AIM Day 9

Word Count: 3,781
Song of the Day: Hallelujah by Paramore

Today's inspiration: switch up your point of view. I was rather not fond of a scene I wrote today. I felt like my character was acting...well...out of character. But how was I going to fix it? Write the scene from another point of view, of course!

Oh, sure. Of course. Duh.

Actually, it took quite a bit of time to figure it out, plus a number of conversations with writing buddies. But it is pretty brilliant, right? Only one of the scenes will actually go into the finished manuscript, but whichever one it is will be better, because by writing it from two different points of view, I get a more accurate characterization.

Brilliant!

AIM Day 4

Aug Word Count: 1,759
Song of the Day: Roses by Seether

I got a lot done last night. Well, maybe not a lot for some people, but I felt like I was on a roll for a while there. Had I been able to keep going (and not, say, commute home, care for a friend's pets, check their house, etc), I could have gotten a LOT done. Alas, once again, life gets in the way of writing. ;)

I keep talking about inspirtation, I know, but yesterday, I found INSPIRATION!!!

I've heard a lot of people say "Write in order! Don't just write will-nilly whatever scene you want."

So, lately, I've been doing just that. Writing in order. Problem was...I wasn't sure what came next. I knew what happened in the middle, or three-quarters of the way through, but not "next". Thank goodness I had a writing budy who just smirked at all those "strict dilligence" kind of people and said, "Just write your candy scenes already."

What? Candy scenes? You mean like Troli Brite Crawlers, one of my favorite snacks?

Well...sorta.

Candy scenes are the fun ones, the scenes that are more vivid in your head--battles, dramatic moments, evil scenes where you make your characters squirm. You know, the fun stuff, the ones that will be a treat to write, even if it's just a rough, ugly version.

Turns out, I really like candy scenes. (No kiddin', right?) My main character, Vesper, is an assassin, and she likes to pretend she's all cold, heartless, stone woman. It just ain't true. Many of my candy scenes involve another character, Shock, calling her out on it. Shock is a very laid-back kind of guy, and he enjoys nothing more than pushing Vesper's buttons and making her squirm. This suits me just fine, let me tell you.

So, that's my inspirational thought for the day. What are your candy scenes?

July is Madness

Word count this month: Erm...1500. *sobs*

Song of the day: "Tangled" by Fools For Rowan

I had a dream. I dreamed that all mankind...was being eradicated.

No, seriously, I did. But it was no where near as forward-thinking as MLK Jr's. Ever seen Battlestar Galactica? I haven't seen the old one (probably because I much prefer Starbuck being a girl), but the new one? My dream was quite similar. And you know all those Battleground: Los Angeles commercials? Yup, a lot like that, too. There's a lot of apocalyptic/distopian pieces cropping up lately. (I suppose that's what you get when you have out-spoken televangelists predicting the end of the world every 6 months.)

I also have the intro to an Angel/Demon/Nephilim piece that I was planning to do for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). And then there's the superhero piece I'm going to attempt for a Samhein submissions call.

In short, my brain's in overdrive. There are so many new voices adding to the nonsense up there it's taken me a while to sort it all out. I'm still not sure I've got it in any semblance of order. It's putting a serious damper on my word count. However!!! I have a goal; I'm going to attempt 10k words this week. That gives me a goal of 2k per work day, and leaves me two extra days should I fall short. So!! Who's with me??

Hi, I'm Traci, and I Hear Voices (WA#3)

Words written this month so far: 370
Song of the day: Castle Made of Sand by Pitbull and Kelly Rowland

Yesterday was one of my "crazy" days. I was having trouble focusing on reading anything or writing for any period of time. Why? Because the assassin in my head was sullenly silent and giving me death glares. (No worries; I didn't actually tell anyone this. They would have tried to medicate me. Then where would I be as a writer??)

Thankfully, I have some awesomely supportive writer friends who were willing to come to my rescue (Gemma and company). They started helping me interview Vesper, my assassin, to try and get her talking. It's been helpful, in that I've found she's hiding something from me. No wonder all the silence!! However, getting it out of her has proved to be...difficult.

Yesterday I also came across several pages of notes I had almost forgotten about. When I'm tutoring, I'm supposed to "ignore" the boy while he's working, so I jot down notes on my story. These notes then get tucked into my purse, and I sometimes forget they're there while I'm running errands (bad Traci!). But I found them again! Now I just have to interpret them...lol.

Alrighty, then, off to feel crazy again!

On Children

My current work in progress, Vesper's Call, is super dark. One of the first things that happens (or second, if I decide to add in that extra set-up chapter) is a huge bombing. I mean, HUGE. It takes out the majority of a major city. Lots of people die. Craziness ensues. And my main character, Kallen, a Trauma Surgeon, looses her twin daughters. Like I said, this piece has a rather dark tone to it.

I was working with one of the young students I tutor last night, and after we finished his daily summer work sheets, he picked Hi Ho Cherry O as the game he wanted to play. It's a simple game, nothing complicated, but as often happens, my young friend was a little distracted. This can sometimes be frustrating, because, as I mentioned, it's a simple game, so it's not much fun having to remind him that it's his turn. Yesterday afternoon, sometime around the third time I had to remind him to pay attention to the game, it hit me: while I was a little annoyed (granted, only a little--this particular little boy is absolutely adorable, and he's got a sweet personality), Kallen would give ANYTHING to have even these more mundane moments back with her kids. By the time the tutoring hour was up, my head was spinning with all the different thoughts she might have and the ways she would react.

That was my thought provoking moment for the week. Inspiration is EVERYWHERE. We just have to be open to it.