Wicked Wenches

A few years ago, a critique partner suggested I give the YA market a try. She said I had a youthful voice and it came through in my writing. Now since I loved writing the hot stuff as much as the sweet stuff, it took me a little bit to think about what she said. Then all of a sudden, I had this idea about a teenage sorceress written in diary format that I knew would work as a young adult tale. I wrote it, and found it was much fun for me to write as the grown up stuff .

Now as a teenager myself, I read a lot of Judy Blume. I loved the fact that she didn’t shy away from the taboo subjects, like teenage sexuality. In most of her teenage geared books, with the exception of Forever, sex was mentioned, but the main characters just didn’t do it. Her main characters were very real to me because of this. Because they went through all the same emotions I went through. Currently, I’m reading her Fudge and Peter books to my son now, which are geared towards younger kids, and I’m happy to see that the work still holds up. It’s as much fun for me to read now as it was when I was a kid.

I think I was about sixteen when I discovered the work of Christopher Pike. His teenage paranormal tales were fantastic and I still love reading them. The Remember Me series written from the POV of a teenage girl ghost are all fantastic reads. Maybe that’s why all of my young adult tales seem to lean more towards the paranormal, because reading his stuff inspired me to go that route.

My current project is actually inspired by my son, PJ. The little man asked me why I never write anything that he’d want to read. I told him about my uncompleted manuscript about a teenage boy vampire slayer, and he said that would only be fun to read on Halloween. Leave it to PJ to be so honest and blunt . Then I got to thinking about what PJ likes. He loves space, science, rockets and wants be a rocket scientist when he grows up. So, I came up with an idea for a Science Fiction Young Adult Romance with an alien princess heroine and a fourteen year old hero, who like PJ, wants to be a rocket scientist when he grows up, and I told the idea to my son. He loved it. We read the first chapter together after I completed it, and PJ loved it too. He even gave me some great suggestions.

I really think the key to writing a great young adult tale is to not overload with slang, but still keep the attitude young. And really a great young adult tale is something that people of all ages will enjoy. Just look at Pixar Studios and their movies. Yep, they are animated and generally geared towards kids, but hubby and I have seen all the Pixar movies at the theater and loved all of them, even the ones that came out before we had our son. That’s what I want to do with my writing. Write a fun tale set on Earth and worlds beyond that transcends the age boundaries. I hope I’ll get there, because if I do, I can get one or more of my tales published .

I like gadgets. Any gadget.

Therefore I tend to like software, too. So what do I use?

I use Word to write (2003, I can’t stand the 2007 version), or Open Office Writer. I like both and they are interchangable for me.

I use Onenote to organize things. Anything. Snippets, pictures, links, descriptions, plots… you name it, it’s in my file somewhere. Love the thing. OneNote is part of the MS Office Suite, but if you don’t want to use anything Microsoft, Evernote is a very good alternative. (www.evernote.com) it does almost the same thing as OneNote. I heartily recommend it.

I’ve tried out various writer’s tools, like Writer’s Blocks, Writer’s Cafe and a bunch of others I can’t recall the name of. None of them did anything for me — except distract me from writing. So for me it’s a big thumbs down for them. Others may like them, swear by them, but after trying it… no. Not for me. At all. Too fiddly, too distracting and therefore unproductive.

My reference stuff tends to be books, not software.

What do you use?

Most of us have lives. Well, all of us do. Some lives are more hectic than others, but we all have things we should be doing. And things we shouldn’t. (Like me, typing this at work, looking over my shoulder the entire time. *cough*)
Anyway, I joined the SoCNoC Challenge after Valerie mentioned it.
I won.
Well. I mean, I got the wordcount. I’m not done yet.

It was 50k in June, and I did that, and then some. That leaves pretty much no time for other things.
On the upside, I nearly got the end in sight. (Well, another 20k and I will.) On the downside… This is book 5 or 6 in a series… and I kind of don’t have the others written yet! Eek.
At the same time, I’m trying to come up with a pen name. That’s been proving frought with strife. I cannot seem to make up my mind. Erk.

Another thing I’ve been doing… I’ve played “Mommy” to dragon eggs.
*blush*
These my current eggs: (They might be hatchlings, or adults by the time you see this.)

And here you can see all the ones I “grew”: http://dragcave.ath.cx/user/53176

So that’s my progress — what’s yours?
Ever joined a challenge? How did it go for you?

Seems like we’re all a little preoccupied to play with the round robin, so we’re going to shuffle that to “on hold” status. If you don’t like having it left up in the air, well, the dead bodies all come to live and eat everyone, the end. Hopefully at a later date we can make it a more satisfying HEA such as two zombies really have the hots for each other and discover there is love after death.

Writing has its ups and downs for everyone. Some people can write when the world is crashing in on them. They’re able to tell the firetruck hold off for one more minute while frantically typing away on a really “hot” scene while the place is smoldering to ashes around them. Other people find they can’t write today because the moon isn’t aligned with the proper constellation. Then there’s the rest of us in the middle. Some days we frantically write as the words pour through us and out our fingertips and other days we sit with that cursor staring at us and wondering what’s on TV or isn’t there a blog I haven’t checked 10 times today. Right now, my kids are home for the summer. This is tampering with my muse, she really wants to write, but can’t seem to write when we snatch a few odd moments here and there.

