Tag: writing fiction

Find what you love and let it kill you… or live it

find what you love

Why do we develop certain feelings toward some stories? Movies? Music? Series? Books?

Why do we keep going to them, and finding references, pinpointing meaning, and seeing snippets of them in other places?

Dreaming while awake, recognising mesmerising connections to something that became ingrained in our minds… or something like that.

Why do we fall in love for a piece of art in ways that keep us bound to them? Keeps us believing we are crazy to love them, and don’t seem to find any logical explanation to be so connected, no matter all its short-comings?

Why do we love them so much, even if we see some stuff that aren’t usually to our exact taste?

Why do we see something and feel so connected to it, that it seems impossible to live without expressing its truth in us, and in our own life and work? Even through objects that we use, or look at, in our daily life?

What is it that struck a cord so deep that we are willing to overlook all it’s flaws, to forget all the others, to devote to learning more, seeing more, connecting more to it?

How this gift from another gets into our hearts, under our skins, and keep us bound to it, no matter what?

More

How can we reproduce this feeling in our work? How can we make others love this creation of ours so much?

Is it a random occurrence? Is it designed? Can it be done again?

Can we find cult vibes in our own work? I don’t think the creator ever sees those in his own creations, but I may be wrong…

It’s not too frequent to be swept off my feet and into dreamland. But it does happen. And it always leaves me unhinged.

Don’t get me wrong. I like it. There’s nothing quite like finding something that fills me with this devotion beyond any rational construct of mine.

And if we could take Bukowski’s thoughts on this, not about lovers as is his theme, but about other things that fills us with these feelings, we would gladly let ourselves expand to contain the object of our love, until we were no more what we have been until then.

“My Dear,

Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover.

Falsely yours”

― Charles Bukowski

Puns apart, for the subtext related to romantic love, this idea of letting what we love kill us, because we will die anyway, doing all the things we do not love, at whatever the pace these things take a hold on you, feels true. [It’s Bukowski, why wouldn’t it feel true?]

To find this all consuming feeling in something is truly a gift. Something to defile the numbness of the big life.

I’ll leave you with a snippet of my latest connection … click here… What will I do with it? Let it kill my misconceptions and fill my creative self… and enjoy it.

Don’t let the noise get to you

noise

Hello all! Welcome back to my blog.

So, don’t let the noise get to you…

It has been some intense days here at this corner of the world. Lot’s of noise and inner chatter as usual.

I’ll give you a glimpse…

Christmas🎄 is coming in full speed, which means there’s lot’s of planning and a million of little things to do. Not to mention all the stress related with the shopping🎁 activities.

In these first days of December, I have been trying to rest a bit, because I’m still bothered by a persistent migraine… which really is a pain in the **head** 😅

Also, I find these days are a somewhat transitional period from the NaNoWriMo writing efforts (of 77 600 words) into a ‘what’s next?!?’ phase. And this aggravates me a lot.

And then it is the end of the year phase. Lot’s of reviews, and plans, and other stuff to do… I love to be well rested for planning mode but I figure this year is a no go on the rested mode.

Moving on…

This year I finally got the courage to grab one of my NaNoWriMo winner goodies by Scrivener (courtesy of Scrivener and NaNoWriMo for winning the 2022 challenge of writing the 50 000 words in November). And then I proceeded for installing the software and do the 30 days trial.

I started using it immediately for the project I have been working on, which I called ‘The Shapeshifters’, and I am really loving it.

I’m kind of in a learning process but I can already see the upsides to using this software. I have been hearing so much about it, but I find that I never really grasped what it could do for my writing and editing processes.

I am quite thrilled with it and have already started my editing process for this story.

So… the transitional period got cut really short and on December 2nd I started editing this story☺️

I came across a little quote I took a few weeks ago and it goes like this…

keep it simple

This quote’s context was about the practice of meditation but I figured it is applicable to other kinds of practices.

I have always thought these kinds of things, like Scrivener, were nice to have but quite dispensable. Most of this idea came from a budget tightness that never seems to allow for nice to have’s.

But I’m taking this seriously. I have been writing for decades and I can see this software serving all my writings for different formats and genres.

There is no fixed formula for getting our steps right. No full proof formula to approach our writing practices the best way. No grand scheme that gets us good results.

There are practices, and commitment, and lot’s of work.

All we can expect is to have the courage to look for what works for ourselves. And the insight not to overcomplicate things. And, above all, to refrain from all the noisy channels that keep blaring into our hearts why something shouldn’t be as it is.

