Short Story: Anthony

It needs renaming, possibly, but I don't know what is suitable at the moment. I finshed it on Mother's Day. The protagonist is a mother who lost her five year old son to a kidnapper, but who now appears to her in ghost form to send her on a mission to save children. She keeps hoping he'll send her to his body or to his killer, but that isn't Anthony's mission.

This one holds some speical meaning for me. While the situation thankfully resembles nothing in my life aside from motherhood, it has granted me freedom from the nightmares I've been having. They are pregnancy induced, I remember this kind of vivid dream from my last pregnancy. Though, last time they were about something happening to my cats, and this time, they are always about something happening to my daughter and husband. Writing the story has tied my brain up with Anthony and his mom, and spared me the nightmares of my daughter's disasters. As for my husband, I think his place in the dreams were only because he would have protected our daughter, had he been able.

Amazing what writing can do!

Working Away

So it's not recordbreaking progress, but it is progress. I pulled two prompts for the challenge, and am close to finishing one ("Anthony"), and working out the ending for another ("Sunguard"). I also am eager to finish "Once A Thief", which is also from a prompt, but one I pulled two months ago. My plan is to use it for my 5th story for the challenge, which allows for my own source of inspriation. The news sparked an idea for a SF short story which I'm affectionally thinking of as "Broccoli" if only for the cute way my daughter says it. I'm writing over my lunch breaks a little bit, and writing on paper in the evenings until we get a nasty computer situation worked out.

The point here is that I *am* writing. Hopefully this weekend, I can bring something to completion. :)

Old Habits, Inner Selves

Interesting that the short story I've chosen to work on, is about the very thing I'm having issues with. We are who we are, and for me that's being a writer. I can't change that, nor do I wish to. However old ways, distractions, life, tend to block my path. While my distractions tend to be family related and therefore positive events in my life, it isn't so for my poor little thief who wants to change, but cannot.

January, February, and March were mostly nonexistent in terms of my writing. I signed up for the 2YN class that Zette offered once again on www.fmwriters.com. But since I have some distractions coming up in the future that will prevent me from finishing the class, I'm choosing to withdraw. I'm keeping my notes and will write it another time, but seriously, writing a novel about a mom searching for kidnapped infant is not a good thing to write while the writer is pregnant.

I realize, too, that my one rule for writing "Finish what you start" has fallen by the wayside. I have one novel that I started but could not finish (Shadow of Blood), and I started building another novel (Winter Warrior) though I did not start the writing. I've also quit editing Forgotten Star after overediting and receiving a right-on crit that freaked me out. I view this with a positive attitude since it proves that my desire to write is still strong. Unfortunately, I need to re-discipline and get these projects under control.

I think to finish Shadow of Blood, I need to revamp several chapters in the beginning, and rewrite/replan with the intention of which character takes precedence. That darkness of the story, and the confusion between two main characters took the focus off track. I am NOT ready to do this now, but it will be my first step when I am ready to work on novels again.

For now, it'll be short stories. I need to get this one written, and hopefully edited, then I'm going to hit the May Story-A-Day challenge again. I need to start somewhere.

Consistency, 2008, and January Goals

I've been "seriously" writing since 1998, with seriously meaning intent to edit and publish. When I lived alone, I wrote a lot. When I married my husband and we lived in our little condo, I wrote a lot. When we grew our family into three, my writing become sporadic. Instead of writing being my outlet, it become a chore. Whenever stress levels rose, I avoided the writing, despite my love for it. When I needed an outlet, I turned toward other hobbies. Writing found its way onto the back burner.

In 2007, I wrote from May until mid July with an obsession. I wrote 10 short stories, edited 4 of them (twice each), started a novel edit, and outlined/researched a new novel idea. Then I burnt out.

I have to choose: (1) downgrade my writing to a hobby; this way I don't have to stress when the writing doesn't come, or I'm stressed out, or I'd rather read or play that video game; (2) focus on a method to get the writing done without stressing.

