A Life of Crime and Chocolate

French Maiden · Mar 25, 2013

onesecondglance said:
The single biggest casualty of my writing is my gaming. Every hour that I now spend writing I used to spend playing games. It's a little sad, because I love games.

This is why we need to petition NASA for that orbital realignment. A couple more hours just get everything done...

For me it's Internet, TV, and those awful things called responsibilities.

French Maiden · Mar 26, 2013

EEEEEK! So excited. The latest Black Dagger Brotherhood Book (by JR. Ward) came out today. Have to wait till next week to get it though.

---

We're off to Ronald McDonald House tomorrow for Blake's MRI on Thursday.
The anesthetic nurse just called me with Blake's fasting times and told me we've to be in the hospital by 7am.
Yuck, such an ungodly hour.

heyjude · Mar 26, 2013

Praying for you and Blake, French. :Hug2:

You gamers are funny. I can't get into them. Scrabble or Bookworm, that's my speed. Oh, occasionally Angry Birds but frankly it's too hard for me. :tongue

Oh! I got another request! The new query is currently at 2/3! :snoopy:

onesecondglance · Mar 26, 2013

Angry Birds is a not a test of skill. It's a test of patience.

(says the guy with three stars on every level.)

GailD · Mar 26, 2013

French Maiden said:
We're off to Ronald McDonald House tomorrow for Blake's MRI on Thursday.
The anesthetic nurse just called me with Blake's fasting times and told me we've to be in the hospital by 7am.
Yuck, such an ungodly hour.

Sending good thoughts and wishes to you both, FM. :Hug2:

And trusting that all will be well.

heyjude said:
Oh! I got another request! The new query is currently at 2/3!

Great stuff, HJ! I'm doing the happy dance for you. Woot!!!

tarak · Mar 26, 2013

Angry Birds is my go-to game when I'm having trouble sleeping.

Congrats HJ!

French - best wishes for you and Blake.

My husband and I watch Walking Dead and Game of Thrones together. It's like our date night. He'll linger sometimes when I'm watching Southland or Justified, but that's about it. My oldest daughter and I watch Project Runway and Faceoff together.

And French - I bow to your word count. That's amazing!

lizmonster · Mar 26, 2013

Lots of medical stuff coming up. Stay well, my friends. I am thinking of you all. :Hug2:

heyjude said:
Oh! I got another request! The new query is currently at 2/3!

This is AWESOME! (And we all told you so. So there. :tongue

)

So...I have a question, and it's kind of a business question but I'm not sure where to ask it. I've got my query letter up in QLH (where I am getting amazing advice), and there's an aspect to the story I haven't brought up, which is: smut. There's a bunch of it. Yeah, I trimmed a lot (sniff), but it's still there.

I am guessing one simply aims one's query at an agent who represents books with a similar level of explicitness, so there's no need to mention it in the query letter. But you know, I'd feel bad if someone liked the query, then read a little of the story or synopsis and said "WHOA! You didn't tell me you were going to have THIS kind of thing in here!" I'd rather either not approach those people to begin with, or at least warn them before they waste their time.*

What's the etiquette here? Is this just a "know thy market" thing? Or do I get a big "WARNING: SMUT" stamp to use on every copy of the letter I send out?

*Note my incredible optimism that someone will actually respond positively to my query!

French Maiden · Mar 26, 2013

tarak said:
Angry Birds is my go-to game when I'm having trouble sleeping.

Congrats HJ!

French - best wishes for you and Blake.

My husband and I watch Walking Dead and Game of Thrones together. It's like our date night. He'll linger sometimes when I'm watching Southland or Justified, but that's about it. My oldest daughter and I watch Project Runway and Faceoff together.

And French - I bow to your word count. That's amazing!

Thanks, I'm not looking forward to getting up there, but once we're settled in should be okay.

I was amazed at my word count as well, I've never written that much in a day before. I think maybe it was a fluke. A one off. A weekend thing.

I am still keeping my goal for 10k a week, but marathons like that are going to be held till the weekends while the kids are at their dad's place. Today I wrote on nad off through out the whole day when I had a spare 5 minutes and managed 2,500 words. Still I'm happy with that.

lizmonster · Mar 26, 2013

French Maiden said:
I am still keeping my goal for 10k a week, but marathons like that are going to be held till the weekends while the kids are at their dad's place. Today I wrote on nad off through out the whole day when I had a spare 5 minutes and managed 2,500 words. Still I'm happy with that.

That's a fabulous total. You are on a tear!

French Maiden · Mar 26, 2013

lizmonster said:
That's a fabulous total. You are on a tear!

Thanks

I started this piece on the 8th of this month and already I have 34,000 words. 3 1/2 weeks worth of writing. I'm really pleased with that.

