Do I include my username on AW? Or do they know it from the email I have set on there?
What do I include in contacts? Is just an E-mail fine, or do they need an address, phone number, etc.?
It's mind-boggling! And I know common sense would have a play in here somewhere, but for some reason that part of the writing process has decided to call in sick. Now I'm sitting here chewing my nails to bits worrying I'll screw up my first submission and be doomed to failure for the rest of my life. Like Mac will send out a mass email to agents and publishers saying to ignore anything I submit for the rest of my natural life. (However when I become an immortal god, then we can talk.)
You see? Obviously I'm delusional. See that's my paranoid-self talking. For some reason we've all passed millions of years of evolution and in a crisis we still think the world is going to eat us alive. So I am sitting here, while the world breathes down my neck, overlooking my piece searching for something wrong that may not even be there. But I don't know anymore! I'm going insane from all this. And I stepped away and came back and still sat there and scratched my head, completely unable to tell whether what I had just written was any good or complete crap. I'm at a lost but I want to give myself the best possible chance to get this right. I wanna be published and I refuse to screw it up.
By the way, before I go that I just wanted to point you all to a post that I thought was really brilliant and it actually gave me a pretty original short story idea that I'm working with. An AW member (Bartholomew) helped me a lot with editing my flash on AW and I started browsing his blog when I came upon this article. It's pretty simple, talking about how to combine something marketable with something original and coming up with something that not only is interesting, but you can actually sell it. Which is, you know, important.
I normally suck really bad at combining ideas, but the other blog he links to in the first sentence actually helped a lot as well. I starting looking for similar ideas and themes which were mainly taking scary or depressing things, putting them together in a non-scary/depressing way by adding comedic elements. And while sometimes I veer away from this, I do notice that I enjoy taking serious subjects and turn them into something light-hearted and funny. The subject of corruption, tyranny, evil v. good, hell, heaven, death, and the afterlife all came up in Being Evil. But in the end it's a funny book that takes this serious subjects and turns them into an Adventure! story. And if that's what I'm good at, and what I like doing then I should go for it right?
Anyway, thanks a lot to Bartholomew, both for helping me with editing and his blog posts, which also helped immeasurably. I feel kind of bad sticking you at the end of a random post...
Well bye guys!
-Jessie
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Put One Foot in Front of the Other....
I know I promised to write something nice and funny to show that I'm getting on my feet, but I don't have that. I am, however, getting on my feet. I had a crazy novel idea that I started but may hit a wall. I'm writing a bonus behind-the-scenes type chapter for BE. I have another novel idea I may default on. AND I'm revising a flash piece for the new AW anthology; which you can read about here.
So I'm super busy with that as well as a bunch of school-related work that is driving me insane. Where has my summer gone? What did I do with it?
Anyway I gotta go jet off and excercise while contemplating my workload. I need to start getting up earlier.
Night guys!
-Jessie
P.S. If you want to help me out by critiquing my flash fiction, check it out here. Please and thank you!
So I'm super busy with that as well as a bunch of school-related work that is driving me insane. Where has my summer gone? What did I do with it?
Anyway I gotta go jet off and excercise while contemplating my workload. I need to start getting up earlier.
Night guys!
-Jessie
P.S. If you want to help me out by critiquing my flash fiction, check it out here. Please and thank you!
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