In an attempt to motivate myself into posting more often on this blog (even without comparisons to On The Nightstand, postage here is rather lacking), I have decided to do A Thing – an attempt at a weekly meme where I post one thing (a picture, a quote, a video, a song) that has inspired or influenced my writing/a story in one way or another.
Ned and Chuck, the central couple in the prematurely deceased TV show Pushing Daisies, helped inspire me with regards to defining a few subtle traits that help key into the personalities of Delia and Daniel (the MCs of my first novel, Blood Bound). Dee and Daniel were very much formed by the time I really got into Pushing Daisies, but when I noticed vague similarities between the two sets (tall, adorkable and able to bring people into a state of second-life-ish vs short, bubbly and very much alive) another thing became defined.
I had already instinctively started to settle them into a colour scheme (Daniel in somber colours, like Ned, and Dee is brighter ones, like Chuck), but upon noticing the deliberate colour and style schemes for characters I began to pay much closer to clothes and colours, and enhanced the difference in their personalities by looking to characters like Ned and Chuck (mostly Chuck) as ‘fashion models’ for Dee and Daniel.
It seems like such a simple thing, really, but until Pushing Daisies, I just didn’t see it. So: inspiration/influence.
In October, just before NaNo began, I did a little Q&A. One question was about what I use to write: my answer was that I use OpenOffice Writer because I find a lot of programs have a lot of bloat.
I have tried a lot of stuff since I started writing novels (such as yWriter) but it just had too much. For every thing I felt I could use, there were ten things I did not need. I just wanted something where I could bullet point my characters and the like.
So you can imagine my delight when I discovered Kabikaboo, which basically just makes a collection of linked text files. It puts them in order, with children and grandchildren and stuff like that. It might not let me add styling and hyperlinks (which I would love) but that’s okay for now, as that stuff is supposed to come out in future versions. It’s simple, and it’s exactly what I wanted.
I love it when you find something after much searching and get it. It’s like when I found Write Or Die. 
So, writers out there, what are some of the other tools you use? I’d love to see what else people are using, and maybe find something else to use too.
25 February 2010 Technology, Writing
Over at On The Nightstand I am taking part in several challenges, one of which is “read 100 books in a year”. I did the same last year, reading (IIRC) 117 books, with the bulk of my reading happening between March and November. I did read a lot, but once I started up my book blog the amount of reading I did increased exponentially.
Anyway, it’s the 17th of January, and today I have reached the 10% mark of that goal – I finished East by Edith Pattou.
- The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
- Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
- Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice – Pat Lowery Collins (Review)
- Hero – Perry Moore
- Fade Out – Rachel Caine
- The Luxe – Anna Godbersen (Review)
- Along For The Ride – Sarah Dessen
- The Changeover – Margaret Mahy (Review)
- Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones (Review)
- East – Edith Pattou (Review)
Now that I have reached that marker already, I’m going to slow down the reading a little bit for the rest of the month (I do have a few more books to read for review, with the one I am going to crack open tonight before bed being The Magician Of Hoad by Margaret Mahy) and focus much more on my writing for at least the next week – do a couple of word wars and things like that. I’m a little bit behind already on my Lionheart writing, but not too far that I cannot catch up on. Two days of writing and I’ll be right as rain.
Anyway, I’ll share with you the snippet of Lionheart that I posted over on Open Mic over at the blog of Michelle Zink, author of the wonderful Prophecy of the Sisters.
The lights flashed more and more frequently with each passing second, dancing about the blackness like countless stars moving rapidly across an otherwise empty night sky. There were no recognisable constellations, but as the shining particles moved about a shape began to form: small, delicate.
Human.
It was not until the glowing apparition spoke that Leander was able to recognise it.
“Help me, Leander,” begged the Eithne made of stars. “I don’t know where I am.” Her voice sounded tinny and from far away. “Please. I need your help.”
Voices of shadow strangers could not compel him to speak, nor being torn to shreds by some semi-invisible monster. But the mere sight of his little sister, especially when she was lost and in obvious distress, easily drew a single word from his mouth.
“Eithne?”
“Leander.”
She looked so utterly lost, forlorn and young that Leander instinctively reached out. He wanted to enfold her in his arms and comfort and protect her like he felt a big brother should, but each time he tried to touch her his hands passed straight through. Each time he tried the motion disturbed the shimmering dust particles, forcing them apart. It took a few seconds for them to reorganise themselves, taking longer each time.
Apart from her being a shimmery, off-white colour, and made of an infinite number of visibly separate particles, it was a very good likeness. It was unnerving, really.