It’s better to work with what is. To keep it as simple as possible. And to tune the noise down.

Yes, this is a very complicated time of the year for a lot of us. And we have different reasons for it to be so. I just get to remind myself that I work with what works for me, to keep it as simple as I can, and not permit the bad noise to get to me.

And to renew my commitment with this writing project… now, using Scrivener.

Thank you so much for reading this blog. I hope you have a happy and tranquil December.

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

 

December, here I go!… with new writing goals

writing goals

Hello all! Welcome back to my blog. 

Bordering on December, and I’m taking these last days of November for a kind of a pause from fiction writing. I needed a brake.

It’s been a pretty intensive November, with NaNoWriMo (finished at 77 420 words), and doubling my daily word count for the current writing project, on top of everything else I (we) always have going on…

Obviously that, as soon as I took a brake, a big migraine made herself noticed. Four days later, I’m still reeling from some minor symptoms but I’m counting myself as being almost fully okay.

So, this week I have been rereading my NaNo project, slowly, and enjoying it as much as I can. And that’s the goal for the brake days. Nothing more and nothing less.

December will bring a lot more demands on my time so I’ve been thinking about what I want to focus on this month.

Back to the drawing board

I need to get back to the drawing board, again… like I’ve shared here before, on the post Another writing update on ‘The Shapeshifters’ and NaNoWriMo. And even if I feel that I’m stalling a bit (because I do feel that), I had been back to the plans and started working a few things out.

But getting back to the drawing board gave me a sense that I need to advance on the second, and maybe third, volumes of this story, at least in the main views of the whole project, before I am able to finish the first volume properly.

So, this is my number one goal for December: Get back to the drawing board and do more sketches of what I want to compose a bit further down the line (of life).

In September I wrote:

Usually I get a bit overwhelmed with changing rhythms. [And this is the understatement of the year!] But after a few days, I tend to focus on what I can do instead of what I should be doing, and get on with my creative life. And this summer wasn’t any different. – Back to September. Setting goals. Back to Writing.

This is truly a thing for me.

That’s why I usually prefer to do the minimum of transitions from one project phase to another, because I get overwhelmed with the thoughts of all that I wish I could put in, and do better, and work more on…

Sometimes, I forget to rest in between, just to try and avoid this syndrome.

So, my second goal for December is: Stick to the plan. Grab my planning tools and define unmovable deadlines and stick to them.

I already had plans… and plans for plans. It’s just a situation that I have to put them right in front of my eyes, just so I see them everyday.

And how, I wonder, will I manage this?

I’m getting a few ideas…

And these are my writing goals for December.

Hope you’re doing well and participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo. If so, how’s your project going?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

Pantser into Plotter

pantser into plotter

I guess as time passes, and we get to practice more and more of our writing, some things about ourselves are bound to change.

It’s not by chance that most writers start as pantsers and after a while evolve into plotters.

Why? I’ll tell you as much as I’ve lived it. 

something about yourself

I don’t believe this was meant to be taken literally. But, yes. When we start to write our first novel we discover many different things about ourselves.

Not all of them are as deep as implied here. But most most of them are of the life changing variety. 

The 4 Creative Paradigms

Picking up on the Creative Paradigms as explored on ‘Writing Fiction from Dummies’, meaning the methods we may use while writing the first and subsequent drafts, we have:

  • Seat-of-the-pants (write in one sitting, without planning or editing)
  • Edit-as-you-go (write without planning but edit thoroughly as you go)
  • Snowflake (write a general plan, adapting it as you go)
  • Outline (make a detailed plan, than stick to it regardless)

Our beliefs

When we start writing we want to be good immediately. We want to become the best. We learn how to do some tricks (those things that we read and thought them out of this world good) and pray they carry us into an organic, and not too troublesome, writing practice.

But, at that time, we hadn’t put in the how many?!?!?! working hours we need to have some proper insights on the work itself.

The pantser kind of is our first and most dearest friend. And he can stay that way if used for the parts where he does his best work, like imagining a plot.

So, a pantser writes his stories using the Seat-of-the-pants creative paradigm. A pantser writes fast, without planning much, making it up as he goes along.

A plotter write his stories using the Outline creative paradigm.

A plotter uses outlines to plan and write his story. He works out the kinks before getting himself into the trouble of writing a full draft.

My journey

Looking into my own writing practices, I have used all of the different creative paradigms.

