So many stories…so little time

I’m not sure if other writers have this problem but this past week, I’ve had some issues with figuring out which story to write.

It reminds me of how you throw more than one ball to a dog, and it doesn’t catch any of them. Yeah, kind of like that.

Organizing is helping, but I’m a typical Libra who waffles between decisions trying to find the best choices. Should I go with the short story, the non-fiction, or should I finish the stuff I already started?

I suppose I should let the Creative Muse decide for me; this way, I’ll be bursting with words. Or one would hope. She often abandons me without warning.

So far I organize with the following tips;

- I setup each novel with its own folder. All notes, character biographies, and plot outlines get stuffed in there.

- Any file I want to work on, I add the ! (exclamation point) in front of the word. For instance, !ThisBook. Why? Because it puts this at the top of the alphabetized list.

- I don’t always write from the beginning. When I have issues where I’m not entirely sure where the story beings, I just start writing. Eventually, the plot will reveal where the story starts and where it will end.

What are your tips? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: story,novel,writing,tips,author,manuscript,files,organizing writing

More on my journey

I have been incredibly remiss on sharing my personal story about writing and getting published. I hope to remedy that this month by posting regular updates.

My daily vlog for April showed me that I can complete a challenge, so this month, I will be writing regularly and posting on this blog to let readers know about my journey, my frustrations, my successes (hopefully), and even setbacks.

What sort of story can I make of myself? I often wonder if I were a character in a book, would ‘she’ be a hero or villain? Would people care to follow along in her adventures? Does she even tackle her problems to overcome adversary and find her destination? That sort of shook me a bit.

No more excuses. Its go time! Carpe Diem! Tally-ho! And all that. I need to share more about my writer’s journey, and let my readers hop aboard to join in the ride.

I haven’t decided on details on how often to post, or what I’ll be posting exactly, but I will share more in future posts.

Wish me luck!

“Sharon mentally took inventory of the proper grammar, story lots, characters, and other tools she’d need on her journey. Time, creativity, and other abstracts intermingled with the inner editor, unceremoniously shoved into the inner pocket. His muffled protests went unnoticed, while the creative muse sat on the top, close to the ear, to whisper ideas and share her magic.

Taking a deep breath, the would-be author set fingers in the proper placement on the keyboard. “Let’s begin.” She whispered….”

Technorati Tags: writing,frootbat31,a writer’s journey,author,blog,stories,novel,fiction

Chapter by Chapter program

In my “Daily Vlog Challenge”, I talked about the Chapter-by-Chapter program I use for compiling a novel. Its works similar to a ‘master document’ but without the bugs and issues, and helps organize scenes/chapters into single documents that also works with  ‘find-replace’ function for all files.

This program is free, works with MS Word 97 and later, and can work with Super Notecard as well.

Here is my video-

I’m thinking of also doing a video on the yWriter novel writing program I’ve used in the past, in case readers might be interested. If so, post in comments, or mention a program you’d like to see, or another topic.

Technorati Tags: chapter by chapter program,writing,author,novel,fictions,programs,ms word

Writer Wednesday: M.J. Pearson, gay historical romance

While looking for interesting writer sites, I came across M.J. Pearson’s extensive writing links page. I was surprised to see she writes gay historical romance, and was glad to see she has a number of books of this genre (called Slash). Imagine any romance book, but with male couples. I found it rather enlightened and fresh.

She offers samples of her writing, provides a page on writing tips, and, of course, read through the links page.

Technorati Tags: slash,historical gay fiction,writer wednesday,writing tips,writing links,mj pearson,frootbat31,a writer’s journey

Top 10 Things I Learned About Writing (includes video)

I’ve been working on this April Daily Vlog Challenge I put to myself, to vlog every day. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about just one subject, but I decided to pick a few days out of each week to talk about writing.

The video “Top 10 Things I Learned About Writing” includes that which I discovered as truths to the writing process.

They are;

1. Doubt is part of the writing process.
2. You don’t need to start at the very beginning of a novel.
3. Good spelling, grammar, and punctuation are the tools of our trade- don’t underestimate them!
4. Learn the writing rules to better understand when and where you can break them.
5. Feedback is essential to the writing process.
6. There is no secret (no special trick) to writing.
7. Rejection is a part of the publishing process.
8. Self publishing is quickly losing its stigma as a publishing cheat.
9. Different genres of writing often have different rules.
10. Final drafts are crap (and should you shouldn’t expect them to be perfect)

In the video, I go over a bit more depth over each, but bear in mind that I’m still getting used to the vlogging medium, and a bit nervous still about presenting myself. I’d appreciate ideas, comments, feedback (constructive), and hope you enjoy the video.

 

WordPress Tags: video, writing, author, publishing, frootbat31, blog

Video game stories

After playing hours and hours of the video game, Dishonored, I started thinking of the storytelling in this unique and interactive medium. It’s a characteristic both my son and I look for in games, where you play through, following a story.

Imagine the myriad choices a story can go when you’re writing. In gaming, you get to explore those different paths. Some even offer moral choices, which affect the outcome. You can play evil or good characters, and some games change how non-player characters will interact with you.

Some of my favorite games:

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - This 300+ hour game tells a story of the main character (which you can choose male, female, different races, and appearance as well as magic user, fighter, thief, or other classes), who gets sent to the Dunmer (dark elf) land of Morrowind to fulfill a prophecy. That story alone makes the game worthwhile, but other stories, other quests, also immerse you into an engaging world.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Also developed by the game developers of Morrowind (Bethesda), this extends the game lore into your character being the ‘dragonborn’, where you’re fated to battle against the return of dragons that pester the land (attacking and destroying). Like Morrowind, you have full capability to personalize your character. It also includes tons of sub-quests, or you can just explore.

Fallout 3 - I haven’t played previous Fallout games, but this game tells a story of your life in a bomb shelter, where your father leaves and never returns. Once you come of age, you venture out to find him. This post-apocalyptic world shows an alternative future than what we understand, using the kitschy 40’s style of dress and music.

Dishonored I’ve only recently started playing this game, where the main character, Corvo, serves as a bodyguard to the Empress. He is framed for her murder, and you play through to discover who killed her, and to help her daughter get on the throne. This is a stealth-based game, where you can choose to not kill anyone. But then, you can also go on a rampage and kill everyone.

These games steep you into different worlds, living lives of other people, making choices, solving problems (often with choices to how you accomplish those goals), and offering a unique storytelling venue.

While you find stories in movies and T.V., imagine that you are the character having to do all the actions through the scenes, to make those choices? Would you be good or evil? Brave or cowardly? Video game allow for any of these choices, but with the added bonus of replay.

If only life offered that option…

Are you a gamer? What stories do you enjoy in games? Do they spark ideas for your own stories? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: video game storytelling,gamer,skyrim,elderscrolls,dishonored,corvo,choices,good and evil