“What are you doing here?”
The Eithne made of stars fluttered her eyelids frantically and chewed on her lips; the real Eithne did the same thing whenever she was anxious and scared.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Something’s happened. Something terrible.”
Everyone else is making their resolutions, so I’ll introduce you to some of mine. Other than the old standards of “lose weight” and “stop biting fingernails” and the new addition of “get a job”, the rest of writing-related.
- Finish Lionheart draft by end of March.
- Finish The Circled Green draft by end of September.
- Write 20 000 more words for the Bones draft
- (In order to complete the previous goals) write a minimum of 10 000 words a month.
So yeah, those are the goals. The first 50 000 words of Lionheart are already with the beta, so she can get a good going on it while I write the last 20 to 30 000 words. The big elusive goal is “get Lionheart into shape so I can query it”, and given the encouragement I have received, I hope that will a) happen and b) lead to something more.
I’d cross my fingers, but I can’t type like that.
I am one of whose brain is constantly working; it’s constantly throwing up new ideas, and I am constantly going, “Damnit, not again!”. Rebekah and JK accuse me of stealing all the ideas in the country. They make me laugh; they’re good like that. They’re also very good at picking me up when I am having a down day and ask the dreaded question of “do you think I am a good writer?”
I have enough WIPs going at the moment, so I am not going to be starting anything any time soon. Well, not gonna start anything properly. But sometimes you just gotta scribble something down just to get it to shut up. I find prologues are good like that.
So, have a scribbly prologue, as an early Christmas treat. It’s very rough, but it sort of shows what my brain leaks out when I try and keep it shut. I’ll try and put up the beginning of Lionheart later in the week.
That night, a hero died.
His battlefield was not some strange and sandy place, some country on the other side of the world. No, his battlefield was his home, that place he had chosen to protect, and had risen up out of the darkness to protect those who could not protect themselves.
The battle had raged on the tops of roofs, that spot out of reach from the common person. It raged in the early hours of the morning, when every, it seemed, other sane person had long since turned off their lights and gone to bed.
This was insanity, and he knew it. But somebody had to do it. Somebody had to go out there, face hidden from the world and save it while it slept. Well, perhaps not the world, but this city at least.
The fight was brutal, blows coming thick and fast. Sometimes he landed them, and sometimes they were landed on him. One blow – was it lucky? Not for him at least – struck him on the corner of the eye, and he staggered, just for half a second.
But still, half a second was still half a second too much. It was just the opening his opponent had been waiting for, and both sides knew it. A few more blows and he was flat on his back, staring up at the person who had defeated him. A boot pressed down against his throat kept him from struggling too much, although it did not keep him from trying.
The victor reached behind them and withdrew the gun. The hero closed his eyes – it was not cowardice, he told himself in his last moments. Nothing he had done these past thirty years was cowardice.
“Take a bow, Nightshadow.”
The gun went off, and there was one less hero protecting the streets.
As my writing friends/betas know, I am paranoid about the possibility that I am a bad writer. Every so often I swing about and along comes the “Do you think I can write well?” question (followed by “And you’re not just saying that because you are my friend, right?” one). I’m sure we all have that moment, that horrible “should I just stop now?” train of thought.
Sometimes you just need a confidence booster. And today I got one.
Yes, having an author you adore (in fact, that book inspired you to dabble in this setting) say, in regards to the opening 300 words, “This is GOOD… Really GOOD!” is definitely one way of getting a confidence boost.
Now to take this confidence boost and run with it. And keep from bugging the friends with “stupid questions”.
The better I feel, the better I write. And the better I write, the more I write. And so the more I write the faster I get to finishing the draft. I have three incomplete WIPs going at the moment (The Circled Green, Lionheart and Bones) and I would like to have three complete WIPs by the end of the year.
Does that sound reasonable to you? I think I can do it.
(P.S. Read Prophecy Of The Sisters. It’s awesome.)
I thought it might be time for another snippet of The Circled Green, and after much thought I decided to introduce you to not Aurora, but her father. Aurora will come soon, I promise.
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I don’t know how much of this will stay when I edit this after NaNo, but it is words and they count, so who cares.
One of my main characters is meant to be a creeper. He has been watching the female lead for two years through windows etc. and under heavy glamours. He obviously is obsessed (another character points this out just prior to the following snippet, and tells Ciar what he really should do… and provides visual aides) and has plenty of free time on his hands.
It is meant to be disturbing, and I think I succeeded, considering I really wanted to get out of his POV and felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards.
Anyway, feel the creepy.
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