Writers Block

A Little Change Up

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:24:18 GMT

Okay, so instead of using Live Journal and Face Book, I have moved over to MySpace where I can have everything in one place. Check it out @ http://www.myspace.com/tonyv82

IT'S OVER!!!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:45:27 GMT

I finished the 50,000! Now all I have to do is make the story worth reading. There are so many scenes in the book that need to be cut, so many conflicts that need to be explained, it's insane. I'm taking a small break from it for now though. I just can't bear to look at the damned thing right now!

I am going to write a story for a Christmas exchange on the Circle of Crones website. It's really hard not to talk about it, but I don't know if the person I drew reads my blog or not. Suffice to say I am having a problem getting going with it. I had a great idea for it, but again, a distinct lack of conflict is standing in my way. Not fun!
On a lighter note, I have discovered the true meaning of Christmas, it came to me when listening to carols... The true meaning of Christmas is making out with fat guys.... fat guys need love too...

Doing good!

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:05:20 GMT

I just broke 30,000 words today, which means that I am ahead of the game! My characters suck, everything needs more work, but I am going to finish NaNoWriMo this year, and possibly early as long as another job doesn't get in the way.

Time to crack down!

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:02:03 GMT

As of right now, the word counter is saying I won't complete my 50,000 words until December 5th... not cool. I hate the midnight shift for stealing my soul! I am not doing it anymore, and I refuse to go back to work until they switch me to the day shift!
Thanks my update for now, I really need to get back to writing, here's the widget thinger that shows my progress...

1 MORE BIG SLEEP!!!!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:00:13 GMT

I am getting really excited! My project this year will lend itself well to NaNoWriMo, I don't think I could get it done without totally putting the Editor away, as it is going to have some really horrid parts and some really awesome parts. I am thinking of writing it in a biblical tone while doing NaNo and see how it turns out. If I need to change it, that's why they invented December, lol!

Right now I have so much planned that I just want to start writing it. Only time will tell if that is the best way to approach NaNoWriMo. I was well on my way last year before my Uncle died, not that it really is an excuse (I know he would want me using his death as an excuse not to finish something I started) but after that I was so bogged down with work and worry that I lost track of NaNoWriMo and practically forgot about it.
I wasn't really that active in NaNo last year either. I am hoping to challenge some other authors to word wars, I hear they are a great way to get your word count up in a pinch, nothing inspires like insane competition. I have been really active in my writing groups thread as well. It's helping me to get into the spirit of the whole event.
I have been writing my practice piece, which has not been an every day thing. It's turning into Harry Potter in space, which when I step back and look at it, it's really hillarious that the complete and utter crap that's on those pages can come from my brain. I'm sure there's some sort of semi-precious stone somewhere in that huge stinking pile, maybe a quartz or a malachite or something, but there is no way a diamond could be found, unless it's just a carbon deposit at this point waiting to be a diamond, it would probably take millions of years to get it that way though, and my strength isn't fan fic anyway. That's what you get when you cross the 2 most clicheed fan fic bases of all time. Oh well, it's fun.
I once read about an author who said that as long as you write 10 pages every day, it doesn't matter what you write because about 6 of those pages are going to go into the recycling bin by the end of the novel anyway. It's a good way to look at it, write way too much, then when you start cutting you can be more rutheless and end up with a superior piece.
I've also heard that writing is an odds game, and the more you write the more likely you are to get something really good out of it. Really they are the same principle, just write and write and write and write... makes the life of a writer a really busy one. I really think I can do it though, eventually.
As far as what is planned for after NaNo, Sheila is nagging me to expand a flash fic I did of her and make it into a full on short story so that I can submit it to some places for publishing and maybe start getting paid for this huge chunk of my life that I commit to her. Damned characters... I'm not crazy, honest!

The heat is on...

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:31:56 GMT

Again, it's been way too long since I posted here. I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo, it's hard to believe that there are only 5 days left until it starts.

