Mia Darien's Blog, page 33

Characters are People, Too

I have encountered a very stubborn character. This is a character I've written before, but I've been revising an old series of stories and rewriting them and she has gotten even more stubborn than I've expected. She is, quite frankly, refusing to be written. How does this occur? Well, I wrote the first book in the series and that main character just wrote herself.

This one? I open the document and every word feels like I'm bleeding onto the keyboard, one drop, one word, at a time. I have a plot outline I like and a good overall arc, but the actual writing is just creeping along. It's like writer's block, but a very tightly focused beam… Maybe we should call it character block?

What's a girl to do?

My advice to anyone in the same position is to change projects, if you can. You can fight it for a while, but if you go on too long, the frustration will mount and then everything else will grind to a halt too. Every writer, at least every one I have ever met, has had to deal with this kind of dilemma at some point.

Characters are people, too. When you're really involved in what your writing, they take on their own life. I don't mind it so much when they actually write, but when they dig their heels in is when it gets annoying. But you can't let it stop you, or derail your writing entirely. Work on something else for a while.

In my case, I think I'm going to swap entirely. This is a series, so I'm going to swap the books planned as 2 and 3. 2 is the stubborn one, so she's getting bumped down the line. Maybe it will make her more easily handled if she knows that I mean business, eh?

We'll see how it goes. If any writers want to chime in with your own advice for unruly characters, feel free!

It's a Jungle Out There

Anyone who is anywhere around the social media world of epublishing has, by now, heard about the downhill happenings at Aspen Mountain Press. (If you haven't, you can check it out here.) I don't have any connection to this press, but it's a cautionary tale that should make everyone take notice.

The fact of the matter is that the situation here isn't unique to the world of epublishing. Businesses have been screwing over employees for ages. It being on the internet may just be a benefit because all communications are better documented and accessible. Even so, it's just a big pile of 'wtf' and everyone should take note.

Be careful what you do!

I know that I'm always very cautious about where I want to do business with. If I want to submit a manuscript to a publisher, I like to check it out through at least three venues I trust: Predators & Editors, EREC and Piers Anthony's Internet Publishing review. Each one has it's own way of noting what publishers seem to be having problems.

In the case of Piers Anthony, he posts the most extended versions and offers what reports he's heard – positive and negative – from both authors and publishers.

I have chosen to self-publish some of my work, but I am also seeking to be picked up by a 'regular' publisher. That doesn't mean I'm going to rush into anything. Research, research, research! Make sure that you are not sending your manuscript into a black hole of the publishing world.

Can any company develop problems at any time? Of course! But if it's a publishing house that has had a good track record for a while, you're better off than with a new company you know nothing about or one that has some "rumblings" about it. Know what you're doing and you should do okay, especially in this day and age when struggling authors aren't likely to have the money to take an epublisher to court.

It's a jungle out there. So be careful!

NaNoWriMo

I've been thinking about it for years, but one thing or another always came up and I just didn't. Well, now I've signed up, so it's official: I have joined NaNoWriMo!

It seems like most writers know what this is, but for any of my readership that doesn't, here's the low down: NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You have the month of November to try to write 50,000 words. You can join forums to chat with other writers and even go to regional meetings. Your word count will be posted, so folks can chart your progress.

One month of pure insanity, basically, is what we're saying here. And I just signed on board.

I've always felt a little odd about it because I have written books that long before. In fact, I once wrote 87,000 words in three weeks, although this was before I had a toddler. I could stay up till four in the morning then. Still, I've written a lot in the course of the many years I've been writing, so it's not that I want to do this to see if I can.

For me, I kind of hope to meet other writers in my area, or just in general. I have a story that has been resistant to being written, and I'm hoping that a deadline and progress tracker will be just the kick I need. And I think it could be insane and fun, just join in the melee and go from there.

Admittedly, with everything else in my life, I am a little worried about the pace I'll have to set. I don't want other projects to suffer too badly, but you won't know how it will go until you give it a try, so that's what I'm going to do.

Wish me luck!