My Life and Other Ramblings

*Screams and runs around like a madwoman*

Right, now I've got that out of my system...The cause for the excitement is that simara got her copy of the genrechallenge year 1 anthology before I left her place this afternoon. It's the first time I have ever had any of my work published outside the bounds of posting stuff on the internet and the wave of excitement at seeing my name and my stories in print was overwhelming to say the least. There was screaming, there were very nearly tears and there was an adrenaline rush that had me practically bouncing all the way to the train station.

If you're a writer fancying a challenge please check out GC it's full of friendly people and a really good giggle, not to mention keeping the creative juices going throughout the year. If you enjoy short stories then please consider buying a copy of the anthology even just as a download, all the proceeds are going to charity which is a far better reason to buy something than it having my random scribblings in ^_^.

Just because simara and I happened to be talking about it the other day I ended up searching out the lyrics to 'The Stolen Child' by W.B Yeats.

( To save people's flists... )

Thing is I'm sure I remember a poem based on the Wild Hunt, it goes in cycles of the Huntsman calling a child, the Child telling his father what is happening and the Father coming up with some rational explanation for it. Eventually the Child goes with the Huntsman and his Father is left with only a corpse. Something tells me that the child was ill and the reason he and his father were out was that they were going to the house of the doctor. It's one of those things that is sitting in the back of my mind and I think I may have discovered through it being mentioned in a book somewhere. I can't however remember the title or the name of the author. I have tried Googling it but with not much to go on I've turned up a blank. Anyone out there have any ideas?

Happy New Year guys!

Again, something that made me giggle and I figure that most of the people I know will appreciate it as well...always assuming that you haven't already seen it of course.

Weakest Link - Dr Who special

I was bored, I googled Skippy's List in hopes of finding something to cheer up what has been an other wise pretty crappy day.

I found this mentioned in one of the comments and promptly did likewise with the googling...It worked, I giggled, I decided I had to share.

Hope this gives your days a boost the same way it did mine.

I have a shiny shiny purple bar!
I do not have a finished story nor do I have plot that is good but I have a novel and it might be editable into something that doesn't make me cringe at the thought of showing it to people.

I am win
That is all

I found myself lacking in inspiration for one of my main plot elements so I decided to have a chat with my MC. It's one of those things that makes me doubt my sanity from time to time but what came out was kinda amusing so I decided to post it here.

Me: So Bri, this whole destruction thing that you're supposed to do. What is it?

Bri: *Shrugs* Maybe if you actually got around to writing the prophecy someone would tell me and then I'd know.

Me: Great idea with one minor drawback, I need to know what you can do before I can prophesy you doing it!

Bri: You remember this whole thing about planning before you start right?

Me: Don't start with me, I might be just the author but I will kill you off if I have to!

Bri: Kidnap attempts, death threats. God you're a bitch!

Me: Right, we've established I'm a bitch. I could have told you that from the start. Anyway, you appeared in my head telling me that you had some destiny or other that involved destruction and needed you to be brought up in Faerie! And besides, Novel writer keeps telling me that I shouldn't make your life too easy.

Bri: Fine. *rolls eyes* Well what's wrong with the whole 'destroying the mists' idea?

Me: I don't know, it just doesn't seem to work so well anymore. I just get the feeling that there's something missing and I don't want to end up needing a sequel which is what will happen if we run with that.

Bri: Why do you need a sequel?

Me: Duh, because there are suddenly faeries all over the place and that makes a fun world to do stuff in!

Bri: Well there's always the vague 'let's jump on the supernatural detective bandwagon' idea you had.

Me: Yeah but I wanted magic to be relatively unknown in that one. I refuse to write LKH fic!

Bri: So don't make it porn.

Me: Not helpful!

Bri: Sorry. *Pause* So why does it have to be actual physical destruction?

Me: Well I suppose it doesn't, I just got the feeling that it was from the random draws I did with the oracle deck at the start.

Bri: What they suggested was the possibilty of overwhelming growth, something that went so far that it became destructive rather than a positive thing.

Me: And...

Bri: Well destroying the current power structure by giving them back the ability to walk between worlds would apply pretty well don't you think?

Me: I guess so. It would upset Bran though, he likes being special.

Bri: He deserves to be upset once in a while, it might stop him being so smug all the time!

(Interjection from Bran): Hey!

Me: Honey I love you but this situation is complicated enough, just ignore her ok?

Bri: Oh right, you come asking for my help and then tell the others to ignore me!

Me: Bri you are not a stroppy thirteen year old at the moment no matter where you might be in most of what I've written lately.

Bri: I like being a stroppy thirteen year old.

Me: I like writing you as one, it's fun. I don't like talking to you as one though, it makes you less than helpful.

Bri: *pout* Fine, I suppose if I don't you'll just threaten to kill me again.

Me: Destruction remember? That should be plenty stroppy enough for you.

Bri: Yeah but not if it's unintentional. Do I at least get to punch Aedan or something?

Me: Why not, or possibly Cael, I feel kinda sorry for Aedan again.