My novel this year is based on a bit of research I've been doing into the presence of the occult in Judeo-Christian sects as evidenced by the Kabala and the Keys of Solomon. Through reading these two texts, I've noticed that it wouldn't be a huge stretch to say that the Bible could just a easily serve as the basis for a Polytheistic religion, and since some of the names of their god are ambiguous as far as masculine and feminine (particularly Eheieh, credited with great power) the religion could be not only polytheistic, but also matriarchal.
So the story is titled Genesis, it will start at the begining with the big bang, creating the Goddess Eheieh, then she will create (or give birth to) 2 gods. There is a "Mother Earth" entity, 4 fates that correspond with the elements, and a pantheon of various gods and goddesses.
The story proposes that both science and religion are correct, and follows an evolutionary-creationist theory. I've been toying with that idea for a while, and I'm really excited about writing it.
This will also serve as a mythological background to my Vampire stories, being offspring of the hunter goddess. This may or may not come out during the month, I don't know.
I have some basic ideas on how I'm going to be able to finish this year; first, I will be writing every day, second, I will try some word wars this year, third, I will be unemployed!
I have plans for some work after NaNoWriMo, in particular I wrote a very very short story about Sheila. I have to add a lot to it to bring it up to short story (at least 1000 words, but likely way more.)
Anyway, I will be posting here to procrastinate and complain, so it'll be very busy on here.

Been a little while...

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:23:14 GMT

So, a lot has happened since I last posted. It feels like it's been months since I have last been on this page. I started at Wal-Mart, left there, and started a new job at a local call center which offers great hours, pays okay, and has good benefits.

I am pretty happy with this job, it is a great opportunityfor me to clear my head and start focusing on a life that I have been largely neglecting or sporatically participating in for the last four years.
I have decided to put Sheila and the other vampires to bed for a little while, as the stories need a super re-write, because they aren't going anywhere. I will pick them back up again, just not right now.
I had another plot bunny rolling around in my head, and this one was kind of insistant on being written. Actually, one day I saw something on discovery channel that sparked this new story, and the idea said "You should write me, bitchface, or I'll kick you in the nuts." Plot bunnies are nasty little critters sometime. It was in my head for a while, threatening me with bodily harm every time I put it at the back of my mind. Recently, one of the RSS feeds I subscribe to had an article on writing using the Snowflake Method created by Randy Ingermanson Ph.D. I figured that this plot bunny deserved to be experimented on, and if it turned out with three eyes and no fur, it would serve it right for threatening to kick me in the nuts. Lo and behold, this method is actually creating a really cool story (with my help, of course!) So what I have so far (with minimal research (meaning none)) is that the Earth suffered a major astrological disaster, the closest star sent out a solar storm. The radiation from this storm caused major mutations to life on earth, to the point that the Human Race is extinct, replaced by several sub species. The main character is of the race of psychics, who have verying degrees of psychic power, and are either scientists or teachers. There are 5 other races, Zombies, Cat-People (so named because their hands and feet are mutated into balled up paws, like a cats), Monkey Men (no tails, but opposible toes), Gnomes (the people who were lucky enough to be underground, in the subway or something when the radiation hit), and Earth eaters (their bodies can't process minerals from food, so they have to get the from dirt). All of the races hate each other to some degree, and my main character, after having a traumatizing experience, is moved to work for world peace. The only problem with that is the other members of his race don't like to recognize the other races as even being people. He is ostracized from his people, and forced to go it alone. In the process, he comes to realize that his initial motivations for world peace were fairly selfish (he wanted safety for himself,) but after working with people from the other races, he comes to the realization that the real reason to work for peace is the fact that every race would benefit from it.
when I am done with this story, I am going to redo the Vampire stories using the same method, and maybe get them back on track as well.
I am still going to mainly focus ont he Vampires, but this futuristic speculative piece is going to take me a little while.

