Ashley Newell
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Non-Romance

9/4/2018

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I have been noticing a trend on Twitter over this long weekend. I don't know if was prompted by a particular comment but it has clearly stirred up some conversation, and for some people, some very strong resentment. Romance. 

Literature is gradually becoming more popular in its diversity movements. The industry seems to be more accepting of representation and voices that used to remain unseen and unheard, despite the number of writers who have been striving for generations to find their own diversity included on library shelves. Based on the conversations I've been witnessing, one group is still trying very hard to feel included in the literary world: the asexual. 

I know that I come from a place of privilege in that this is not a concern that I was actively aware of. It never occurred to me that even non-bodice ripping representations of amorous relationships might be a point of discomfort for some readers, not in that they have a problem with people coupling, but in that there never seems to be a way out of being surrounded by the image of people coupling. As a young asexual person, being bombarded with an image that everyone but you seems on-board with, might just double that stigma, that feeling of not belonging, of self-doubt, of not living in a world that has room for you. 

In solidarity with those who are feeling lost in current media, I tried to be proactive. I went looking for non-romance reading groups and book lists. The funny thing is, when looking for non-romance, the key word is still "romance", and the first 100 or so search results are very bodice-ripping indeed! Not a good start. 

Now, I don't know if I have it in me to write an asexual book. I'm not saying that it isn't possible, but I think that I'm pretty ingrained in stories that revolve around relationships one way or another, sex or no sex. That being said, there are books out there, various kinds of fiction, that don't involve "getting the girl/boy" in the plot. Do you think that I could come up with a title for an adult novel that fits this description? Not off the top of my head. And when I look at the book tags on Goodreads, I don't see a non-romance category. At least it hasn't become popular enough to be a searchable category. 

In light of this, I made one. It took me seconds to create a new shelf labeled "non-romance", and while I don't have a lot of books to add to it yet, tagging at least one book feels like the start of something. It's hard, I'll admit. Sure I could go through tagging all of the kids' books that I have on my shelves, but I feel like that is less helpful. Somehow it would be saying that sexuality is a sign of maturity and therefore anyone identifying as asexual must not be grown-up enough. There is a clear difference in being pre-pubescent and being asexual. And quite frankly, who is to say that people of any sexual orientation might just want to read something that doesn't feel like a chick-flick?

So here's the pre-requisit I established for myself:
- is it a book that I would recommend to an adult? 
- is it a book that includes a sexual encounter, consensual or not?
- is it a book that involves a main character in love, pining, or indulging in any kind of romantic relationship? (Note, this does not mean a book void of relationships. It just means void of love-triangles and winning over the object of affection as motivation for the plot).

As I said earlier, I did not have many titles to add to this category, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth doing. So I appeal to you booklovers out there, especially if you've got a reader community platform of some sort, please start using a "non-romance" tag so that we can create these reading lists for those who just need a break from the dramatic love plot.

​You can see the start of my Non-Romance list here.

There is no need for a romance war. There are enough books for everyone. We just might need help finding the right ones.
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Writing Tips - Purpose

9/4/2017

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So it's been a few weeks since I took a writing workshop hosted by author David B. Coe. I offered up my WIP from the 3 Day Novel contest and braced myself for the on-coming storm.

Thankfully everyone at the workshop was super wonderful and very supportive. That being said, there is no denying that my WIP needs to be dismantled and significantly restructured. Everything that was pointed out was glaringly true, and sadly filled with the exact same feedback I often give other writers when I am reviewing or betaing. Let the bells of hypocrisy toll!

And yes, I haven't blogged in a while; probably due to the freedom of not having a deadline unlike the newsletter. So I figured that this might be a good thing for me to follow up with. After all, witnessing me blundering through my own mistakes is probably far more entertaining... um, I mean, far more useful to fellow writers than my critiques of others.

I will probably save the more specific examples for the newsletter (so subscribe if you haven't already!), but I will definitely be sharing some of the revision steps I am trudging through.

So let's begin!

Purpose

I know this seems super obvious, but this is exactly where I need to start in my revision.

One of my main characters is seriously lacking in purpose. This shouldn't surprise me since even as the author I've been having a tough time sympathizing with this character, and everyone at the workshop agreed that she's flimsy - not one likable trait in her. 

