The Fictionarium

Someone posted this link over on the WOXY message boards, and I have to say, I found it incredibly interesting reading:

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

I’ve written quite a bit of fiction, but have issues with confidence and the editing process. It’s a silly thing, really, mental blocks and this horrid pattern of selling myself short and squandering my potential. Those aren’t the greatest things to be good at, and I’d really like to trade them in for a smidge of self-confidence (or some kind of equivalent and better quality).

This is why I take my successes where I can get them, and am perfectly happy letting a mere submission to a writing contest be that success. Whether anything comes of it, well, that’s gravy. Mmm, gravy.

Anyway, this story got me thinking about a couple things. One, how different writers have such differing top ten lists. I think that’s very fair, as many authors have many different styles of writing, and really, I think you have to find what works for you. For me, I have no idea who Anne Enright is, but she certainly sounds like my kind of writer. That is to say, I think we have similar styles.

I’ve just looked her up on wikipedia, and I think she sounds fascinating and now I feel like I need to read something she’s written. Yay, it’ll go on this year’s reading list.

The other thing this story got me thinking about is what I would suggest for my own rules. I suppose I can wallow in some arrogance for a moment, and give it some thought. In fact, in order to get myself to write another blog this week, I think I will do just that tomorrow, and indulge in some sweetly sickening pomposity. Stay tuned.

As spring is right around the corner, so goes the cursed seasonal depression. Hooray! Take that, seasonal icks, and please let the door hit your ass on the way out!

I made a list of projects to focus on throughout the upcoming month.

One of those is to revisit the Sentence-a-day project. It can be quite tedious to remember it every day; however, I was thinking it would be a better project if I did it a month here and there. Thus, I plan on doing Sentence a Day: March Hare style. I think the goal will be to write the nuttiest sentences that occur to me each day, but in the end, the goal will probably end up being 31 sentences for March, whatever the quality. Gotta be realistic sometimes, I guess!

Project two is to work on the graphic novel project a bit more. I am having issues with this style of writing, which I desperately need to work through. Hopefully, through talking with other writers and a few friends, I can work through these issues and get cracking on churning out the story. I was thinking, if the story doesn’t really excite me that much, I should find a way to make it excite me, so I can make it come alive, like Frankenstein’s monster.

Three is to work on my story with the psychics, and four is to revisit my attempted ScriptFrenzy idea from last year. I am super excited about the venues for some of the ScriptFrenzy write-ins, so I am hoping to attend a few of those in hopes of generating some good content for both of those projects in April.

Five is an in the back of my mind project, the completion of the first draft of NaNoWriMo 2008, and the first editing process.

Six, I am diligently working on not having any more ideas for writing projects, and seven is the ongoing onslaught of poetry. I need to edit my “Seven Deadly Sundays” collection and am hoping to print up a chapbook, for which I would like to include some artwork.

Eight, blogging more! This is merely an overview of the projects for which I am planning on clocking some serious hours. In the upcoming week, I shall try to get more specific about each one, and my struggles to achieve these small successes.

Haha, cheesy title, I know, but making up titles is all part of the fun of blogging, I guess. It’s not like I really know, as I’m not not the most frequent of blog posters.

This, apparently, is a bad thing. I should be posting at least 2-3 times a week, and things of substance. Well, I will try to do better, for the sake of my 2 readers (Hi, Mom!).

Today I completed a short story for NPR’s Three-Minute Fiction contest. It was a lot of fun to write, and also fun to edit, which was sort of new for me. I had to chop out about 75 words to make it short and sweet enough, and I really like my finished project.

I had been tooling around with an idea for this story for a week. I was planning on grabbing one of my psychics out of another story, and telling a little story about her.

I tried to write this a few times, but kept getting stuck, so when my NaNoWriMo friend (and Cincinnati’s NaNo municipal liaison) said she was going to HD Beans to get some writing done, I happily tagged along. She is working on R&D for her ScriptFrenzy project for April, so we chatted it up awhile, listened to tunes, drank microbrews and enjoyed the ambiance of the packed pub/cafe combo.

I was about ready to give up and leave after I downed a delicious Pumpkin Spice latte, when all the sudden, my third attempt at the story just kind of took off. Feverishly, I typed until I had the bare bones of a really neat little story. It was also deeply poetic and kind of pretty to read, which is a trait of my better work. (I hope that doesn’t sound like bragging, that’s actually how I know I’ve written something really good: when it sounds pretty.)

I raced home, excited to flesh the story out, but got sleepy, so crashed at around midnight instead. On Saturday, I spent all day fleshing the story out, and then finally, at 7:30pm, it was complete. I abandoned it for the night, and went to hang out at a small gathering at a friend’s house.

Sunday morning, I planned the big edit. Sunday morning, I woke up with allergy head. I have an illness that precludes me from taking anti-histamines, so I sniffed my corticosteroids and spent three hours having a sneezing fit. I went to the store to get a few things, and finally, being out in the coldness of the winter, I started regaining my senses. When I got home, once again I crashed, as these allergy attacks really take the wind out of my sails. Once I woke up, I started hacking away at the story, gently at first, and then more invasively, until I was really happy with the result. I even read it out loud a few times as I went through the whole process, to make sure it was short, sweet, and under 3 minutes.

I submitted it without even flinching, and I am fairly confident, just like last time I entered this contest, nothing will come of it. Honestly, that doesn’t matter in the slightest. Reading the winning submissions is fun, and even if/though mine isn’t among them, it’s a really fun writing exercise, and I plan to keep submitting my work as long as they keep doing these contests.