YAY! Information!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:54:57 GMT

So I have an email from ILC (the online correspondence through TVO) and they said that I only need to send them an application with $40 and they will send me the course materials. I am still waiting to hear back from the 2 colleges I contacted, but ILC issues Minitsry approved credits, so I don't see why there would be an issue.

Back to the land of the employed

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:40:58 GMT

God I forgot how much a job cuts into your time. I am totally mentally exhausted right now, I just want to crash. I liked the job well enough, as much as you can like orientation. The Midnight shift will start as soon as I'm done my training, which is self paced, so I might be on nights before the end of the week. The people there are amazing!

One thing I don't understand is, why are all of the managers hot!?! I mean really! Every last one of them is really hot. I was talking to one of them today, and I had to keep checking to make sure I wasn't drooling! Anyway, that was my little rant about that.
My major problem for the day is that the bike room that my apartment building installed is really hard to get to, then I found out that I need another key to get into it! so my bike is in my apartment right now. I can't wait to get out of this building. It's one of those buildings that looks nice on the surface, but after you've lived here for a month, you start to notice how ghetto it is. We have drunken college students living across the hall, and their parties are reminiscent of Serijevo. We are on a main street, which leads to the hospital as well as the 115, which spills into the 401, so transport trucks and ambulances are blowing by my bedroom window at all hours. THEN there is the bar crowd (all of the downtown bars are within a 3 block radius of this building,) the harleys that every man over 30 seems to own, and the parking lot party across the street EVERY night. Coming back inside the building, the rent is $1000 a month (that's stupid for a town that has nothing,) the carpets in the hall are stained, cheap, and smell really bad. The elevators are constantly being puked in, the laundry room is run down, and the super is a real bitch who gives me dirty looks whenever she is anywhere near me. now add all that to the fact that I have no where to put my bike and I am just about ready to kill something.
I'm hungry, it's time for supper.

Education?

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:34:56 GMT

So, I am trying to find correspondence courses so I can get prerequisites needed to go back to College for Practical Nursing. I am missing a senior math (wasn't needed when I went to high school,) chemistry, and I want to take biology again, just to refresh my memory. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Well, my first stop was to the Sir Sanford Flemming website to see if they offer correspondence courses... nope. So I email them to find out if they know anything about any correspodence courses that are offered in my area, but have yet to hear back from anyone, which I understand, since the school year is close and they are probably busy.
I called Kawartha Pine Ridge Distric School Board, and explained the situation to the person who answered the phone. I tell her that I already have my OSSD and only need to gain a few credits that I missed. Helpfully, she pipes up and tells me "You want to call the Center for Independent Study, their on Bonaccord." then thanks me for my time and hangs up before I can ask her what the phone number is, or where on Bonaccord they are, or where the hell Bonaccord is!
After searching Canada 411 (which kept returning the Internation Academy of Design and Technology in Toronto,) I turned to the phone book. It turns out that either this place is unlisted (not likely) or doesn't even exist!
I google "independent study" and come up with Canada College, which offers high school credits. I see that they offer courses for $400... umm, for a full semester? Nope! per course... yeah, I'm all over that.
I google "correspondence ontario" and come up with something relatively cool (I thought.) TVO offers high school courses online at $40 each. Sweet, this is what I want! Well they have admission requirements for people 18 and younger, as well as 18-20, so off another email to them.
I finally got fed up and decided that I should actually email the college I want to attend (George Brown,) and asked if there are any known places that they recognize where I could take correspondence courses to better my chance of getting into the nursing program. Guess it's time to sit and wait.

I'm Back!

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:02:42 GMT

That was a great trip! We did so much, and I had a great time. Chris' brother, Tim, planned the whole thing, which was awesome. I'm sure Sean had a great time while we were out.