I've never been this far into a piece. Usually I get to about 20k and freak out. But I'm writing a different genre now and things are just working better.

Mr Mitchell · Mar 26, 2013

lizmonster said:
Wait...you socialize with your spouse? What kind of a writer are you, anyway?

We do actually watch television, but generally it's with our eight-year-old, which kind of restricts our choices. She has really taken to the original "Star Trek," though, so that's been great. On the other hand, the "Hey, Arnold!" theme haunts my dreams.

Mr Mitchell, that game looks amazing! I hope you don't have to wait too long.

I hope so too. I love the first one, but couldn't stand the 2nd. It lacked the feel of the first one, plus, the story wasn't great. So I am glad it's the writer done this one.

Zelenka · Mar 26, 2013

I don't really play games any more because I always die. I am pathologically bad at games of any sort. Only way I finished Enter the Matrix was with cheat codes and even then it was a struggle.

lizmonster · Mar 26, 2013

Zelenka said:
I don't really play games any more because I always die. I am pathologically bad at games of any sort. Only way I finished Enter the Matrix was with cheat codes and even then it was a struggle.

A lot of the little iPad hidden object games I have include a "strategy guide" - they don't solve the puzzles for you, but they'll guide you to the right locations.

And most of the games have walkthroughs on-line, which WILL show you how to solve the puzzles.

I tend to play the same game over and over - I enjoy story more than specific puzzles. (It's also possible I'm just OCD.

)

Zelenka · Mar 26, 2013

lizmonster said:
A lot of the little iPad hidden object games I have include a "strategy guide" - they don't solve the puzzles for you, but they'll guide you to the right locations.

And most of the games have walkthroughs on-line, which WILL show you how to solve the puzzles.

I tend to play the same game over and over - I enjoy story more than specific puzzles. (It's also possible I'm just OCD. )

You underestimate my uselessness! Even with walkthroughs I still die. I am just totally rubbish when it comes to games. I loved the Myst series and managed to get one of them finished with the walkthrough, but the later ones, I have all the walkthroughs, I know what I'm meant to do, but it just doesn't work for me. Same with the Tomb Raider games. I actually have one for PS2, something to do with Ancient Rome, and I can't even get past the 'test' level at the start to just lead you into it!

I am still thinking of getting a new console though because, even though I'm rubbish, I still get the mood for a game now and then. I'm still on a PS2 (and the chunky one, not even the slimmer one that came out later) but I have no idea which one to get, and every time I ask, my gamer friends get all technical and I come out more confused than before.

Silver-Midnight · Mar 26, 2013

Congrats, HJ!
Congrats on the word count, French.
--
Well today so far was okay. I really finally realized I enjoy writing short fiction. So there is that.

ETA: Does anyone have any advice for genre-weaving? I've recently taken up an interest in Chick Lit or Romance in the similar area to that. However, I'm having trouble running multiple things together. It might be because I am writing(or rather) trying to write short fiction. However, the thing is I like writing short fiction, and as of right now, I really don't feel like writing a novel. But most of the stories that I've had, idea wise, involve a personified antagonist. (Basically an actual person is the enemy). I haven't really figured out how to write non-personified antags, which are a key element, I think, of Chick Lit and even Romance. (Having the character grow, fall in love, fall out of love, etc.). So, does anyone have any advice for both of those: genre-weaving and writing non-personified things the character has to face without it coming off cliche or unrealistic?

lizmonster · Mar 26, 2013

Silver-Midnight said:
I haven't really figured out how to write non-personified antags, which are a key element, I think, of Chick Lit and even Romance. (Having the character grow, fall in love, fall out of love, etc.). So, does anyone have any advice for both of those: genre-weaving and writing non-personified things the character has to face without it coming off cliche or unrealistic?

I'm no kind of expert in any of this, but I've certainly written a cross-genre novel. (Not on purpose, it just kind of went there.)

I think what you mean by "non-personified" is the old "man against himself" conflict: "I shouldn't love this person" or "I'm afraid to take this risk that will make me happy."

I think most stories that are any good are cliched, to a certain extent. Think of Shakespeare: All that lust and jealousy and pride. (Come to think of it, the Seven Deadly Sins are a good place to start.) Cliches of that sort are what allow the reader to identify with the character. Shakespeare's stories work not because they are not cliched, but because they are larger-than-life versions of what we all experience sometimes.

Choose a cliche that is realistic for your character, and write it well.

onesecondglance · Mar 26, 2013

Zelenka said:
I am still thinking of getting a new console though because, even though I'm rubbish, I still get the mood for a game now and then. I'm still on a PS2 (and the chunky one, not even the slimmer one that came out later) but I have no idea which one to get, and every time I ask, my gamer friends get all technical and I come out more confused than before.