Since my muse is obsessed with me (she's awfully demanding), option 1 is never going to fly. Trying it will only land me into a depression of 'why can't I do this?' which is fruitless and dangerous. I have too much positive in my life to spend my time being depressed. Option 2 seems like a good idea, if I can pull it off. To do that, there are a few key items I need to consider.

First, I have to stop overplanning. Each hiatus from writing has a pattern: obsessive and productive writing over a short period of time; planning oodles of writing to be completed over the next twelve months; joining critque circles beyond my ability (in producing critiques, not the writing ability); freaking out over the number of critiques and edits that must be done; and then the dreaded avoidance of writing.

Second, I need to start enjoying the writing. I love novels, but they are a huge committment in time and energy and brain power. Short stories have come a long way for me. I've figured out how to write them and enjoy writing them. The edits are still tough, but the writing is usually lots of fun. More importantly, the time committment to editing a short story is more manageable than the time required for a novel edit.

Third, I need a *reasonable* plan. Small goals in the short term. So I planned out January.

Implementation: Now. Let's look at 2007 really quick, and then move on!

2007 Writing Accomplishments
* 10 Short Stories Written (Apotheosis; The Lonely Orchard; The Knot; Storm Song; The Crossing; Knights of the Scarlet Rose; Kalila's Veil; Treischan Strength; The Dragon's Bard; Immenence)
* 4 Short Stories Edited (The Crossing; Treischan Strength; The Dragon's Bard; The Lonely Orchard)
* 1 Novel Prepped: Researched and outlined (Winter Warrior)

2008 Writing Goals
* Consistency: writing should continue through each month of the year. Breaks for sickness/family issues and good stuff are acceptable, but one thing needs to be done each month.

January Goals
* Short Story Writing - 2
* Short Story Editing - 2

Chaos

My life is chaos, and an update (as well as writing) is sorely overdue. These, and my monthly achievements/goals will be forthcoming...

Bad News: my web site, hosted by Jatol, is gone gone gone. So it's back to square one on the web site issue.

Good News: my artist friend has completed her art (originally inteded for my web page) so for now, I've posted the image on here. She's an amazing artist. See for yourself.

8/26 Update

It's been a busy past few weeks, with very little writing completed. I'm working on some crits and some worldbuilding, and the edit is brewing on the back burner for the moment. The little one has changed sleeping schedule, and so I've had to adjust my writing time and focus. I think I have a handle on what I need to do now -- which includes scaling back some of my writing goals. Someone reminded me that I have a full time job, a house and a family. While I do better when I can obsess over my writing throughout the day, I need balance so that everything works, so that when I can write full time, the family will still be here...

8/15 Update

Update, no not much progress...

Work/family has required more of my time and energy this week, so the writing is slow at the moment. However, I did have a brainstorm on how to edit chapter two. I need to add the full argument, but I need a scene before that, showing how compassionate Korin can be, to round him out a bit. Without knowing that, his anger is going to get on anyone's nerves, mine included.

8/13 Progress

It's been quiet here; the day job has required more of me, mentally and physically, so there was an adjustment for my brain to go through. I'm back at it, in baby steps, and by this weekend hopefully I'll be up to my usual progress.

* Crit: done, finally. It was a good story, and I really wanted to make sure my comments made sense.

8/5 Progress

Dealing with some sickness, but made a little progress:

* WW - researched metal working for some critical components of my Winterstorm city of Storm Hold. Felt like I was back in school in some combination of science and history class.

* Crits - still working on that one crit, just having a hard time focusing. (Bad cold, go away!)

8/3 & 8/4 Progress: Maps!

Winter Warrior: the physical condition of the world map is mostly complete; started a pull-out for Winterstorm and am working out cultural/government/commerce details, including some subplots that tie into the main plot.

It's all encompassing, so I've ignored my other writing goals for the week.