Andrea Judy's Blog, page 11

Writers and wannabes

At one of the great panels I was able to go to at Dragon*Con, one of the writers mentioned a really interesting idea that I love. There are two kinds of people who go to these panels about writing: people who are wannabe authors and people who are writers.

Now the wannabe authors want all the perks of being an author. They want to be on the panels, get the fame, roll in the big bucks( hahahahahaha! ) and bask in the fan adoration. They like to talk about writing, muse about publishing, complain about a lot of things, but they very rarely get it together enough to do the work required to become an author. They love to tell anyone who will listen about their novel that they have all plotted out, that they are working on, year after year, but when push comes to shove, they have nothing to show for all of their talking.

Writers want to sit and write. They come to these panels, take notes, and listen. Then they go back their own way and write. They live in poverty and eek out an existence on words. They are usually quieter about their accomplishments, less likely to just talk about writing and more likely to actually write, because they don’t want to be an author…they just have to write.

I thought this was a fascinating concept and I am positive that every single person in that room thought, ‘I am the only true writer here, look at all these wannabes.’ or something along those lines. But it’s not that moment in the panel tht decides it. It’s what each of us will do once the convention is over, once there are no more panels. The deciding factor will be who goes home and goes back to writing, and who goes back to talking about writing.

And yes, I currently feel like a hypocrite because here I am talking about writing, writing a blog post, not writing. But, when I am done with this post, (when I am done with this stupid thesis) I know I will go back to writing. I might wander away from writing from time to time, not have time, etc. but I have written for my entire life because I don’t know what else to do.

Unchained

This weekend I had the distinct pleasure of going to an amazing reading in Savannah, Ga. It was the final night of the Unchained Tour, and it was amazing.

I went in for the show having no idea what was going to happen, or really what I was in for. I knew it was a reading. I knew it was going to have a lot of amazing writers there, and I knew that I was thrilled to be going.

It turned out to be nothing like I imagined. I walked into the venue and found beautiful paper hearts floating from the roofs, lining the stage. The room was filled to capacity, sold totally out and every chair was filled, with a few people standing or sitting on the floor.

The evening began and I understood that we were here to hear stories, to have stories told to us by some of the most amazing storytellers of our time. This wasn’t a standard reading where someone opens up their book and reads the words on the page: this was a moment of storytelling at its barest form. These were all stories about love, about life, about moments and things from these amazing people’s lives.

My friend, Neil, got to tell a one-minute story.

 

I cannot recommend this highly enough. If you have the chance to go see one of their shows, absolutely please do.  I am hoping to get more involved with the Unchained project in the very near future.

Review: 750 words

I’ve recently found a great new website 750words that is all about one simple goal: write 750 words a day.

Now, what you write isn’t so much what matters (though blog posts are discouraged); it’s just the fact that you write those 750 words a day. It’s a simple, basic concept. Writing every day is the best way to write, to improve your writing.

What I really love about this website is the information it gives you if you actually type your 750 words within the website, you can track how fast you completed your goal, how many times you were distracted, most commonly used words, tense, mood, etc. about what you’ve written. It really is a great system to keep track of a lot of metadata about your writing.

It’s also simple, and free to use, though donations are strongly encouraged.

Here are some screen caps of the data that 750 words provides:

We interrupt your regular scheduled blog post for a brief mental breakdown.

First off, sorry for missing all of my updates last week. School has not beaten me like I thought it would. It has utterly curb stomped me.

I missed the first half of the first week of classes after a family emergency, and have not felt like I’ve caught up since.

I’m trying to throw together a thesis in time enough for me to graduate in May while I still have my tuition covered with an assistantship… but that was pretty much shot down last week.

I don’t know what to do for my thesis. I don’t feel like I know anything. Every time someone in one of my classes starts talking I feel like the kid in the dunce hat sitting in the corner. It isn’t my first year here so why do I still feel like a clueless idiot?

I feel like I’m in the totally wrong place, wasting my time with this degreee. It’s keeping me from what I want to do: write.

I don’t even know what I’m going to do with this degree? Teach? Please, like I could find a job!

I’m just really frustrated by the whole thing and hate that I feel like I’ve made a terrible mistake going back to school. I’m not going to drop out, I’m way too far invested to do that, but I’m just so ready to be done.

I’m hoping that it’s just a combination of stress and lack of sleep making me feel this way and it will pass.

Anyways, sorry for the rant-tastic, emo-filled post but I wanted to just vent.

Dragon*Con Review

Phew! My head is still spinning after a wild whirlwind Dragon*Con weekend.

The convention is huge. I mean, if you have not been, it’s difficult to even conceptualize the size of it. I’m still wiped out from the convention so I’m going to do a top 10 of the convention.

10. Getting smushed face first against a guy’s caped back on the escalator and creeping on him by asking what fabric softener he used cause he smelled nice.