First, Chris and I went to Tims' place and let him know that I quit Minacs and start at Wal-Mart on Wednesday. I even got to catch the new WNTW on TLC, which I had missed Friday night, because I wasn't thinking about it, and was lost in my own world trying to edit the 1st chapter of High Seas. When Tim was ready, we met up with Sean (the groom to be, lol) and went down to the Amsterdam Brewery for a tour.
The tour started with an all you can drink Beer Buffet. 6 dollars was supposed to include 8 samples. When you think of samples, you think like a tiny little dentist cup of beer. These were relatively large cups (although not full size,) and I can assure you I had many more than 8 samples. I didn't know that they bought out Kawartha Lakes Brewery, which makes the Raspberry Wheat beer that I am very fond of. Needless to say, we had started getting tipsy before the tour even began. The tour guide was ill informed, but he did stop the tour for a refill or two, so we weren't that put off by it (Sean corrected him quite a few times on the process, which was pretty funny.)
After the Beer Buffet, we went to the Keg for supper. I have never been to a Keg restaurant before. I will be going again (and again, and again, and again.) The steak was really good, they actually know how to get a steak MEDIUM rare. The Wine was awesome, and their garlic bread was amazing!
We then made our way to Church and Front streets to C'est What?! which is a really cool bar that we took Chris to for his birthday. We had fun and drank a bit more (I stopped early, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a pretty cheap date.) And then Chris and I had to go, because Chris has to work today. We got back to Tim and Laurenas' place around midnight and passed out.
This morning, Laurena was up and so we had a really good visit with her. She is working on the interior for Sick Kids hospital down town. we talked a bit about that, and about the South Beach Diet (which Chris and I decided we are starting after Sean and Tracys' Wedding.) I also let her in on my plans for going back to school for RPN and Chris and I moving to Toronto eventually.

BIG NEWS!!! Chris is letting me get a dog... no time frame involved one way or the other, so I am very happy. I should be able to afford a dog fairly soon, so keep checking for a new entry and pics!

All in all a very good trip.

So I get home today and kind of veg out, then find out that there is a new Challenge, or several new challenges at the CoC website regarding carnivals/festivals/fairs. I have a few ideas for a story involving the creation of circus freaks for the story writing portion of the challenge. The Art challenge is going to be fun, since there are so many images of barnum and bailys' type circuses that are public domain. The only portion I might have a problem with is the Cinquain. Whenever I try to write Cinquains they always come out sounding juvenile. I know I don't have to do every one of the challenges, but it will help me work my writing muscles a bit.
On top of the Challenge, there is also a Writers Summer camp going on at the same site. You complete merit badges for a prize at the end of the summer. I have completed almost all but one of them (writing a letter about a social cause. I really can't think of anything to do other than the environment.) You have to write a synopses for a book that you have recently read. I am thinking about finishing David Eddings Domes of Fire and using that one, since I liked it WAY more than DH. I haven't decided yet, but it is looking pretty good for that one.

Other than that, I am going to have fun running diagnostics on my computer since I picked up a PC health magazine to read on the way home from Toronto (I finished editing the chapter for High Seas on the way to Toronto, and it will be posted on the CoC archives soon) and was informed that my computedr is likely dying a slow, horrible, painful death, which might be reversed... Fingers crossed, off I go.

Wahoo!

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:16:33 GMT

Off to Toronto today for a friends stag and doe party. Should be fun! I am prepaired for the bus ride, with a copy of the second chapter of High Seas in hand for editing purposes. It was written a little hastily so I think it deserves a second look and repost on CoC. So I am in Toronto till tomorrow afternoon, and will write about the party when I get back :)

Further proof of my neuroses

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:28:33 GMT

So, I obviously started planning for NaNo. I have worked out a rough understanding of the mythos regarding the Genisys that I am writing, the beginning of the universe, etc. So here is what I have so far;

