Christmas day

Today was Christmas and a good one at that. Spent some time with the friends, ate some food and gave some gifts. What could be better than that? I did talk to my parents and my brother, made sure they were having a good time. My brother says my parents are taking the kids back with them for a bit which is good, since they got gipped out of the summer. Ah well, it’s under the bridge. When Monday hits, I’m going to have to send the packages out for the holidays. Yes, I’m a few days behind, but I like to do it this way so that people still have gifts coming even after the holidays. I wonder how my mother will like her gifts? And my dad?

Still working

I am getting nowhere in this story. It’s not for lack of trying. I have been. I just can’t seem to get back into writing. I’d planned that while I was on leave from job I would be working on my crafts and the stories. So far…I’ve completed part of my Christmas list, but come no closer to getting this story done.

How do you get over the hump?

Moving past the letdown

So, I took a moment to mourn my story that I’d finished. Wasn’t a long period, since I’ve been working on this bad boy for quite a while. But…I still feel a little sad. Like a friend you hadn’t seen in a while calls you out of the blue. You kinda missed them, but not in the aching sense of missing your best friend.

So, for my next story I’m finally tackling a story that I’ve had on the backburner for longer than I can remember. A nice little interracial love story about a couple that were separated by the hero’s mother when they were only teenagers. He comes back to the family fold after being gone for a long time and finds the heroine in the same town as his mother. He wants to pick up where they left off, but she has a secret he can’t know about. this is not a traditional love story in that the hero does not wait around for her and neither does she wait around for him. They both date during the first few chapters of the story, even going so far as to be intimate with their significant others. For one reason or another though, those relationships end up failing and they come back together. Of course, there are trials and tribulations even after they come together and it looks like they might never get together. the hero though…he’s waited a long time for his woman and he’s not going to let her go so easily once he realizes she’s really the one.

this one has been in my head for a long time, coming out here and again while I was working on other stories. Now, the situation is that I’m working on it and I have other stories that I want to get to. I can’t decide if having all these activities makes me ADD or artistic. *shrug*

What do you think?

End of story letdown

While the topic title would have you thinking I mean the end of a book I’ve been reading, it doesn’t. I’m talking about the depression that sets in when you finish writing a book. It’s the feeling you get when you finally type/write the end to a story that has taken up much of you life and you emotions. I’m going through that now, after having finished a five book story arc concerning a gay couple I created. The ending just…drained me and now…I don’t know what to do with myself.

You’re probably asking…what are the symptoms of such a feeling? Let me tell you.

You feel drained, not quite happy, but not quite sad. At one point you may have even hated you book, wishing that it would end. Now that it has, there is a tinge of sadness hanging around your head, dragging you down when you go to open that file only to realize that it’s finished.

You get this right before you send the story off to be critiqued and edited. Once it’s in the other stages, you start to hate it again and can’t wait for it to be done.

How does one deal with such an emotion? You know the characters in the book aren’t real, or at least I hope you do. But you’ve spent every day with them, sometimes hours in a day and now…you won’t be seeing them as much anymore. It’s time for them to go into the world and though you are proud, how do you let them go? Are there any special rituals you have, things you do, celebrations you hold to purge the sadness that lingers once the last page is turned and you put down the pencil?

Holidays and shopping

I need to get out and shop. Between working all day and then coming home to work on my website, I have not had any time to do the shopping needed for Christmas. This would usually not be a problem, as I would just go during the Thanksgiving holiday and do what needed to be done. The problem this year is that I will be out for surgery. My husband is insisting that I’m not going to leave the house during my recuperation, keeping me confined to the apartment and surrounding grounds. This could be a problem, since I like to shop until I drop, literally. I don’t necessarily enjoy shopping online for gifts. For me it’s okay, but for others, I love the tactile sensations of touching things, running my card through the machine and walking down the street with bags upon bags on my arms.

The angry people though…not so much.

So the situation is really, should I go through the effort of shopping or should I, the Diva of Crafts, make everything I can and then fill in the rest. I already know the answer to that. It’s really too late in the season for me to try to make too many things, so I’m gonna have to get creative. A little bit of shopping, a little online browsing and some intensive homecrafting.

How will you be filling your Christmas list?

Priorities

Sometimes, it can hard to find the time to write. Heck, you may have the time, but you have other things you want to do, need to do instead. How do you make the decision to write instead of what’s hanging on your shoulder?
Me…I do a couple of things, tips that I picked up from other writers and organizers.
First, before I even sit down, I try to map out what it is I want to write about in my head. It could be a scene, a moment, a feeling that I want to convey to the reader. This helps me get into the right frame of mind. I also tend to only write dialogue. Not a lot, but when my mind starts to work faster than my hands, that’s when I turn it on. I may not finish the scene, but the dialogue helps me get back into the moment when I find a chance to write again.

Another thing I do is carry a little notebook with me. This is great when you are at the Dr’s office, getting the car looked at, anytime really when you have at least 15 min of just you time. True, you may have other things to do in those spare moments, but the time comes when you have to ask: What is more important? What is calling you louder than all the rest of the errands?

Now, one of the issues that may arise is that writing starts to feel like a chore. True…it can and could. That is when you step back…take a breath and do something else. I know, writing is in your blood, but do you really want to be burned out on something you love? Take a break and when you come back, you’ll be refreshed and ready for something new.

On my days off, I nearly live on the computer. Not a good thing, but I do. When this happens, I leave whatever story I’m in love with at the time minimized on my task bar. That way, when the moment hits, I can just pull it up and start typing. I may only get a line or two, but it’s enough to keep my mind focused.

What are some tips from you or that you have gotten that help you prioritize your writing?

Inspiration

I know, I’m a little late in my blog post. I just could not come up with anything to talk about. That’s not true…it’s more like I had too much I wanted to talk about and didn’t know where to start.

So…

Let’s talk about inspiration and where it comes from. Sometimes, I will be sitting on the couch, watching a commercial and an idea will hit me. It could be the weirdest thing ever, but it will spark something in me that makes me want to write a story. Or other times, I will have a dream and wake up with crystal clear images. Like a story that I’m itching to work on. I had a dream about a writer that was having one of her stories made into a movie. Of course she gets with the main actor of said move, but there were twists and turns in it that I’m not sure I could have thought up fully awake. As soon as the sleep cleared from my eyes, I had the basic outline written down on paper. It may be a while before I get to the story, since I have a few others, but it’s there.

Patiently…

Other times, I’ll read another person’s story, a fairytale and think…what if? What if I changed it, made it newer, set in a different time, and changed the people around? That’s my next step that I’m taking, once the stories that I’m working on get finished. I want to see what I can do with the classic, other than the ordinary. I mean…I’ve seen enough of the Cinderella stories to know that the usual bores me to tears. I want to spice it up…make things different and new.

Where does your inspiration come from?