Experimenting on what best fits my writing needs, seems to be my method, and I use them in different parts of the writing process also.

I believe it’s a good thing to respect each project and leave to it to dictate which method would serve him best. There are projects that ask for a quick plotting session and others that are best left to the heat of the moment inspiration.

But, one thing I had been noticing in my writing practice, other than it evolve regardless of should’s and shouldn’ts, is that each project seems to ask from me a different creative approach. 

As I’ve been working on different lengths and types of stories, I understood that some require a bit more planning from the get going than others. As well as, some ask for more improvisation in order to flush out more creative ideas.

Also, there’s a creative paradigm more fit for a first draft of a story, and another quite different, for a second or third drafts. Why? Some give us more leverage to explore, while others are more suited for working out the things that aren’t good enough.

permission

I had been using all of them, sometimes both pantser and plotter on the same writing project, just in different phases (drafts or composition materials) of it.

But I kind of figured out that, when we start writing, and have a practice for some years, we get to evolve naturally into using more wholesome writing methods. 

We do not have the thrill of the major plot twist. I mean it in a sense of spilling everything onto the page with just that big goal in mind, not delivering on all the other requirements for a good story.

With practice we get to appreciate the composition of the story as a whole. Enjoying it best when we can work out all the details that will help us deliver that plot twist emotion seamlessly.

And it’s kind of easier to draft an entire novel if we have the guidelines previously written out.

Writing an extensive piece of literature is a tiring long run, a marathon, not a sprint. If we have the road clear, and all set up, we can walk it until the finish line, without many path corrections.

But I believe, the important thing to retain in this subject is: we show up to our work, we practice, we experiment, we write stories and we evolve as writers. Then, the creative paradigm will be our own, perfectly suited for our way of writing and being.

Hope you’re doing well and participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo. If so, how’s your project going?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

***

References ✍🏼

Hello NaNoWriMo and lots of ‘Shapeshifters’

Hello NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is here!!!!

Let’s make a resume of this project during all of it’s existence.

A few years ago, I plotted, planned, and wrote a book in a Universe I called ‘The Shapeshifters’. It was 2012 and it was entitled ‘The Pariah’.

I devoted a lot of time thinking about this concept which, being far from a novelty, I wanted to work out in my particular way.

Fast forward a few years… in the beginning of 2021

Freshly out of writing a Vampire Story… I decided to enter The 100 Day Challenge. 

During the development of some short texts, which were my #the100daychallenge object, and with some twenty days in, I started to write this story in the Shapeshifters Universe.

I began in it’s middle and then, worked my way through until the end, and then wrote the beginning.

The idea to write about a particular scene, in ‘The Shapeshifters’ Universe had been there for a while. I had a vivid snippet of events that kept coming back, and didn’t stop until I got it on a page.

Finishing the #the100daychallenge I kept going, until the first rough draft was finished.

Then I gave it a rest.

On November of 2021

I got back to it, writing the Portuguese second draft during NaNoWriMo. With 50 412 words, just in time to accomplished the word count.

And then, it went into the back burner again. There was something about this story which seemed to be incomplete. It just felt pale in comparison to what I wanted to convey.

I’ve kept thinking about it, and spending a lot of time trying to work it all out in my mind, after all it’s a project into which I had put a lot of my faith into.

June 2022

With the approaching of June, entering in my first Camp NaNo ever, getting back to ‘The Shapeshifters’ seemed the right thing to do. So I started to rewrite a third draft, but…

Suddenly I noticed I had been reimagining a new first scene in another language. Going with it, I thought ‘I’ll change this later…’

Then it got me thinking again. Maybe this was my opportunity to strike another milestone on my path: to write a book in the English language.

Why? Quite frankly, because it seemed exciting, adding several more complex layers to this task.

I know, it isn’t some big deal but, to me, it was a strange and almost providential turn on this life’s project.

Now I had a new draft to rewrite, in a new language, in his full right of existing separately from the previous drafts.

Camp NaNo didn’t saw my expectations of advancing on a third draft fulfilled. Instead I added more layers to the complexity of this task.

But, at the same time, it got me thinking in all that I wanted to do with it; All the backstory I missed including; All the characters which were appearing shallow and unidimensional; The entirety of a Universe that palled in its previous versions.

In September…

I got really focused on polishing my notes for this project. From polishing notes to expand on the things I thought were missing, was a short step.

And then, with the proximity of this year’s NaNoWriMo event, it grew exponentially. I went from having a sketch of a story, to plotting a trilogy with all it’s flair.