Bri: *rolls eyes again*

Me: No he isn't going to change sides, he's just feeling a little put upon.

Bri: So aside from upsetting the pretty boy do you have any issues with the whole walking between the worlds thing?

Me: Not really, I still don't know where it brings in the Wild Fae as big bads though unless you're making it easier for them to come into the world as well and they want to run amok or something.

Bri: That makes sense.

Me: But it gives them the same motivation as the Unseelie though and I don't really want that.

Bri: No it doesn't, the Wild Fae know what's going on, the Unseelie don't. Cael and Aedan just want shiny new powers to make them the new big bad in town.

Me: Hmmm.

Bri: Wow, I'm stunned by your eloquence oh mighty author!

Me: Why are you never this chatty when I'm trying to write you somewhere that needs a wordcount?

Bri: Why aren't you writing something that needs a wordcount?

Me: Because I'm talking to you.

Bri: You shouldn't be.

Me: You realise that you are a figment of my imagination and I have no intention of taking orders from you right? I am going to post this little ramble on LJ and probably check the forums again.

Bri: *Shrugs* That's up to you...Ok, ok, shutting up now.

Ok, I've hit that week three stage where I hate everything I've written and am about to give up (again). After having a number of people remind me that there are many people further behind than myself I am still realising that there are probably many more far ahead of me. About all I can say is that I'm on target, not good enough IMO given that I've had no real problems so far this year.

The main culprit in all of this? The dreaded writer's block (and yes it does exist no matter what some optimists might suggest). The story I have so far seems incredibly disjointed, partly because I've been skipping about in an attempt to avoid getting hung up on one chapter that won't flow. There is much flashbacked goodness (the book skips back in time, not the characters 'remembering' stuff) and my favourite messenger who demanded a bigger role (yes I'm looking at you Bran) has talked to me and given me many hundred words. Of course being fae most of those words don't actually tell you much about him except that he wants to take over the story (we've had this conversation more than once and it's not happening, Bri and Aislin are the main characters no matter how much temptation you put in my way). Because of the way I've written my first chapter and given teh two girls a complete memory exchange, I haven't left Bri much to get confused over in the 'real world' which cut out a lot of what I expected to come up. I've had a fair amount of young Aislin in the human world which was fun but that seems to have ground to a halt after she stormed off in a huff because one of her friends had said the wrong thing.

Deirbhile (my bard) has had a nice little flashback scene and explained why she has a limp but it feels like there should be more to it than that. She started out with the intention of being an important member of the supporting cast but has rather faded into the background. Maybe she's sulking. Bran has revealed that he was taken and controlled by a member of the Unseelie Court because he allowed his temper to get out of hand and let them get into his head. He was basically used as a killing machine by one of his greatest enemies (I blame Laurell K Hamilton and her faerie porn). Something suggests that this enemy might be Aedan since Bran does mention that he is still alive and there seems to be a definite tension between them when they meet in chapter 1 (Which I might post in a seperate entry since I don't entirely hate it). That would give me something to go back an add in.

I also need something more with Aedan and Cael since they have been remarkably quiet lately which is a good thing from the pov of my characters but a bad one for plot/wordcount purposes. Then I have the Wild Fae who are my big bads (I think!), half way through my wordcount and they haven't put in too much of an appearance yet, there have been a couple of mentions of them and a couple of vague interactions but nothing that could really constitute plot. See, this is what I find most frustrating, I know what needs to be done, I have some vague idea where things are going and by the end of a thorough edit I might have a platform to write something halfway decent but I just don't seem to be able to get there. I've switched plot focus at least three times since the first of the month and that is just adding to the disjointedness of the whole thing.

Perhaps what I need to do is sit and do some planning, thing is if I do that I start to feel like I should be typing, should be upping my wordcount and that October is for planning not November. Of course what might also help is a good hard froth session with someone who won't try and take the story over. The write in today didn't happen for me for several reasons: 1, money. 2, feeling ill. 3, the knowledge that the main person I wanted to meet up with is at least 5,000 words ahead of me (probably more by now) and defines a bad day as under 3,000 words! (you know who you are and you know I love you really). The main problem seems to be that I'm expecting too much of myself, I've checked my spreadsheet from last year and I was only on around 13,000 at this point. I'm doing a damn sight better than that now so why do I feel so bloody depressed about the whole thing?!

Oh, I do appear to have invented a new faerie/monster type. Could have sworn that I've read about them somewhere but they don't seem to exist according to any search I've tried.
From the front they appear to be attractive human figures, when seen from behind they are hollow, merely a shell of the image they present. They appear to be fully capable of movement and thought despite not having any sort of physical musculature or brain (gotta love magical creatures) and I think that they seek out people's emotions (or maybe spirits) to fill the emptiness of their form. If anyone has any idea what I'm talking about or where the idea might have come from please let me know!

Ok, enough rambling now, I really should be setting my laptop up and at least attempting a wordcount for today. I'm thinking I might need to focus on my bad guys today, it's not much of a story without them and I have rather been neglecting them. Maybe that's why I'm struggling so much.