I'm a PS3 owner, and I think it's a great piece of kit. Even if you don't play any games on it, it's a very good Blu-Ray player that can also play al your CDs and DVDs. Get the 500GB model and you'll have a big hard drive you can put all your photos on with plenty of room for games, and then you can look at your photo albums on your TV screen. It's a helluva lot more sociable than crowding around a laptop screen! It'll do a load of other things like music streaming as well - plus it has BBC iPlayer, so you can use that on your main TV. Again, much better than squinting at a laptop.

If you do get a PS3, buy Heavy Rain. It's a noir detective story that you literally cannot fail at. There are lots of different endings, so whatever you do you will get to the end of the story. Then you can play it again, do different things, and see different endings (although some things are the same in all versions).

You may need a strong stomach for some of it. There were parts that I didn't want to play because it got emotionally intense (but I soldiered on, and it was worth it!). Most games don't do more than scratch an itch to shoot something (or hit things - I am a fan of the God of War series

), but Heavy Rain does more than that. Go find it.

If you keep your PS2 for a while, get hold of Max Payne and Max Payne 2. Hardboiled noir with very strong storytelling, and I recall the easy modes are very easy.

The Legacy of Kain games aren't MTS at all - rather, they're gothic fantasy-horror - but the voice acting is excellent and the story is splendidly convoluted. Start with Soul Reaver on PS1, then Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 in whichever order you like, and finish with LoK: Defiance. You might need a walkthrough for some of the more tricky puzzles, but these are not games that require ninja reaction times.

I've played a lot of great games on my PS3 (including Heavy Rain), but the PS2 was my favourite console. I was gutted when my first gen PS3 (which had PS2 backward compatibility, unlike the newer models) died. I might have to get my PS2 out of the loft just to play Max Payne again now...

onesecondglance · Mar 26, 2013

Silver, I've done some genre weaving before (and my WIP definitely has a foot in more than one world). The best advice I can give you is that you need to understand the things you're blending.

Think of it this way - if you knew nothing about Caribbean food, you might think that jerk chicken would go well with porridge. It doesn't. Don't try this at home, kids...

IAMWRITER · Mar 26, 2013

I LOVE Max Payne! The first one was amazing.

Silver-Midnight · Mar 26, 2013

Thanks for all of the help, guys. I know that I ask like a boat load of questions, and you guys try to answer all of them. Thank you for that.

lizmonster said:
I think what you mean by "non-personified" is the old "man against himself" conflict: "I shouldn't love this person" or "I'm afraid to take this risk that will make me happy."

Yes! That's what I mean. However, I still really don't know how to do that. What is the best way to tackle that kind of conflict?

onesecondglance said:
Silver, I've done some genre weaving before (and my WIP definitely has a foot in more than one world). The best advice I can give you is that you need to understand the things you're blending.

Think of it this way - if you knew nothing about Caribbean food, you might think that jerk chicken would go well with porridge. It doesn't. Don't try this at home, kids...

Thanks, OSG. That was another thing I was worried about. Was(or Am) I mixing the right things together?

lizmonster · Mar 26, 2013

Silver-Midnight said:
Yes! That's what I mean. However, I still really don't know how to do that. What is the best way to tackle that kind of conflict?

This may be one of those "How do you write?" questions.

For me - I know my characters really well. For an emotional arc I tend to start with the endpoint, and let them tell me how they need to get there. This probably makes no sense to anyone who is not in my head with me, so I don't know that it's useful advice.

Silver-Midnight · Mar 27, 2013

lizmonster said:
This may be one of those "How do you write?" questions. For me - I know my characters really well. For an emotional arc I tend to start with the endpoint, and let them tell me how they need to get there. This probably makes no sense to anyone who is not in my head with me, so I don't know that it's useful advice.

No, it makes sense. (I just think that I suck at writing honestly. :tongue

). I tend to write scene by scene now, and sometimes I just feel things are really disconnected between myself and the characters and even the characters with the other characters. Maybe I'm just nervous, maybe it's because it's the first draft and I'm still trying to figure out my characters, maybe because I haven't really consistently written longer than 5K at the most (and even that was kind of unsuccessful in a way). So, it all depends on how you look at it. Truthfully, I don't know why I'm so hard on myself to write well. But to not only write well but put out these massive word counts or what have you. I mean in my mind I know I'm still learning, and that I primarily wrote short fiction (when I was able to write). So, I'm still use to that. Plus, I'm trying to figure out what I like to write on top of all of that. I know that writing is a process and that it takes time to get the hang of. However, sometimes, I just feel like a complete failure when it comes to it. I think stories are in my brain (somewhere). It's just I get bogged down with so much other stuff, and I worry about if I'm doing it right rather than if I'm enjoying myself that I can't focus on anything but that. It's so strange. I mean I was like that before when I wrote. (Which is why I wasn't highly productive, or I was, I just didn't save or complete a lot of things). However, it's seemed to have gotten much worse now. I mean before I was worried but at least I enjoyed myself along the way. Now, I don't even know if I'm enjoying myself half of the time because I spend so much thinking (Okay, this has to be this, this needs to be this, etc., etc.). Maybe I'm focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe I shouldn't be focused on genre and look more at what makes me happy. What makes me excited or whatever. I think maybe if I write things that I'm actually interested in it'll make things a lot better for me. (Not that I wasn't before, writing things I like, but I mean like really. Write for my own enjoyment first. Right?).