On the 1st of November of 2022, I’ve started to write ‘The Shapeshifters #1’ which already has another title, but it will remain with this one until the trilogy is completed.

I am stoked by all of this process. I’m loving to bring to life the ideas I plotted for this story. I’m focusing on meeting my writing goals and in the task of building a good story… and trying to ‘never mind the rest’.

Are you entering NaNoWriMo? Let’s be buddies?

(I’m sara-farinha from Portugal)

And, please let me know how’s your project going. 

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Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

Setting up my NaNo Project and Prepping all the must have’s

nano prep

This week’s post is something a bit strange.

I have been in an all consuming mood regarding ‘The Shapeshifters‘, NaNoWriMo, and a few of other ongoing projects…

Like the upcoming 48 hours read-a-ton (you can know it all on VLook) and register to participate here…

While planning to write a draft during next month’s NaNoWriMo, I figured I should have things better planned out. Yes, I mean it like this. I should have planned the plan! Or maybe I’m just nervous with the whole thing.

It’s my first big English writing project; I’m kind of contemplating the thought of making it a trilogy; and wanting to put this story into paper, after so many years in my head. I guess I am a tad nervous about it!

At the same time, there’s a lot of ideas regarding NaNoWriMo, and things I want to do, before the first day of November arrives.

Things I want to do, in order to feel more at ease with working on this project, uninterruptedly for a month… and then some.

Let’s start by listing some thoughts and try to get my grip on what’s going on.

First,

I want to start by confessing that I think I botched my NaNo projects page. It looks like this… [minus the ‘let’s be buddies!’ part]

nanowrimo projects

I had a Portuguese project, from last year. Then, I created the English project for Camp NaNoWriMo this July. And then I created a new project for upcoming November’s NaNoWriMo.

Maybe I should have created a new goal… but wouldn’t it be Camp NaNo, instead of November’s NaNo? I don’t know!

Question: Do you have some thoughts on the matter?

Second…

I have written, and added some scenes, contemplating the major plots, transversal to the three books in the trilogy. [Seeds are evolving here and turning into sprouts.]

Organising these scenes has been my main prep activity for some time. All of my nights for the last three weeks, minus a day, due to a medical appointment.

I wanted it to be easy and perfect, and to be able to fix all the things I had messed up in the Portuguese drafts. Instead it just feels like a big mess.

More of a mess than before because, now I also have my english to contend with.

I am planning for a three act structure more openly now. For this book and the trilogy. [Just got myself into a big, three parted mess, didn’t I?]

While trying to visualize it all I got a bit confused… I am a visual planner, and I need to have some sense to where I am going… even if it’s a three year’s long project. I need to plan!!!

Third…

I am planning to make a billboard out of my 3 act structure. There is no way I can see the story just with my cards. Even if I’m using A5 cards! I need to have a sense to where all of these bits and pieces fit in.

[Thank you, Universe! for I am a crafter, and have plenty of supplies, including a children’s roll of paper from IKEA!]

With a huge billboard in toe, I expect it will be a long, crowded November, in all of my writing corners of this small house. 

Fourth…

I am still hesitant in my working hours for this project.

I have been using during/after dinner time to write my scenes, but I don’t know if it’s the best fit for me. I prefer to write in the mornings. Usually I am more tired in the afternoon and in the beginning of the night, and less aware of idiotic writing (not exclusively) decisions.

But if I choose to block two hours, first thing in the morning, I’ll have to get up at 6… again. This means that by 9:30 pm I’ll be praying for rest and not getting any. I have a child. She doesn’t abide to my sleeping needs.

Scheduling two hours on a middle of the day would be complicated. Conflicting activities will always be a given.

And who says I can write 2000 in two hours? Every day? For a month? I write kind of slowly and usually cut too much of the fluffily prose that would serve a word count, but doesn’t make a decent writing product.

I am still mulling over this one… but it probably will affect my blogging consistency, and I’ll just end up writing during small increments of time, all day long.

Fifth…

I wanted to make a reminder for myself… but, this time, put it in front of me.

camp nano
Shouldn’t the reminder be in front of me?!

I thought maybe a banner. Why? You may ask…

To help me focus, and get in mood for this project, and to remind me of my most immediate goal, and to just feel some support of the objects-displayed variety.

At the same time, I hope it would serve as a reminder for other people, in the apartment, to accommodate my November’s writing needs. But that’s just wishful thinking.

Sixth…

Deciding on my writing spot.