I need to invest in her more. I need to give her a drive that is not dependent upon another character. Essentially, I need to answer the question, "What would she be doing if none of the other characters had placed any demands on her?"

Honestly, as I have her currently written, she's a desk lamp. Without someone claiming ownership of her, she's clutter on a shelf. Her only purpose thus far is to give context for another character. 

I need to fix this. I need to fix this first. All of the other notes from the workshop are pointless if I don't have a reason for this character to be in the story. Clearly I could take the easy road and just cut her out from the main character line-up, but starting so late into the story I have would really change everything. Her journey is the catalyst that shakes up everything for everyone, so she needs to matter!

I have been toying with two different backstories for her, both of which dramatically change the type of person she will grow to be. Almost so dramatically that I will have to consider the likelihood of every scene I have even being plausible... I wasn't kidding when I said I had to dismantle this whole thing. 

None of this is a shock. No one writes a novel in three days without needing to change everything. And I know that this is worth salvaging. I love the matriarchal role that she has in the end of my narrative. She is strong, self-sacrificing, and so in-tune with the world(s) around her. It just doesn't work to have her begin this journey a completely naive idiot, which is pretty much all she is.

If I can give a tip to my fellow writers out there: listen to your gut. If you are getting irritated by a character, fix it or delete it. Even "annoying" characters are loved by their authors. It's the brushed-over ones that are lifeless.

Easy to preach, harder to re-produce. I will let you know how I fare in making this monumental decision. 

My next few twitter posts may be filled with many expletives. You have been warned.
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The End is Nigh, So Hug a Hufflepuff

3/9/2017

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So many different things on my plate that I feel like I'm neglecting more than I'm tending to, but while I have a moment, why not a blog post?

There's 3 days left on my Parish Kickstarter, and I thought that I would share some things that I've learned in this experience.

Extra Days Don't Matter
I really probably could have wrapped this whole thing up 20 days ago. Why? Well, it's been 20 days of inactivity. I think you pretty much get traffic in the first 3 days, maybe some trickles in the first week, and then some trickles in the last 3 days. I'm expecting a few more views in the final 24 hours, but that won't necessarily mean more pledges.

So Much Spam
Since launching the Kickstarter, I get so many "friendly messages" from people who just want to help get the word out, to share my project with their millions of followers, and all for the low low cost of my first born child... Okay, well, maybe not exactly that, but it's pretty much got me in the habit of feeling dread when I have something in my inbox from Kickstarter - which should be so since I almost missed an actual genuine comment from someone. 
​
I guess on positive thing about my dreading of spam is that it's making me very mindful of how much spamming I am doing myself. Yes, I have posted on social media about it, but I've tried not to be on constant repeat. Maybe I'm limiting my own possibility for page traffic, but I think preserving the people who like me thus far is more important than flinging myself shamelessly at the masses. I for one will start to unfollow people who just want me to buy their crap, especially if I've already bought their crap once and they just keep begging...

People
People are always the unpredictable part of any activity. What's interesting when you're putting on a campaign like this is watching to see who comes out of the woodwork. People I've considered to be close to me almost refuse to acknowledge me and what I'm doing, while people I kind of only sort of know have stepped up being ridiculously generous - really ridiculously generous, to the point that it makes me feel super guilty. Now, I am in no way saying that money equals friendship, and in no way was I expecting anyone I knew to put out the money that I've seen pledged thus far, but the acknowledgement thing kind of gets to me. 

It takes nothing to share my campaign with others, even just once. It takes nothing to ask how it's going, or if there's something that they can do to help it along in a non-financial sense. 

Maybe it's the Hufflepuff in me that just doesn't understand the other houses. 

An acquaintance of mine is a musical performer, and she recently had a rant of her own about feeling inadequately supported. Something along the lines of how often she drops everything to help out with other people's events, whether on stage, back stage or even just buying an honest ticket; and yet while she's trying to set up her own show, she's practically begging people to even acknowledge what she's trying to do. 

This I understand. I'm the kind of person who will feel obligated to help if I have any association with the person or group involved. Even when I don't have the funds, I've always been a cheerleader, because, again, it takes literally seconds to share a page link. Even just last week I found myself out $50 to help a Kickstarter that was based in my home town. Honestly, it didn't look like they were going to make their goal, and while my pledge wouldn't make-or-break anything, I thought I could at least show a bit of support to keep the campaign active, and of course, I shared the link. Within 12 hours that thing was over-funded. And while I thought about going in and reducing my pledge since they didn't really need me anymore, it seemed like a dick move so I just left it at that.