French Maiden · Mar 27, 2013

Silver-Midnight said:
No, it makes sense. (I just think that I suck at writing honestly. ). I tend to write scene by scene now, and sometimes I just feel things are really disconnected between myself and the characters and even the characters with the other characters. Maybe I'm just nervous, maybe it's because it's the first draft and I'm still trying to figure out my characters, maybe because I haven't really consistently written longer than 5K at the most (and even that was kind of unsuccessful in a way). So, it all depends on how you look at it. Truthfully, I don't know why I'm so hard on myself to write well. But to not only write well but put out these massive word counts or what have you. I mean in my mind I know I'm still learning, and that I primarily wrote short fiction (when I was able to write). So, I'm still use to that. Plus, I'm trying to figure out what I like to write on top of all of that. I know that writing is a process and that it takes time to get the hang of. However, sometimes, I just feel like a complete failure when it comes to it. I think stories are in my brain (somewhere). It's just I get bogged down with so much other stuff, and I worry about if I'm doing it right rather than if I'm enjoying myself that I can't focus on anything but that. It's so strange. I mean I was like that before when I wrote. (Which is why I wasn't highly productive, or I was, I just didn't save or complete a lot of things). However, it's seemed to have gotten much worse now. I mean before I was worried but at least I enjoyed myself along the way. Now, I don't even know if I'm enjoying myself half of the time because I spend so much thinking (Okay, this has to be this, this needs to be this, etc., etc.). Maybe I'm focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe I shouldn't be focused on genre and look more at what makes me happy. What makes me excited or whatever. I think maybe if I write things that I'm actually interested in it'll make things a lot better for me. (Not that I wasn't before, writing things I like, but I mean like really. Write for my own enjoyment first. Right?).

Are we the same person? Is sure feels that way reading this.
I've previously never written and stuck with anything longer than 26k.
I freak out reading all these must do's and don't's : show dont tell, dont use adverbs, know you genre, know you target audience ...... yada, yada, yada.

I think what you've said there about enjoying yourself and writing because it makes you happy is the key - or at least it is for me.
I try my darndest not to think about re-writing, second third fourth and so on drafts and then trying to get published. It just feels too much like hard work when I get into that headspace. I am just enjoying it in hte moment. I'll think about all those rules and the processes when I cross that bridge. For now I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

lizmonster · Mar 27, 2013

Silver-Midnight said:
Maybe I shouldn't be focused on genre and look more at what makes me happy. What makes me excited or whatever. I think maybe if I write things that I'm actually interested in it'll make things a lot better for me. (Not that I wasn't before, writing things I like, but I mean like really. Write for my own enjoyment first. Right?).

Absolutely. French is right, too - if you think too far ahead, you can really bog yourself down.

I know there are some authors (and artists of all varieties) who have enough skill to sit down and churn something out, polished and businesslike, and make it really good whether or not they're in love with it themselves. I can't finish something if I don't love it, at least on some level. (Note that loving it is not the same as believing it's good!) Writing is too hard for me to sustain if I'm not emotionally engaged.

My trunked novel is one I liked a lot, but "liked" wasn't enough. It was terrific practice, though.

Zelenka · Mar 27, 2013

I'm the same - if I stop enjoying the thing or start to think too much in terms of polish and whether or not anyone would want to read it, then I find myself totally blocked and can't finish it. Some of my trunked novels were ones that just got totally rejected but the majority of them fall into this category.

This new one I have though, I've done 15K in about two days, because I absolutely love it. Weirdly it's the first time in years I've worked without a strict outline. It's first person, and so it's almost like I'm solving the mystery along with my protagonist, rather than always knowing what's happening. It's cool and I'm enjoying myself again (and I really would rather be home writing it than heading to work to write subtitles all night).

A Life of Crime and Chocolate

Making my own sunshine

pretending to be awake

Still chasing plot bunnies.

for certain qualities of "sane"

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Going home!

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Going home!

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

pretending to be awake

pretending to be awake

QWERTY!!!

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Going home!