Archive for 2009

First Line Meme

Posted July 12, 2009 under Writing | Tagged: | 1 Comment

There is a meme going around writer blogs at the moment, thanks in part to a post over on Fangs, Fur and Fey. Basically, you post the opening lines to your finished works and WIPs.

Alright then, here we go!

 
Blood Bound: I didn’t believe in vampires until my brother came home from college as one of the undead.1

Bones: It was supposed to be the beginning of a new stage in her life, not the end of it.

He Came From The Sea: According to his older siblings, the humans called it a “body board”.2

Lionheart: Despite the fact that March was technically spring, the cool, gray day made it feel more like winter.

The Superhero Diaries: “You okay up there?”
 

There would be more posted here, but Mirror, Mirror was not written at all because I intended it to be my NaNo project; now The Circled Green has that honour instead. And as for the other ideas in my head? Sadly they’re just that. Some do have opening lines – Earthshakers has one – but nothing has actually been written written yet.

  1. I know the one on the writing page is different, but this is the one I like best, and so do a lot of other people. The opening is being rewritten for many things, but restoring this line is a big part of it. [↩]
  2. This story mainly exists as a prologue and half a first chapter. The idea is fleshed out and ready to go, but unfortunately it’s sitting on the side for the moment. Too many other projects at the moment. [↩]

Too. Many. Ideas.

Posted July 6, 2009 under Writing | 6 Comments

I swear I have too many ideas in my head sometimes. JK may think this is shiny, and a byproduct of me having a shiny brain (it was all very sudden in the chat: “You have a beautiful mind.” “What?”) but it’s also an annoyance. I’m sure some people reading this will understand the problem I am facing.

“BUT I WANT TO WRITE [NEW IDEA] NOOOOOOOW!” </VerucaSalt>

I have far too many ideas that I just want to write. I’ve deliberately set aside the Blood Bound sequel despite it having festered for several months, as BB itself is still being edited and due for minor rewrites plus I’m holding it back as no one wants a vampire novel these days :P . Bones has been relegated to “secondary” status, and Mirror, Mirror is not to be touched until my first attempt at NaNo later this year.

I am, however, working on the first book in the Lionheart duology, and The Superhero Diaries. Working on Blood Bound was different to working on LH and TSD at the same time. Back then it was much more difficult to get writing when I had a block. I knew I had to keep writing even if I was not working on BB, otherwise it would be harder and harder to not write at all – the problem was I had nothing to work on besides. But now I can work on a little bit of LH and then a little bit of TSD, and I am actually writing more in a day on a single piece now because I can switch between the two projects.

At least, that is one of the reasons. Actually having a completed novel under my belt is definitely another.

But of course that doesn’t keep me from coming up with more ideas. As much as I would love to start The Circled Green (working title) right now, it has only been two/three days since the characters, world and story burst forth. Although they are very much developed already, they are still crude in shape and need a whole lot of polishing before I out pen to paper/fingers to keys. I know I have to let my brain stir it over for weeks like I have done with all the other novels, and get to know the whole of the place even more.

And of course, there is the research.

Luckily for me, since this is the very early development stage where I can do what I refer to as “fun/easy research” -where read books from and set in that period, watch relevant movies, look at pictures of Ben Barnes in historical costume, and see how other authors have been handling the genre(s) by reading those books too. Then, later on I get to do the down-and-dirty research. But that won’t be for a good long time yet.

And that’s okay – so long as I don’t get any more ideas any time… crap.

Gotcha. :P

Audience Participation Time

Posted July 5, 2009 under Entertainment | Tagged: | 4 Comments

It was a toss up between posting here or at On The Nightstand, but eventually I decided that it might just be best to crosspost it to both blogs (and be sure to untick the journalpress plugin for my livejournal and dreamwidth accounts on one, to avoid even more double-posting) as there are two different audiences, but both might be helpful.

Although not as big as some other bloggers’ piles, I do have a wee bit of a “to read” pile building up. I would take a photo of said pile, except I cannot find my camera.1 So you are going to have to make do with just an ordinary list. So: which one should I read next?

  • Dracula – Bram Stoker
  • Children of the Night: Classic Vampire Stories – David Stuart Davies (editor)
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
  • Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
  • Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
  • The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings – Edgar Allan Poe

And now that I have done that, onto the second part of this post: book recommendations! I am looking for books2 that fit into one of the following categories (preferably YA, if fiction):

  • Fairies, of the non-urban kind. And not the little kind of fairies either. Seelie/Unseelie courts and the like.
  • Set in Victorian England, and with a focus on the upperclasses. MC being a female in her late teens/early twenties would be marvellous.
  • Anything that would fit in with the general gist of what I have listed above. Other classics like them. :)

So yeah. Suggest away. This is what I call “fun research”, which I do while letting ideas fester in my head and just reading and changing my reading list slightly, as I cannot simply jump onto yet another project. So I am letting this seed grow, and watering it with good books. :)

  1. Isn’t that the way it always works? You clean your room then cannot find a thing? [↩]
  2. No need to suggest A Great And Terrible Beauty and sequels, as so many did this afternoon on Twitter. I’ve read the first, did not like it, and so am in no hurry to read the sequels. Anything else is welcome though! [↩]

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