Would I Do It Again?
Probably. But I'd be more strategic about it. I'm still learning about which promotional avenues are more effective than others. I've put my faith in some that have done nothing, and, let's face it, the only reason that this campaign is succeeding is because people who love me want me to do well regardless of what I'm peddling. I couldn't be more thankful for them! And I did reach a few new people, which is the whole point, really. 

Overall, this year has been a year of risk-taking. I've been networking more. I've been sending inquiries to be a part of writing groups, to get access to writing tools, and even promotion platforms. For little introvert me, those are some big steps! 

Anyways, if you wanted to give your karma a boost, the Kickstarter is still running. Have a $1? I would really appreciate it. Don't have a $1? That's okay, just hit that "share" button. I will think of it as you having hugged a Hufflepuff today. Believe me, Hufflepuffs need hugs, lots of hugs.

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Writing Advice For Everyone: Betas

2/8/2017

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No, I'm not re-launching this blog series, but something writing-related came up so I thought that I would add to my little advice column. 

Betas.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term, or as I have recently learned, potentially offended by it, allow me to explain:

When a writer creates a piece and needs a test-audience, these are called Beta readers. In theory, they are the second set of eyes to see the manuscript. Thus, called Betas, as in 2's. 

I recently was witness to a verbal beat-down of someone insulted by being classified as a Beta reader, as if it directly implied that they were not important - a second class reader. While I can appreciate your right to your feelings, I do think that it's important to understand why it's called a Beta. Now, if you are being asked to help revise/create the manuscript, by all means, get mad about being called Beta, because any active type of co-authoring would then make you an Alpha. But a Beta reader should be your prototype audience. Yes, you can decide to use their feedback to make some changes, but a Beta really shouldn't be brought in if you need to make a lot of dramatic changes; exception being if you've finished your manuscript and aren't sure if it's worth pursuing any further or let it sit in the "completed" file never to be seen again. Some works aren't worth preparing for publication. I have several that were fine in the moment but not extraordinary in any way. So a Beta can tell you "Yes, it has potential!" or "Maybe next time." In either case, the expectation is not that they hunt down every little plot, development and grammar issue they encounter. 

Now, for my rant:

So, when you have decided to make the call for Beta readers, and you have decided that Betas should give you chapter by chapter feedback, please, please, PLEASE, don't revise the same chapter over and over again before posting the next one. As your Beta reader, having me reread 5 different versions of each chapter is going to result in one of two reactions.

#1) The angry little grudge. Now I'm usually pretty well-balanced when it comes to toning things down for very budding authors, focusing on big picture critiques before the nitty gritty. But if physically reading your story is now becoming a frustrating experience because there's no moving forward, I just might snap one day and take it out on your story. I don't want to. It's not my intention. But "GET TO THE FRIGGIN' POINT ALREADY!"

Or the more likely result, #2) The over-it. I've lost my momentum. I don't remember what actually happened any more because it keeps changing, and even with a fresh re-reading, I'm just getting done with reading the same lines over and over again. I'm going to glaze. I'm going to gloss right over those little changes you made, not even notice them, and just stop leaving commentary because I need this torture to end. 

I love helping with new stories. I really do. But if I sign up to be your Beta reader, especially FREE OF CHARGE! then for the love of all that's good in this world, do not force me to be your line editor. If I choose to make a comment about a word choice, that's up to me, but I did not sign up for line editing. If you really really want a line editor, we can discuss the terms. And I certainly won't be doing it chapter by chapter with your added changes. It's all or nothing. Give me the whole thing and then make your changes. We can repeat that process however many times it takes, but I cannot spend weeks on that same first few chapters. It worries me that maybe you don't even know where this is going.

There, there it is. I had to say something to stop this madness. 

I'm pricing out my costs now, because this experience will NOT happen again.
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Dreams Are Weird

2/1/2017

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I have seen many writers who claim that they get great story ideas from their dreams. I am not one of them. In fact, I have proven that my dreams really do not belong in any novel format. Why, you ask? Well, as epic, adventurous, or emotionally driven as some of my dreams may be, there is always one consistent problem... THEY MAKE NO FREAKIN' SENSE!

