Casting My Novel!

Over at Absolute Write there's a thread in YA where everyone is casting their characters on who would play them if their book became a movie. It looked like so much fun I decided to join in!

This is for my WIP; Anemoi Boy

Aleksandrukas doesn't have a mother. He has a maker. He was forged out of clouds seventeen years ago by an Anemoi named Beroe. His only purpose? To win the tournament featuring the human races pitted against each other. The prize? The fastest storks the Anemoi leader can forge. They are bigger and stronger, allowing them to carry more cloud-babies down to earth for the winning Anemoi. The prize for the kids? Well, they won't be "recycled" for the magic stardust that brought them to life in the first place.

Aleksandrukas
"Alek"
Race: Indian
Anemoi: Beroe
Age: 17

All Alek wants is to win the tournament for his Anemoi. But when the Anemoi outcast tells him about a conspiracy involving his maker, he confronts Beroe about it. Beroe kicks him out, banishing him from his life and removes him from the tournament. Now Alek has to try to sneak back into the tournament with the help of his friends, and decide whether to ruin Beroe's life.

I cannot find a picture for Alek! I want him to have like Josh Hutcherson's body, but Indian with curly black hair. Anyone know any actors/models who look like that?

I am so happy I found her! She is the perfect Minnie and the best part is that she is actually Russian! She speaks fluent Russian! It's so perfect lol!

Minerva
"Minnie"
Race: Russian
Anemoi: Believed to be Abellona but is actually Beroe
Age: 17

Minnie is sweet and practical, but is distant and cold to everyone except Alek and Abellona. She worships Abellona and does anything and everything by the rules Abellona sets forth. She doesn't always approve of Alek's antics, but they're best friends. When she finds out that Beroe is actually her anemoi, not Abellona, she is devastated and quits the tournament out of spite, running away to live with Merope; the Anemoi outcast. She helps Alek sneak into the tournament.

This is perfect except her hair would be Merida's hair from Brave. If Merida's hair was white.
Name is Unknown
Alek calls her "Ambrosia"
Age: Unknown

Ambrosia is the maker of the clouds. She's an artist and takes great pride in her work. Beroe sends Alek to her to try and persuade her to give up her best clouds. Over the course of these many visits they become friends. Minnie does not like her, or the amount of time Alek spends there "fooling around". Ambrosia hides her own life but she loves talking about everything and anything. She especially enjoys talking to Alek.

I have a ton of other characters but they are harder to cast, being that they are neither male nor female. But I'll update when I find some more!

-Jessie

Let's Class This Place Up A Bit...

Notice anything different around here?

I got so tired of the rainy window - as much as I liked the theme, the colors I chose (and the font!), well they weren't very professional or impressive, huh?

Then again, I may not be those either.

But anyway I just spent way too long updating the blog and it's already late. I have to get up early tomorrow anyway. Goodnight bloggers!
-Jessie

Goal Numero Dos y Tres

Second goal of the summer is to fix the plot line for Fighting Samuaii. I need to rename characters, revise characters, motives, places, personalities. I also am starting to hate the name "Samuaii" because it's so obviously a rewrite of Samurai and that is just weak naming. Which means that I will have to relearn my own story!

Now that just in general is going to be incredibly frustrating, but on top of all that I need to reexamine the subplots I have in place, because my first half-draft focused almost entirely on the "interesting stuff" (i.e. who's fighting with whom, which characters are into each other etc.). I wasted more than 30,000 words on this already and more than half is unusable because I stopped writing for the plot. I'll have to monitor myself very carefully so I don't waste more time/energy but I'm worried being too strict will hinder my creative process as well.

My third goal is to find a place to submit my flash fiction piece Old Walnut. I don't remember if I shared it on this blog but I'm sure I did at least once. After failing to get it published the first time, I would love it if I could get it into a really good publication. That way it will mean something. I don't really want an e-publication either - I want to be able to hold it in my hands years form now and be able to say this is it. The first thing I ever published.