Firstly, the whole basis of the genisys is Evelutionary Creation, meaning that the Gods started life, but have left it to run it's couse for the most part with very little intervention. It works well, because I only need to write 50k words, and if I was to have a fully Creationist theological set up, it would be well over 50,000.
The next thing is I have worked out a small ammount of a Pantheon, with the help of a Family Tree application. It is kind of fun to see this all worked out. I think I'm going to use it to keep track of my Vampires as well, because it allows you to add notes, so I can add in information about the character, what books they are in, important plot points with which they are involved, etc.
So my basic idea is that the begining consisted of Paradox, everything and nothing. The Paradox was a Goddess, who gives birth to the first generation of the Pantheon, aptly called the Primordials. They interbreed to create the Younger Gods. One of the Primordials creates the animal and plant kingdoms. The Younger Gods get jealous of the attention being bestowed on the single god, and so create their own creatures, which include Witches, Vampires and Etherial Beings (Spirits or Demons.)
So I have got that far in the planning. Basically, the younger gods create super species, and I am at a loss as to what happens next. I have already decided that 2 of the younger gods are going to lose some power because their creations don't die very easily. I think I may have the Younger Gods fall out of Grace and be banished as well, it's kind of cliche, but I think I can do it in such a way that it will not lose interest.

While I am doing all this planning, and it may seem like I am really working hard, I am actually using it as a tool of procrastination. I have 2 stories on the go right now, one of a Vampire woman, who has a really cool character and is soon going to become a Pirate, and another one of a failed Vampire, who was a druid (another Supernatural species in my universe,) who becomes a Spirit Messenger for the Vampires. I also have 2 new characters who I have to write out for the first book (High Seas,) possibly writing a bit of a back story for them, and eventually books as well. I tend to go full throtle sometimes, and then, totally drained of initiative, just look at the blank page in Word and wonder what the hell I was supposed to be doing.

I think there may be something wrong with me...

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:59:33 GMT

Okay, I didn't finish NaNo last year because of family issues, so this year I am determined to finish it on time, or early. 50,000 words should be nothing for a month, 2000 word a day gives me a little bit of a cushion.

I am writing a back story mythology to my pre-existing Bloodlust series. So I have starte planing, writing the pantheon, the order of their birth, some of the general personalities. The planning will take a while, but once it's done, I'm sure it will be easier to write. For the people who don't know Bloodlust, it is my vampire series, which is part of the larger supernatural series with witches, ancestor spirits, druids, as well as the 72 infernal spirits in the Ars Goetia of the Lesser Key of Solomon.

Anyway, I have settled on the tentative title of Mother. It's a matriarchal theological premise, but I may name it after the original goddess whos name is Eihai (ee-HIGH). The only probledm is that you can't pronounce it... God this is hard, and I'm not even writing the book yet!

HP and the Deathly Dissapointment

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:54:27 GMT

Umm, okay...
Over all, my impressions of the book were kind of lack luster. It almost feels like the was writing it just to get the series overwith. The voice was immature, and the overall tone was not very consistant. I had quite a few problems, here's the list.

1. The camping! I want the 8 hours of my life back, who do I email to get that? This really should have taken no less than 1/36 of the book instead of 1/2!
2. JKR is now a mass murderer! Most of the deaths in this book did not progress the plot at all!
3. When Molly Weasely suddenly becomes a dualing master. WTF??? I don't think she even rides a broom once in the entire series. She only used her magic for house work, until she takes on Bellatrix (who is credited with defeating several Aurors, the best of the best when if comes to dualing!) which leads to #4.
4. Neville should have killed or at lease seriously maimed Bellatrix! I know it's cliche, but she sent his parents to St. Mungos, leaving him (in my humble oppinion) in a worse state than Harry Potter, because he still has to visit his parents. If I was him, I would have murdered the bitch!
5. Tonks and Lupin. Why did she do it? Get them married, give them a kid, then don't even mention that they die until Harry notices them when the Weasleys are all crouded around Fred. If you are going to spend words on endless camping, then at least spare a few for what would have been an interesting fight.

I could go on forever, I think overall she missed the mark with this book. It was a really bad ending to the series. I think what gets me the most is that she really could have done better if she had spent a little more time on it.

I attribute this flop to laziness.