In the dream, of course, everything usually seems justifiable to dream-me. But then there are the dreams that are so out of sync with reality that even dream-me is thinking "none of this makes any sense!". The worst ones are the ones that latch onto to awake me. Something about the intensity of the dream makes me think, "OMG, that was so real!" and sometimes, yes, I think that it would make an awesome novel, or movie, or comic strip, or, etc, etc, etc. Until I try to piece it together that is. When I actually go to link one vivid element to the other, I begin to realize that none of these things actually fit together. So unless I'm just making a dream journal that reads like an acid trip, I'm pretty much just creating a whole lot of nothing - well, maybe evidence to be psych evaluated...

Example? Let's take last night's dream. It was vivid. Adventurous. Emotionally intense. And lacking in all plausible motivation.

Let's title it: The Killer Robot Who Wants Revenge For Reasons That Are Toblerone.

Yup, that seems like a good title to me!

So here we go:

The Killer Robot Who Wants Revenge For Reasons That Are Toblerone.

I am in a hotel. Or a large cruise ship. Or possibly a space ship that is vaguely based on the Enterprise or Voyageur. Whatever it is, I know that it is a return to childhood in some way. Parents, who aren't actually my parents, have brought me and a childhood friend I have never seen before in my life, back to this beloved vacation place that used to be frequented for what seems like every year, until, for reasons unknown, it wasn't. I don't know how long it's been. I don't even know how old I am. In fact, it seems like both my character and my character's age fluctuate from scene to scene. But that doesn't matter. The point is that I know returning to this place, to these rooms that we always ours and only ours, is a very big deal. 

Everything in this big elaborate room (and adjoining rooms) is tearfully nostalgic and a little bit tragic since it has been essentially abandoned since my parents were last here. Yes, my parents are dead now. I think. I'm not really sure. They were here a minute ago and now they've been dead for years. It makes me sad. 

But, Oh, What is this? A robot servant that looks like a 6 foot tall EVE, only with a triangular faceless face that pretty much feels evil to non-dream-me, has somehow survived all this time, lying dormant, and has awoken now, upon my return, ready to serve me and the random people I'm with (it keeps changing; I think I had a kid sister, and then it was real-life friends, and then it was some 8 year old kid that I'm supposedly friends with when I'm momentarily 8 years old as well). If the robot has a name, I don't remember it. But I feel comforted by. Until I go to have a bath...

This bathtub is the size of a kiddie pool. Not the inflatable backyard kind, but the kind that the local rec centre holds swim lessons in. And there is some wide rectangular mechanical trapdoor thing right in the middle. Which is fine when it isn't being activated. But for some reason, every time me, or someone else (apparently my actual husband has now joined me on this creepy vacation), the mechanical door thing slowly descends, revealing sharp fast-turning cogs that may or may not be saw blades. I don't know why we keep moving around it, or why we dismiss it as "That's weird" when clearly creepy robot lady (yes, she's a lady), is controlling the bath for us. 

This is where I begin having my suspicions about her. I choose not to get too close, but I don't want to give any indication that I don't trust her either. I fear what she might do. Apparently deactivation isn't an option - or dream-me just doesn't think about the obvious, which is quite possible since we can't seem to not swim near the trap door thing...

I meet up with old friends elsewhere in this hotel/vessel place. And since I was nearly murdered in my own pool-size bath, why wouldn't we all choose to go swimming in a very small, dark room. Apparently this very private pool was important to me and a friend of mine's parents. Perhaps it was around here that my parents died. Regardless, it seems like a good time to swim, in this windowless room, with the creepy robot who seems very focused on the children (who I may or may not be one of - it's a bit confusing). But it seems that the robot is conflicted. It doesn't actually want the children. It wants the parents. But it wants the parents as they were as children, and since the parents are in fact not children, the robot spends some time hesitating. So she just watches the playful swimming. 8 year old kid who isn't me is splashing in the water. His father is on the pool edge, leaning over, laughing with his son. That is who the robot wants. And now, as she approaches the father, she has a plan to execute her revenge. A spiked metal arm folds out from her sleek white body, and pierces the back of the father's head like an ice pick. At first I think that she has pulled out a chunk of his brain, but then I see that she has somehow sliced him so finely that she has removed his face without any of us noticing that the top layer of his face has been removed. Of course, no one has time to question whether or not this man has a face left. Our attention is on the robot who flies from her first victim straight to the next one: the little boy. In milliseconds she has plopped the father's face over top of that of the son, thereby making the father a child again, and enabling her to drown the boy, content that she has fulfilled her need to drown the father.