I'm sure I'll come up with more goals as time goes on but I have to work on focusing and carving out time to get them done!. The internet has become more and more distracting lately but I need to stop making excuses. I'm old enough to not procrastinate like writing is a chore. I just don't want to write that much in case it confirms my fear that I'm really not that great a writer.

But onwards march, men!
-Jessie

Back from the Abyss

I am (clearly) not very good at this "blogging regularly" thing. I was supposed to post a bunch of stuff on how much progress I've made with Fighting Samuaii and how amazing it is to be back in the writing game and blah, blah, blah. But I didn't do that because I really made almost no progress. I'm still stuck on naming the main characters (and whether to destroy one entirely). When I first came up with the story I named all the characters with very close sounding, four letter names that started with pretty much the same letters. But now that's how I know the characters. In my head that's how I remember them! So I can just move ahead with the old names and find/replace later or worry my head off with the new names now.

But it's summer vacation and I have some very ambitious goals. VERY. AMBITIOUS. I don't know why exactly I believe I can accomplish them when everything I've done in the past points to absolute failure, but, hey, start off the day with a positive attitude, right? Anyway goal #1 is to rewrite Being Evil. I recently read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (which I completely recommend - it's absolutely amazing and I hear she is a member of Absolute Write as well) which was filled to the brim with the most beautiful imagery and descriptions - they're works of art. It definitely elevated the tone of the book and she is a description master in my opinion. I started to study the difference between her book and my WIPs and that's when I noticed the tone difference. The Night Circus, in general a little more serious, just had an overtone of a quality book without gimmicks or ploys to make you laugh - it didn't feel cheap I suppose is what I mean. It is just in general a really good book. And the feeling I get from Being Evil sometimes is that it's a little too young for the target audience or there was just one too many sarcastic lines. It gives the impression that it is just a cheap little paperback - not a treasured or remembered book. And while Being Evil is supposed to be funny, it's not supposed to be a joke all around. There are serious parts. And I don't want to cheat my readers with "young" and "jokey" writing when my book is not supposed to be young or jokey.

A major Beta Reader complaint was that I didn't have enough description of places in Being Evil and it made it hard to become immersed in the book. So, in my own little wannabe Scrivener, I am going to write everything about every place in the book. Most of it probably won't make it in the final draft but at least the best stuff will. This way I also have a better Mind's eye view of the story as it unfolds. I'm also going to use the Virtual Notebook to practice manipulating words to create tones and feelings about certain places and situations, which should get rid of the gimmicky feel.
 
Well I have to get back to writing. Tomorrow I'll post Goal #2. Seeya then!  
-Jessie

Checklists and Goals

Hey guys! See I told you I would write more. And I bet you didn't believe me...

Right now I'm working on an old series that I don't think I've mentioned before; Fighting Samuaii. I know I used to have an old website that was pretty much dedicated to it, but I shut it down a while ago and lost the URL. I'm really passionate about this idea (it's one of the few I call "all mine" because it was inspired purely from a dream, not something I saw one day) but I have to admit I'm really cautious. Last time I attempted writing it I got 33,000 words in before I realized I wasn't really focusing on the plot enough. There goes a few months of work down the drain. The names I had chosen were also too close together and there were a couple redundant events/characters and just things that didn't make sense.

It sort of became obvious I didn't spend enough time on world-building and if I was going to continue the book I would need to flesh that all out first. World-building can be the most fun and trying process in writing. On one hand it's literally you just making a bunch of stuff up and putting it all together into a cohesive history. But it's easy to get carried away or run out of compelling ideas. You have to really monitor yourself. What's your general process for world-building? Or does your genre not have to deal with any of that silly stuff? : P

So that's where I'm at now. But I have a whole week of free time (Well not completely free but I'm going to force myself to write everyday anyway) and I'm hoping to get all the background stories set. As you can probably see, I'm one of those "planned" writers. Or I try to be.

So, here's my checklist:

• World-building complete (including regional people/religions)
• Character backgrounds
• Character name changes (if needed) 
• Plot scene outlines
• Notes on the scenes 

I'll check in in a few days and we'll see how well everything's going. How are your WIPs?

