Yay! Halloween! It's the holiday of candy and costumes.
As an author, I like to think that I'm a kid at heart. I'm creative and I like to have fun. I write because I like to pretend. And because I love to pretend, I love dressing up for Halloween.
When I was in high school, I would dress up as my book characters for Halloween. I dressed up as Jen, a fairy from a story that I'm planning on tweaking and eventually publishing.
The next year I dressed up as Moxanna, the sorceress from Misunderstood, and I've shared parts of that story here on my blog. I have no idea what the fate of this story will be. I'll love to finish it and write it, but I never took the time to fully plan out this novel and it came back to bite me.
Once again, life is crazy busy. I've got so many different things going on. Between making Halloween costumes (pictures will come later this week, that is, if I can get buttons to replace the missing one on my dress and I actually have a costume to wear), writing, working, and finding a new job, my head is no longer screwed on straight.
Halloween costumes- This year I'm getting craftier than I have before. I've got a lot of minor alterations to make to clothes we already have, and then I have to make a duct tape prop for Husband of Mine. It's going to be so awesome, if I survive. As I said, my costume is missing a button, a very important button that holds part of my skirt on. If I can't get a new one, then I don't know what I'm going to do for my costume.
Writing- I'm halfway done with the edits to Rose. In addition to that, I know for a fact that Rose will have 33 chapters (thanks Scrivener!), so I'm not quite halfway done like I had hoped. It feels good to have the entire story planned out though, so writing the rest will be much easier.
Working- My job has become incredibly hectic. The kids are so cute, and I absolutely love them, but they don't fit in my small apartment, plus I have no toys for them. My puppy isn't allowed over at their house either, which has created some problems, but I'm pushing through. Puppy is finally fully vaccinated so she is allowed outside, so at some point soon, we'll be able to leash her up outside their house which will make my job easier. I was going to do it this week, but between halloween costume crafting and the mom working from home, we're still stuck over in my non-kid-proofed apartment.
This past week has been insane. I apologize for the lack of blog posts. I feel so lame that I can't even keep up with 2 a week, but at least I have some reasons why-
I've been sick and I was totally out of commission for a while. I couldn't get out of bed until noon for probably 5 days in a row. My head was in no condition to write, blog, or communicate with the outside world in any form. Today is the first day I've actually put on normal pants in over a week.
I started looking for a new job this week. I've really loved my job as a nanny. I've been watching the same kids for almost a year (I've got just over a week left until I hit the year mark). I love the kids so much, but there are a lot of other things that have become too complicated in the past few months.
I've been creating a new résumé and a cover letter to apply for the job. I'm submitting them in an email tonight and I'm going to stop by tomorrow to drop them off while I'm out running errands. I'll update you wonderful readers if anything happens.
Yes, the day has finally come. I will finally show you the reaction that came from the perspective prompt.
This prompt is the one that started the craze of writing I have been battling with for the past 45 days. I have made major modifications to Rose because this prompt sparked an idea, something that has seriously changed my book. Here's a link to my original blog post to see some of my thoughts on perspective-
http://alysonbowen.blogspot.com/2014/08/perspective.html?m=0#.VDridb7uXp4
After thinking heavily about perspective and POV in writing, I realized the the POV in Rose is convoluted and unclear. It randomly and unnecessarily switches from person to person, distracting the reader from what is happening in the story. It also lent me a writing crutch of telling what people are thinking, rather than using body language to communicate. So, I reevaluated what I was writing, and now I'm ready to show what perspective does to a story.
GUYS GUESS WHAT JUST CAME IN THE MAIL!!!!!!!!
I am going crazy right now. I have been dying to read this book since we got left with that horrible Mark of Athena cliffhanger. But now that I'm holding it in my hands, I feel my heart breaking. The anxiety is overwhelming me. This is the end. The very end.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about book genres recently. Why? Because as I've been on Scribophile critiquing works, I discovered that I won't look at anything unless it's fantasy. Why? Because I'm a total geek and I love fantasy. If you didn't know that fantasy was my favorite genre, then you should probably go back through my blog and read my writing. It's pretty much always fantasy.
But why am I only looking at fantasy books to critique? I read other genres besides fantasy. I love reading mysteries (especially Mary Higgins Clark!), action/adventure, dystopians (as long as it's got true dystopian elements), historical fiction (WWII primarily, but I'm not too picky), and sometimes a good sic-fi. I guess I am looking for fantasy because I love to write fantasy, and I think I can give the best feedback and writing tips on a genre I'm good at writing.
I struggle brainstorming and writing anything that's not fantasy. I'm not a mystery writer. Not in the slightest bit. I will never be Richard Castle (which is my favorite tv show that's still airing new episodes. I just can't wrap my mind around creating complicated plots like that, which is probably why I enjoy reading them so much. I love to guess who the murderer is before I get to the end. I can brainstorm ideas about dystopian societies, but when it comes to actually putting together a story, I just can't do it. I can't figure out all the fine details and comments about the society to make it a good dystopian. I've never really attempted historical fiction because I'm too much of a stickler for details being accurate (like in Rose, where I picked an actual town with actual stores, and an actual château with actual pear trees, and actual restaurants and tourist attractions). I have attempted sci-fi, but nothing I've written has been that great. I'll just stick to fangirling over other people's sic-fi (Doctor Who & Star Wars!)
I've seen a lot of writers who specifically have a genre they write it. Mary Higgins Clark writes mysteries. Rick Riordan writes YA mythology novels. Stephen King writes horror/thrillers. I write fantasy. Why do authors have a specific genre?
This is some super exciting news for me and for a fellow writer. Beggar Magic by H. L. Burke has a cover and a release date! I was a kind of beta-reader for this book through Scribophile. I was the first person to read it all the way through (because it was that riveting for me), and she really developed the plot a lot because of comments that I (and a handful of others) made on it. It's a cool experience for me because this is the first time my comments led to major changes in someone's writing. She added a whole extra chapter just to address some of my concerns, and snuck in an underlying subplot because I said I thought it would be cool. It's a really well thought out book, and it's so cool.