I know that I am next. I don't know if I am to be drowned or to have my face torn off, but either way I have decided to run and hide from this psycho machine! I run through narrow corridors, trying to pick a place to hide. Someone my own age follows me, a girl, no idea how she fits into all of this but dream-me knows that she's been with me the whole time even though I've never seen her before now, running. She wasn't at the pool.

I see elevators! And then I see the elevator repair man! Surely someone qualified to repair elevators must know enough about robotics to change robot programming! This was probably my big mistake. I should have asked for his wrench to bash the robot, but no, I explain to the repairman that there is a robot chasing us, determined to drown us for revenge for something that happened years ago. The repairman listens. The robot conveniently is not longer so behind us so that all of this can take place before we see her again.

Little did I know that the elevator repairman does know a thing or two about robots, and he sympathizes with it. "It can't want to hurt you for no reason. And it won't. It's just misunderstood."

"Misunderstood? Are you crazy? It just ripped someone's face off and drowned a kid!"

"Well," says the repairman, "I have this motto... Toblerone. That is my motto. I live my life by it."

Unconvinced and irritated by the useless advice of the only person who could possibly stop this murderous machine, I keep running, with the random girl, until we come down an even narrower corridor which I somehow know is filled with college girls. There are many narrow doors here, dorm rooms and such. With so many doors I have the brilliant idea to duck into the bathroom. The two of us squish down in a stall, trying to figure out how we can both keep our feet from showing below the door and our heads from showing above it. 

We haven't time to perfect our hiding stance. While we were conversing with the repairman, apparently the robot has been kindly asking the college girls to keep an eye out for us. One of the college girls spots us as we are awkwardly arranging ourselves around the toilet, and without saying a word the robot knows what she's seen. She enters the bathroom, either tearing away the stall door or flying over top of it, I don't know which, I can't see, I just duck down and try to cover my face...
And then I'm woken up by my husband. I will never know if Toblerone really was the answer all along, or if I got my face ripped off, or was drowned in the toilet because she seemed really bent on the whole drowning thing.

Perhaps you can see why my dreams don't lend themselves to good novel writing. It would take a whole heck of a lot of alteration to make something like that not feel broken. Nonetheless, it is fun to share these bizarre dreams. And since I can't do anything else with it, I'll just leave it here, on the blog, for you poor souls to try to make sense of.

#sweetdreams 
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No Nook

1/6/2017

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It was recommended that I add Galen and Freakhouse to Barnes&Noble's Nook ereader before I move forward with other project advancements. And since both books are already sold through that company in print, I figured that adding the digital copies would be no big deal. So I started with Galen, which I'm not sure is the better idea or not. Again, it was never intended to be an ebook, in fact I don't think ebook devices were a thing when I started to pen it, so formatting it for a digital platform is always a huge pain in the butt. But eventually I got it up there. Next was Freakhouse which took no time at all (the way that it should be!). 

So there I am today, all ready to go, I just need to officially identify myself as a vendor and then I can press that little "publish" button...

...turns out I'm not eligible to be a vendor for Nook. I mean, they sell my print editions, but no ebooks for them apparently. Only 6-ish countries as actually eligible outside of the US, and Canada is not one of them. So, sorry folks, no Nook. But I will, however, keep everything uploaded in the event that the policy changes. 

In the meantime, enjoy the Kindle and Kobo editions, and if you don't have those devices, the old-fashioned paperback will ship to just about anywhere...

... just please don't ask me to deal with customs about it. I had enough of that last year!
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NaNoWriMo - Judgement Day

11/30/2016

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Here I am. November 30th. With more than 15,000 words left to get to the finish line...

Yup, this year is not a win for me. But it's still better than last year where I didn't even start. 

Watching myself struggle to carve out writing time, or even finding writing time and just sitting at the computer looking at nothing and typing nothing, made me feel terribly guilty, especially since  I did walk away from the 3 Day Novel Challenge with over 43,000. If I can write 43,000 words in 3 days, WHAT THE HELL MAN?!?!

So then I started to really think about what made writing a novel in 3 days easier than writing a novel in 30.

Well, I narrowed it down to two reasons.

