Thursday, June 24, 2010

Takers?

I have 2 people convinced to do NaNoWriMo with me!! So I'm not alone in this process. Yahoo!!! I'm very excited about it. The story I am planning is one that I have already started and already scrapped. It was too young adult. I would prefer to appeal to a somewhat larger audience. So I'm going a tad bit edgier (even if my mother might read it. Maybe I'll simply aim to embarrass her. That might make it easier to write some of the scenes).

I say all that as if I expect my story to published and actually marketed. I might as well pick the actors for the film while I'm at it....

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Writing about sex

I have always wondered how a person can write great sex scenes. I have some great (in my opinion) scenes in my head, but I can't imagine writing them down. I don't think it's because I think I lack the skills to do so, it's more that I wonder who might read it!! I'm sure if I ever wrote a book that I was proud of, I'd have my mother read it. Can I write scenes I'd want my mother to read?

I wonder even more sometimes when I picture the author writing them.... Some of my favorite scenes are written by a woman who I can't imagine knowing those things!!

Good Author

I'm reading a great series of books, by an author that I really like. If you have talked to me at all, recently, I will have already told you about it. The characters speak just to me and I participate in their adventure.
I don't think I can write like that. This series has a cult following. I have "liked" it on Facebook myself. I have read the authors blog and various excerpts from her books that I haven't made it to yet. However, Stephanie Meyers has the same type of following and I don't consider her a *good* author at all. But that's not fair. She *did* write 4 books that have people in a twitter. Someone wanted to read the books again and again. And the stories are being told and shared in movie form now.

So, what defines a good author? Is it their use of words in classic form? Or is it the mood that a person can create with those words? Or a combination of the two?

I suppose I shouldn't stress out about it too much. I just want to write. I hope, someday, someone will want to read what I wrote. But that is basically a dream that I have to work toward still. The aforementioned author wrote her first book as a "practice novel". It's my favorite of the ones I have read so far. She claims no intention of having it published.

Dreaming? Possibly, but you have to start somewhere.

NaNoWriMo

I've decided to attempt NaNoWriMo one more time. This time I am going in prepared though. I plan to have my novel outlined, and possibly have my characters developed beforehand. And because it is only June, I have plenty of time to do all of that before the November writing crunch begins.
For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. The rules are simple. You can't use anything you have already written in your word count. Your novel must be new, but you can have it outlined in advance if it helps. They say that it doesn't usually help. Most of the time a writer may start with an outline, but the story changes and the characters take over as November goes on and the word count gets higher. I'm OK with that. If my story evolves it was meant to be (and I might be able to use some of the outline in a different story ?). I just want to make it to 50,000 words this time. This year will be the 3rd attempt at NaNoWriMo. November seems to be a very busy month for me.

So now, the characters in my head need to be named and defined, and the point and purpose of the novel has to develop. It isn't enough that I have always wanted to write a book. It has to be more than that. This is all about ME.