Guilty pleasures for 2007

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

I'm coming out.

Yes, I'm coming out as a vampire-lover. I adore angst. Longblack coats. Thinly-disguised sexual metaphors.

There. I've said it. So now I'm able to tell you all this:

A while back I started a thread about my trunk novel, (trunkomancer...it deserves an award for title of the year in my (not) humble opinion. Anyhoo...) written, or should I say vomited over the page, when I was eighteen. For quite some time now it's been insinuating itself into my already-crowded head, and I think it wants me to give it mouth-to-mouth. Fangs-to-neck. Whatever. I'm starting to get excited about it.

So, in 2007 I'm going to open up a new MSword.doc and let rip. I'll allow myself to see what happens when I go back to my trunk novel. It won't need editing, no. It's way beyond that. This is a complete re-write. I don't even know which, if any, characters and situations will make the cut.

But this I do know. For the past few months, my writing has taken the back seat to submitting, editing, querying, proposals and the like, and this is probably why I have a desire to go back to 'the good old days' when I wrote for pleasure, rather than publication. I was young, spotty and objectionable enough to think I had plenty of time left to gather my fame and fortune. Riches were way, waaaaay in the future. Sadly, at the age of 30, they might still be far away, but...meh.

In 2007 I'll take the pressure off - still submitting other pieces, but I think I deserve to write something fun on the side, as a guilty pleasure. Hence, my long-winded confession.

There will be vampires. They will wear black coats. There will be virginal maidens. There will be sex (at least in my 30s I'll know what I'm talking about there...). Virginal maidens will no longer be such. There will be MarySues. Cliches. Angst.

AND THERE WILL BE GREEN EYES, DAMMIT!

So there. *sticks out tongue*

Join me.

What 'treats' will you give yourself in the new year?

COME OVER TO THE DARK SIDE.

Write a prologue. Write in second person. Use present tense. Invent a muse and refer to him/her/it as if they were real. Knock yourself out. I don't want to be the only person making a tool of herself in public, here.

Please!

Please...?

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

I am, for the first time in quite a lot of years (counts; good lord, it's six years) I'm writing a serial work this summer. I've been wanting to for years, because I adore the form, but I couldn't find a way to do it.

I didn't just want to write stories and plug them onto the internet for nothing, I'm not exactly about to go back and write fanfiction.

Fortunately, I found an editor who's willing to do the serial, an episode every two weeks, to people who subscribe, in the form of a lovely little chapbook with maybe a bit of artwork in it too.

I'm delighted and excited. It'd like being nostalgic, except if it works, it's being usefully nostalgic.

That's my 2007 indulgence.

jbal · Dec 28, 2006

Geez, if I can just finish the novel I'm on now, I'm taking a break and going back to recording music for a while. That's my self indulgence.

PattiTheWicked · Dec 28, 2006

Oh god. You're going to make me say it.

I'm writing a paranormal romance.

Although there's not a vampire in sight, it does include a hunky male leader of the Tuatha, an ancient race thought long dead... turned out they weren't dead, just hanging out underground.

Brief positive tangent: On the plus side, I've managed to make my main character's ex-husband one of the best people I've ever written. Spider was supposed to be just a minor character, and with his ADHD and perpetual horniness, he takes over every scene he's in. The guy is like Foamy the Squirrel with an erection, and I adore him.

Well, I hope you're happy. You've made me go and out myself.

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

Doesn't it feel good?

You're purged! Go forth and indulge, my child!

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

ARen't you supposed to affirm the silly things we're doing, and tell us that the path on which we travel is the right one, and we shall do well by it?

janetbellinger · Dec 28, 2006

Right on, Scarlet. I'm going to use adjectives and adverbs

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

PeeDee said:
ARen't you supposed to affirm the silly things we're doing, and tell us that the path on which we travel is the right one, and we shall do well by it?

Um, no...I'm too busy thinking about indulging myself with Hugh Jackman.

You'll do fine without me, affirmations, go toward the light, etc etc.

janetbellinger said:
Right on, Scarlet. I'm going to use adjectives and adverbs

MY GOD I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!!!

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

janetbellinger said:
Right on, Scarlet. I'm going to use adjectives and adverbs

Hang on, let's not do anything too crazy here. Nothing we'll regret. I mean, I guess I can see your way into adjectives, but.....come on. Come down from the adverbs, hey? It'll be all right.

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

As long as she stops by my other thread to pick up her internal editor afterwards, wouldn't it be okay, PeeDee?

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

I think it's just a dangerous slope to be walking headily down. You can gettily intoly troubly beforely youly realizely itly.

klostes · Dec 28, 2006

*door creaks as it opens--just a bit*

*whispers from the dark safety of her closet*

fanfic

*scuttles back into the far, back corner of the closet*

That's my guilty pleasure. I buy it as tie-in novels; I read it online. I cut my writing teeth on it, but set it aside three years ago to concentrate on writing for publication. Recently I've been toying with giving up on publication and instead going back to playing in the online sandboxes I used to haunt. Less stress, guaranteed audience, a supportive writing community. No need for an agent or a publisher.

But.

I know I'll hate myself if I give up on trying to be published without ever feeling like I really, seriously tried.

But #2.

I have an idea for a story set in my current favorite cheesy television sci fi show. I keep toying with it when none of my other stories want to cooperate, and thinking maybe, just maybe, I could write it up and see if their publisher would take it as a tie-in novel. While I'm lacking the science background necessary for parts of it, I have friends who have offered to be my "science buddy" and help me write it. The idea gets bonus points in that it might net me a conversation with my favorite actor on the show, because, hey, it would feature his character, prominently, and I'd need to do research...yeah, research to get the character right! :tongue

So maybe that's my guilty pleasure this year; stop avoiding the idea and take it seriously enough to write it up. A published novel is a published novel, eh?