1st: Time off. Writing is both a solo sport and a team effort. With the 3 Day Novel taking place over a long weekend, it wasn't just necessary for me to take those three days off, but it required my partner to take three days off to pick up the slack that I created. I had to do some pre-noveling preparations like cooking and freezing an abundance of ready-made meals, and getting the whole house clean and laundry done, but then it was in hubby's hands to make sure that everyone ate, was clean, and relatively happy. It meant that any projects that he intended to work on before going back to work had to be put on hold so that I could just sit and write (and have my meals delivered to my perch).

There is no way that I could ask him to take off 30 days. And even though I technically only need a couple of hours each day to pull off 50,000 words in 30, I know first-hand how full his plate is. 

I did NaNoWriMo while doing the teaching program. But back then it was just the two of us and he worked full time in an industry that didn't give homework. Now there's three of us, one of which is a pretty demanding little dude, and while hubby is home evenings and weekends, it doesn't mean that he's done working. Times when I have been able to write for NaNo this year has been when everyone else is in bed. Well, I can only have so many good nights of that. Little one has me up at 2am and around 4:30. Hubby is off to work by 7:00am. And then it's all me until 4:30pm, at which point dinner should be started so that he can eat before having to get some more work done, and somewhere in there we like to be a family. 

When we brought the little one home from the hospital (I mean, he was already three months old by this time,) we decided that we'd schedule home office hours for ourselves so that we could get our own stuff done. That hasn't worked out so well. 

And while I know that pretty much all of the above is just a list of excuses, the point is that I decided that some things weren't worth carving out an hour of writing time for. No, we didn't HAVE to put the tree up this early. No, we didn't HAVE to hangout with friends that weekend. No, we didn't HAVE to have a family outing that day. But I wouldn't trade those things. And sacrificing sleep to make me more miserable the next day doesn't help anyone - it doesn't even motivate me to write. So I'll take my slow-going mornings where my son and I snuggle. I'll use his nap times to throw in a few loads of laundry and maybe get something updated. And I'll give my husband time to sort out his new teaching life - because I know what that's like, and as my maternity leave is coming to an end, I have to say that the mental/emotional exhaustion is just not something that I miss. 

In looking at things this way, I don't feel so bad about not reaching 50,000 words. I don't regret what I did with my time.

2nd: The story. The novel I wrote for 3 Day had been filed away in my head for several years. It just so happened that I was able to fill in a key component that helped bring everything together. So I was pretty familiar with the overall story and my main characters before the challenge even began. 

The novel I started for NaNo is a rather spontaneous idea. Don't get me wrong, I still like the idea, but it hasn't had the same amount of time to simmer. I get distracted by second-guessing the POV's, and trying to balance out how much of this story should be humorous and how much should be heartfelt - and I still don't have an answer to these questions. So the story is much rougher. In many places it has been more forced. And while I can see the ending and think it's masterful, it's the little stops along the way that feel rigid. I'm not even sure if this story should be a 50,000 word novel. I'm not sure if the right characters are telling the story. And so, left with a lot of questions, it's been a struggle to just jump into. 

But I can't complain. I have added to my list of WIP's this year. I have launched myself into different themes, exploring scenes and structures that are new to me. And frankly, writing even one new story a year is a successful year for me, so having two novels and two shorts, plus all of the feedback I've been giving this year to help other writers, I'd say that I've used my time well. Not perfectly, no, but well enough.

So congratulations winners, as well as to those of you who added just a few words to your page. You made something! Finished or not, you did the hardest part - getting started! You've already beat out the millions of people out there who didn't even make it out of the gate this year. 

And if you are one of those still in that gate? It's okay. The year isn't over yet. And besides, 2017 is a great time for a fresh start!
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To Medium Or Not To Medium

11/6/2016

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So the peer-pressure is on to venture over to Medium. 

I like my own personal space over here so I certainly won't be abandoning this, and I know that I won't have it in me to customize new mind-blowing content for separate blogs. So here's where I ask my audience: Would it be worth it if all my Medium posts just end up being highlights from this blog?

The only purpose for Medium is larger audience engagement and conversation. So a post like this one I'm making now wouldn't make it up there - I'd like to keep my everyday thoughts here on my personal page. But I think that some of my bigger observations might be worthwhile. It's just the task of balancing yet another social media platform. I know many writers who use blogging as a step towards paid article writing, and Medium attracts the audience to achieve that. But I don't view what I put here as "article writing". Just the haphazard thoughts of a another wanderer of the world. 