9. The amazing, amazing writing panels the entire weekend. I learned a ton.

8. I found some truly breath-taking artwork.

7. I saw the most amazing Labyrinth cosplayers in the history of cosplayers.

6. I finally learned my way around the various hotels and where to park.

5. Random conversations with strangers!

4. New books!

3. I got to hang out with some amazing friends that I don’t get to see nearly enough.

2. I got pulled onto a panel for New Pulp and have a chance of being a guest for next year.

and my number 1 most awesome part of Dragon*Con

1. I GOT TO MEET R.A. SALVATORE AND HAVE HIM SIGN MY BOOK AND HE TOLD ME CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING PUBLISHED AND I WAS A HOT FANGIRLY MESS.

So, that’s my top 10 of Dragon*Con!

 

Writing’s Dirty Little Secret

So this is a blast from the past post from last year… but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately so I wanted to share it again!

When you tell someone you’re a writer usually you’ll get responses something like:

Oh, I’m going to write a novel once I retire/finish this year/get a vacation/etc.
A writer huh? You must not like eating.
A writer? Really? What do you do?
AHT0AH4P8TA2HREPNG8YAHR9;INRP8A

Or something like that. It all depends on where you are around when you drop the ‘w’ word. It seems that other writers usually fall into that last category…depending on how long they’ve been a writer.
But what I never realized, which probably says more about me than anything else, is that writing is hard work. It’s time-consuming, draining work to write the first draft and then you take all the hard work and slice it to ribbons in the editing process. I think writers have to be at least a little masochistic to stick with it.

Writing is not nearly as simple as many people think. The general consensus of outsiders seems to be that writing is a very simple task. “How hard can it be? You just put down some words and then someone pays you for them. Duh, easy.”
Oh imaginary person, if only. The writing process I think is best illustrated by this awesome graph I found on here. But just in case you’re not in a clicking mood, here’s the graph. Yes, this talks about Science writing, but I think it applies across theboard.

So, just remember. Writing is not a simple ‘Words + Me + ??? = Profit’ it’s more of a “Words + Internet + Me + You  - Them + Research + Outline – Outline + Outline 2 + ???? + (&Y*&BPU(P&%RO*^YGOY = First Draft. Repeat process for draft 2″

Writing Words of Wisdom from the Trenches

If you haven’t seen this great article featuring tips from some amazing authors, than you are really missing out. There are some fantastic words there. Here are a few of my favorite:

When life hands you lemons…

Sometimes, life just has a way of snowballing out of your hands for a little bit of time. That is exactly what has happened the past few weeks. Lots of changes, lots of new things to get use to, and scare-you-to-death family emergencies are making it a challenge for me to get my footing.

 

Thanks for the patience and regular blog posts should resume (*fingers crossed for no more trouble*) on Saturday.

 

Burdened with Glorious Purpose

Sorry for the late post… again!

And you know, I really don’t even have an excuse. I’m not in classes right now (they start Monday, meep!) and I’m only working 20 hours a week. My new awesome roomie is moved in and we’ve settled in pretty well. So I can’t even come up with an excuse for why I didn’t post yesterday… other than that I got lazy

Apparently having a lot more free time than I’m use to brings out a terrible laziness in me. I’ve barely written anything, I’m dragging on my edits and I am spending the vast majority of my time either watching movies or goofing off on the internet (Tumblr has stolen my soul…)

And it drives me crazy that I am being so unproductive and then I panic and stay up late, thinking, ‘Just one more tumblr page and then I’ll write..’ or ‘Just one more episode of Deadliest Women’ and then I’ll really get to work… It’s a terrible viscous cycle.

I was productive in other ways yesterday; I organized my bookshelves and cleaned up my desk. I decided on a new system to help me organize my writing thoughts (just need to get a cork board/white board and I am set!) and I even did laundry, but when it came to putting butt in chair and hands on keyboard to be productive… It just flew out the window.

I’ve been doing so well for such a good chunk of time, but apparently if I lack structure I just go all limp-brained and don’t want to work anymore. Bad, bad, bad, bad self.

So while cleaning up yesterday I pulled back out my tea-pot timer and added a new note to the wall in front of my desk.

Write like its your job, and one day it will be.

Now, I’m not saying that this is going to be an insta-fix for the lazy that has come over me, but seeing that note every day at my desk is going to remind me why I’m doing this instead of goofing off on the internet or napping the day away. Because I have a goal, a dream and I’ll be damned if I don’t reach it.

I’ve pulled out an old idea for a rather massive story, told in a way that I’ve never done before. I don’t know if I’m going to succeed or fall flat on my face but if there is one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that some things can only be learned by having your face slammed into the mud and held under for a few seconds. Some lessons take that pain of failure to really make their point.

I’m taking the right steps, chatting with a few people about this project and remembering that I have a helluva lot of potential and if I’m going to ever meet it then I’m going to have to get off of my ass, out of my comfort zone and eat some dirt.

One of the main reasons that internet has eaten me lately… but still… If Loki can be burdened with glorious purpose, than so can I!!

Upcoming Anthology Calls!

So, here a few anthologies that have calls out right now. Some of the deadlines are coming up quickly so be ready for it!

 

Thunder on the Battlefield Fantasy anthology

Deep Cuts: Female Horror Writers

Psycho Circus

In the Spaces Between Sci-Fi Mystery

Dragonthology