Damn, I let the closet door close while I was out. Should have blocked it open so I could get back in!

greglondon · Dec 28, 2006

scarletpeaches said:
What 'treats' will you give yourself in the new year?

I've got a story banging around in my head about cowboys. May be completely unpublishable for the simple fact that cowboys went out of vogue a long time ago (well, Brokeback Mountain brought them back, but I think the genre's already faded away again). But the damn story has been rattling around my brain for a couple years now (long before Brokeback Mountain), and I think I'm just gonna have to sit down and write it. (and no, it isn't a Brokeback Mountain story.)

That is, as soon as I finish my last edits to my science fiction novel, which was supposed to be by the end of the year, but will probably be by the end of January.

Azure Skye · Dec 28, 2006

I'm going to submit. No, not that way. My work. Yeah, I'll...do it. Promise. But right now, I'll indulge is these tasty little mozeralla flavored baguettes dipped in chive and onion cream cheese. Yum.

Oh, and I'm going to write short stories. And I promise to make them horrid. Woohoo, look at me go.

scarletpeaches · Dec 28, 2006

No! Nothing we write will be horrid! We'll merely be throwing off self-inflicted constraints and writing fanfic, vampire angst...

Oh, yeah. It probably will be horrid.

Azure Skye · Dec 28, 2006

I know what else I'll do. I'm going to misplace my modifiers and split more infinitives. HA! Take that Strunk and White.

PeeDee · Dec 28, 2006

This crowd is getting a little to dangerous for me. Whoa.

klostes, don't give up on your regular work. If you want to write fanfiction for the reasons you stated, absolutely go ahead. Treat it as a hobby, something to relax with, but don't give up on your real and serious writing. (I'm going to get letters from people now saying that fanfction is "real" and "serious." Give me a break. I wrote the stuff for years, very successfuly I might add). Publishing may be hard, but it's worth it. Honest.

klostes · Dec 28, 2006

scarletpeaches said:
No! Nothing we write will be horrid! We'll merely be throwing off self-inflicted constraints and writing fanfic, vampire angst...

Oh, yeah. It probably will be horrid.

No, it will be Laurel K. Hamilton and whoever writes the Kushiel's Dart series.

And don't forget the run-on sentences! If we are going to indulge ourselves, then we must go all the way.

Azure Skye · Dec 28, 2006

klostes said:
No, it will be Laurel K. Hamilton and whoever writes the Kushiel's Dart series.

And don't forget the run-on sentences! If we are going to indulge ourselves, then we must go all the way.

Comma splices too.

J.S Greer · Dec 28, 2006

Im going to give Publish America a try, because maybe were all wrong!

I keed, I keed! :tongue

IrishScribbler · Dec 28, 2006

I plan to write, in 2007, a book that is a collection of character sketches and scenes centered around a coffee house that can be read in any order.

Completely for fun and to experiment.

Tallymark · Dec 28, 2006

I...I..

...I plan to write a vampire romance novel too.

AND a fanfic.

...Both with angst. And maybe smut.

*cringes in a corner*

..And I already refer to my muse as a real entity. Only she's not a person, she's a dragon.

Oh, the unending shame of it all.

Willowmound · Dec 28, 2006

There will be no time for indulgences for me in 2007.

I will be moving continents, forgawdsake. Clear across the world. To look for jobs where none have presented themselves. Where no friend resides, where rain creeps from the gutters. Where showers have no pressure. Where buses have both ground and first floors. A damp land under grey skies. They don't know I'm coming yet. But I am, and I will have no time for indulgences, no time at all.

Tallymark · Dec 28, 2006

Hehe, I won't have any time either, really. If all goes according to plan (*crosses fingers*), I'll be accepted to graduate school. But, I don't expect to recieve enough aid from the schools to nearly cover the tuition--which is more than my family's yearly income. Being still massively in debt from my undergraduate loans, and from all other sorts of money-leeches, I'm gonna have to have a full time job, too. And live in a box. A small box.

But, that's okay! There can still be guilty pleasures, because after many years I have found the secret to finding the precious time to indulge oneself. The secret is to subtract guilty pleasure time from sleep time! Four hours of sleep can easily turn into two hours of sleep and two hours of sinful indulgence!

I mean, isn't indulgence better than sleep anyway?

LeeFlower · Dec 28, 2006

I'm going to write a YA novel. I'm a pretty major YA fan, but I haven't put much time into writing it because I'm afraid I'll suck. YA readers and books get dismissed as immature and disparaged for low standards so often that I feel like I owe it to both to bring the awesome hardstyle. I'm afraid that I will fail at the YA-foo and become a perfect example of the things YA's detractors whine about.

But that's a supremely stupid reason not to try. So in 2007, I take my letter of bad-writing marque and set sail for YA-land. There will be airships. There will be spies. There will be girl-spies in training. I may throw an explosion or two in just for giggles, because everyone likes a good explosion now and then (especially spies). No watered-down martinis, though. Do pocketwatches with hidden compartments count as gadgets?

And now I'm just babbling, so it's time to stop. It's cooler than it sounds, honest. Or at least, I hope it is.

Guilty pleasures for 2007

Where's my tea, please...?

Unleashing Hell.

Where's my tea, please...?

Where's my tea, please...?

Where's my tea, please...?

Not an Interactive Model

Planet Wookie techno geek

Huh?

Huh?

Where's my tea, please...?

Not an Interactive Model

Huh?

Feel the power!

Lightly salted

Lurker Extraordinaire