Basically my question is "To Medium or Not to Medium?" 


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NaNoWriMo - Week One

11/5/2016

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Okay, so it's not the end of Week One, and, yes, I am supposed to be writing. It is Double-Up Day after all, but it's been bothering me that I haven't said a word about what's on my NaNo plate this year!

I hardly wrote anything on day one. Just a couple hundred words. Which made my 2000 words on day 2 still look measley. Finally caught up on day 3, and narrowly got in the daily goal on day 4.

It makes me feel wimpy since I nearly wrote 50,000 words in three days just a few months ago. But there was a major difference about those 3 days compared to these 30... I had reached an agreement with my husband that he was responsible for all aspects of adulthood while I sat in front of my computer for 3 days. I can't quite make the same arrangement over 30 days. He actually has out of the house obligations, so that puts baby duty pretty much 95% on me. Yes, he still must handle at least 5% even on his busiest days because them's the rules!

Anyways, my NaNo story! It was a great Halloween theme, which is seeming less fitting now that Halloween is over. A tongue-in-cheek parody on fairytales, focused on witch hunting, staring a man who has spent the last 200 years enslaved as a witch's familiar; during which time he happened to fall in love with the familiar of a rival witch. Now that his witch has been slayed by the need-no-prince Princess, he is finally free(-ish) to find his lady love... if he can free her first. And if he can survive he wrath of the Princess who partially blames him for the attempted murder of her and her family as well as the corruption of her father's kingdom, even if he was a familiar bound by magic. 

Lots of silly characters, anachronisms, and a quest for true love!

Anyways, to help with the inspiration, an artist named Kai Austin was asking people for some unusual characters to draw, just to help her scratch her artistic itch, so I offered her my star-crossed lovers. And here they are:
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I love this. And while most of my writing thus far has been in the realm of "smart-ass," this sketch captures the real heart within the story. It really is about true love, a man's unwavering loyalty to his heart, and his faith in what he feels. 

It's been a bit rockier of a start because I feel that I need so many POV's to do justice to these quirky characters, and I find myself inserting flashbacks that I wasn't planning on, but I think that it's coming together. My struggle I suppose is that I may be trying to cram too much in. But that'll be a discussion for post-first draft.

In the meantime, I will keep at it. 

Best of luck to all of you WriMo's, Rebels, Readers and Dreamers out there!

Here's hoping that we'll all have a great story to share in the new year!
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My Halloween inspiration. Note the crows I picked up this year. Great atmosphere for plotting.... Rather empty now that it's all put away for next year. Should have kept at least one crow out of the box as my muse!
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Breaking Out The Creative Juice

10/15/2016

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I have, disappointingly, been in quite the writing slump lately. I hate it. I had every intention of doing some novel revisions in October, promptly, so that I could do some major NaNoWriMo planning in the week before Halloween...

I have done none of the above...

I have intended to. I have opened up my draft, made a few typo corrections, and then left the document open with every intention of coming back to it when I finish the dishes, one more load of laundry, oh look the baby is crying again...

To be fair, I'm not going to complain that I have no time to write. It's purely a motivational thing. And when trying to do the mundane revision, you really can't go at it with a fuzzy head, otherwise you get the halfassed product of a few fixed typos and still pretty much crap writing.

Then last night, out of the blue, something magical happened.
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Well, that was a spark that turned into a blaze in no time flat.

If you don't know where this is going by now, I recommend you watch this:
Not only am I a Starkid fan, but when I went to live in the Canadian Hogwarts hidden in Herstmonceux, England, a made friends with anyone who would breakout into AVPM songs with me. And I made some pretty great friends! And although we all live miles apart, and our lives have become much more muggle-like with bills, filing taxes, and trying to find purpose that pays, we still have an unbreakable bond, held together by Harry Potter parody fandom. And thus, from out of the blue, my castle friend reminded me about the magic...
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Needless to say, this totally made my night, and it made me magical again. 

I opened up that word doc and took a wrecking ball to that first chapter, spiffed it up, and felt powerful.

The lesson learned? 

Friendship = Starkid = Redvines

And for those of you who are struggling to follow along: "What the hell can't they do!"
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