-Jessie

I'm back from the dead

I know, this blog has been dead for months. Not that I was good at updating anyway. Truthfully guys, I'm just coming out of a writing hiatus. I can't point my finger at something to blame - Oh, I could tell you it was all the work from school, or ideas that were not working but honestly? I stopped writing because I couldn't do it anymore. Everything I tried to write was awful. It sounded stilted and gimmicky, like I was playing pretend and my flow was just an imitation. During these months I was no longer a writer. I forgot how.

I just read my post on how writers listen, how their brains instinctively look out for ideas because they're never satisfied. I've been trying to recycle old ideas for months now and I get the same result. But I've stopped finding things around me to make me wonder what if.

I stopped reading too. I was too busy and just didn't have the time, but I know the real reason was it was just too depressing to read successful stories and no longer feel connected to that world. I used to read and see a particular line and smile, knowing not only how clever the line was, but the exact nuances and reasons behind keeping it, including it with the finished project. I couldn't do that anymore. And these are realizations that I'm only now seeing as I sit here typing for the first time since October 2011.

I have laid dormant for too long. And I know that I do not know enough right now to write what I need to. But you know what? I have time. And I can grow and learn with the best if I keep trying. And stopping isn't going to help anyone. My road ahead is difficult and I've got more things against me than for me. But I am a writer. And I know I always will be, even if sometimes I need to give up.

I'm taking up the burden again, and I'm opening my eyes and my brain for ideas. I know that it may not show up immediately and that just accepting the facts won't get me to the end that much quicker, but you know what? I'm not going to give up anymore. I will get to the top of the hill one day, book in hand. And though this post seriously borders too cheesy to take seriously, it's the first time since October where I've written for this long and haven't erased my words. And I'm not gonna lie, that feels pretty good.

So welcome back to my brain. Find a seat and get comfy because I'm sure this adventure will be even more fun than the last ones.   

- Jessie

Anthology Adventure

And so the results of the anthology are here. Well they were actually here about two weeks ago but I've been lazy and haven't posted. But I will first bring you through the journey that ended with one little e-mail.

I, after much deliberation and hair loss sent in my submission. (seriously I spent an hour trying to figure out what to type in the body of the e-mail. Why is that part the most confusing?) And then the waiting....the waiting...more waiting...

I was surprised I had not yet recieved a rejection. And then another e-mail came in saying that I was going to the second round! Specifically that it wasn't an offer, but they really liked the piece. I was thrilled! Published? Me? It seemed closer than ever before! And the timing was great  - with so much other personal bad news, me getting published would be amazing.

That excitement lasted for a little while until me and the other second-rounders got bored and decided to plague the anthology thread with nonsense, random e-mail checks, dragon poetry, prospective names for the anthology, and dragon/elf crossovers, as well as some strange movie references I didn't understand. It was a lot of fun. And lasted a long time lol. (Not that I'm complaining - Considering what most turn-arounds are, Mac was extremely fast, and kind, posting little updates when she could. It was just my first submission so I was hopped up on impatience :D) Finally Mac told us that any e-mail she sends out would be a rejection. So people started to avoid checking their e-mails. And somehow, I scraped by again. After three more weeks, she said we would know the final Table of Contents by the end of the week.

Somehow I forgot about that deadline and ended up rushing to my computer on Saturday Night. And there, in my inbox was a nice, polite, heart-breaking rejection.

My first rejection - I guess I'm a real writer now huh? And as nice as it was...I couldn't help it. I felt crushed. I felt worthless and stupid and horrible. I felt like a failure, and I felt that way for a few days after too. But I picked myself up. The reason it was rejected was because it didn't fit the theme of the anthology - not because it was an awful story right? And since the theme wasn't agreed upon before submission, how could I have possibly known mine wasn't going to fit? So it's not my fault - it's not anyone's fault. It just happens. And as a writer I need to get used to the fact that a rejection doesn't always mean something negative. Sometimes they just happen.

-Jessie