I now have four possibilities… five, if I count the living room couch. I’ll be alternating between them, I guess.

These are: 1. The kitchen table. 2. My desk in my(shared) office. 3. My bedroom desk. 4. My child’s desk, in her bedroom.

Choosing a spot to write will be intimately connected with the day of the week, and at what time I’ll be working on this project. But I have choices and this is kind of a novelty for me. 

I have written entire books on my couch. I have revised books from my bed. I have layered story cards on the spare bedroom floor (before my child’s arrival).

And there were times I didn’t had a proper desk to write on, nor one suitable office chair to sit comfortably. Proofs are pains all over my back and legs. But, even though it wasn’t healthy, I still miss sitting cross legged, writing on my lap.

Now…

Now I have this list, and my thoughts a bit more organised. I have been taking notes, parallel to writing this article, because putting stuff into paper, even if virtual paper, always helps me make sense of my to-do’s.

Have you been planning for NaNoWriMo? Are you planning to write a novel soon? How is your prepping activities going?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼

Writing Scenes in Preparation for NaNo

writing scenes

This is the month before NaNoWriMo. As some people call it it’s Prep October… and I am starting to feel the pressure. 

I have been working on a manuscript, for a couple of years now, and in this year’s Camp Nano I saw myself setting its first two drafts in a limbo on uncertainty (more than usual) and started to test writing an english version instead.

I can tell you, it has been a wild emotional ride.

But first, some backstory. I’m writing a novel named ‘The Shapeshifters’ since 2021. You can read more about it the article: Drafts, writing plans and mind the gap

I have been imagining, and reimagining, and trying to create a story that has been with me for a long time. Mainly because I choose some difficult themes to work with… but this is personal, and it’s not for full disclosure at this point.

I was so happy when, in the beginning of 2021, I was able to put pen into paper and craft the major parts of this story.

Then I started working on a second draft, adding to the story, and getting my sub-plots aligned. Second draft completed and then…

I started writing the third draft in English.

It just came out that way!

This change gave me a pretty good amount of difficult feelings. I was supposed to continue this project, as planned, just trying to get it written in Portuguese, and polished to the best of my abilities.

But there I was… writing a new first scene, in another language.

It’s not that I want to translate what I have written. No, I want to write it anew, as if the first two drafts were totally exploratory.

And this added to the complexity of the writing process.

Very well, then!

What now?

One of my main goals/tasks for this Autumn was to finish my third-or-first draft of ‘The Shapeshifters’. Third draft because it’s the third time I’m rewriting this story. Or-First because it suddenly got rewritten in English.

It was reiterated in July’s Camp NaNo but I am still struggling with it.

As I wrote before… 

“I need to go back to the drawing board and write a new plan for this story. There are some changes, that I want to make, regarding characters and story line. I’ve noticed that I designed a lot of backstory but failed to put it to good use. 

Characters backstory, connections and past traumas are important and need to be carefully embedded in the story. How could I write a story with 79341 words and not put enough density is beyond me.

I’m always careful about not overdoing on what might be considered the boring stuff, an excess of whatever isn’t required. But it seems I trimmed it too much, leaving out even the important story details.“

As much as I see the need for all of this, the overthinking about the details, the decision making process, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the subject. I needed to get my real bearings and find a way to get back to ‘The Shapeshifters’.

And the Muse has to find me working, so…

Five days ago, in a fit of “I am really fed up with all of these thoughts that lead to nowhere, and mind as well stick with the program!“

I took a seat in the most improbable place of my apartment, (not the toilet, it must be the only place where I don’t find myself inspired to write) at the kitchen table. Accompanied by somme draft papers (basically A4 sheets, half used my my daughter’s scribbles, cut in A5 format) and a pen, and started chipping away at the work of putting all the scenes I had in those.

Oh, and it was after dinner, a writing schedule I usually don’t think very well of, since I’m more of an early bird, than a night owl.

It took me 4 blocks of about two hours to finish that work.

Looking ahead

Now, I’m on a crossroads… again. I need to have a visual of the whole project and need to make a better effort.

So on the fifth day I went back to the drawing table and started rereading and adding and adjusting. 

I do not know how this will turn out. I know I’m prepping this project to be properly written during this year’s NaNoWriMo, next month.

But let’s see how all of this goes.

So this is the situation at this point… and you? Are you doing the NaNo challenge? How’s your writing process going?

Please leave a comment and subscribe for more content.

Bye and Keep writing! ✍🏼