I wish I could afford to send them to more camps, but honestly, those things are expensive and I can’t justify the expense when I’m not bringing in any dough. So for now I’m not writing. You could tie my to the computer and I don’t think any words would trickle out. Maybe tomorrow I’ll woe my muse with something, anything to bring her back to full throttle.

What do you do when your muse takes a holiday? Are you a no matter what this MS is getting finished or I don’t know how I’m ever going to get this MS finished?

                “If we don’t have the corpses, we can’t create the Zombies. If we can’t create the Zombies, we can’t find the cure. If the government would own up to funding our experiments, we wouldn’t have to do this on the down low.” Anna blew an annoying strand of honey blonde hair out of her face.

                Caleb held the flashlight up again at Sue’s menacing face. He seemed to be struggling with himself. Anna took advantage of his indecision and stepped forward. When he didn’t swing the gun around to her and blow her head off, she continued to his side.

                Tentatively, she placed her hand on his arm. “Caleb?”

                He blew out his pent up breath and turned to look down on her. With his focus on her, she almost forgot to breath.

                “We don’t have much time to finish up here. Could you please let us do our work?”

My installement.

“I should have known.” He sounded resigned. “How many this time?”
“Just him, and three others.” Anna brought her hand down and shielded her eyes against the glare of the flashlight. “Mind lowering that?”
The light lowered to illuminate the body. “What did I tell you about doing this? People get entirely the wrong idea and I get a call that someone is dragging a body around.”
“We need them, Cal,” Sue piped up. “Without them our research comes to a halt, and you’ll end up with even more zombies.”
“Yeah, Cal,” Anna mimicked Sue, fully aware he hated being called Cal, “without them our research suffers a setback. They decompose too fast to get much use out of just one of them.”
Caleb’s narrowed eyes told their own story. He didn’t like this. At all. But then, he’d never believed in their research into Zombieism anyway. He probably thought they got their rocks off with some stiffs. Anna shuddered at the thought.
“Use?” Obviously the word had only just sunk in. He visibly shuddered. “I don’t even want to ask.”

Here’s the deal with a round robin. I’m going to start the story and then each day someone will add a bit more to the story until we finally decide to a) kill the characters off or b) give em a happy ending. Given that we are mostly romance writers b is most likely, but it depends on the characters.

Chapter 1

That’s allegedly what it means.
The Divine Breath.

I kind of like that.

My inspiration can be anything. Music, Movies, Books… overhearing some comment… anything, really.
I remember, many years ago, my boyfriend asked me how fast I can build a story. I said instantly. He didn’t believe it.
I said okay, give me a keyword.
He sat for a minute, then said, “Prawn cocktail.” A smug grin on his lips, too!
I took less time than he thought about his keyword and the story was in my head. Boom. Just like that. I told him the outline, too. And it all started with a waitress tipping a prawn cocktail all over a guy’s expensive suit… (I wrote half that story, too.)

The thing is, inspiration can come from anywhere, and it can strike anywhere, any time. I seriously need a waterproof pen and pad, because I always end up with them when I’m in the damn bathtub! Or on the loo… *roll eyes*

Sometimes you have a character pop in your head, other times a scene, a piece of dialog, the view out of the window from your heroine’s house. And sometimes… sometimes that’s enough to spark a whole book.

I find that I need different motivations/inspirations when I write. Naturally, the idea for the story comes first. If I don’t feel inspired, that my story is great, that the idea is worthwhile, then there’s no way I can get myself to write a word. But for me that is only the beginning. Then I have to get in my characters heads, feel their moods, fight their fights and in order to do that I use different techniques – sad movies for sad moments, great music for great moments, hot and sassy movies or books for those sexy … well this is a family site after all….

So for me inspiration is like a balanced diet. I don’t always want to eat those darned greens, I don’t really like them, but I have to get in the mood and chew if I am going to get a healthy book.

Writing is a funny thing. First we have to find an idea, then create a cohesive plot, then write words that bring that original idea to life. Not only that, but we must struggle to keep ourselves writing. There are many things that can pull us down, our personal lives, the people in our lives, our finances, our day jobs, the very thing that made us write in the first place…the words. Sometimes they won’t flow. Sometimes it feels like we’ll never write again. Or maybe it’s just me. Battling with an unknown illness is driving me crazy. I want to write, but I don’t feel well which makes it hard to write. There are other times when life is pressing in on me from all directions and I know there is time in there to write, but I don’t feel like it. So what is one writer to do with her expanding drought?

Inspiration comes in many forms. Quotes are good and sometimes enough to drag us back into writing. Challenges, like Nano and 70 Days of Sweating, are geared toward putting your butt in the chair and your hands on the keyboard (BICHOK). Inspirational writing books, such as Bird by Bird, On Writing, and the one I recently read Rejection, Romance, and Royalties, can kick an author back in gear. Taking a course or reading a craft book can also help kickstart your MS. But the thing I find most inspiring is to read. After all what made us want to be an author in the first place. Money? Fame? I don’t think so, if so, I’m sorry to ruin the illusion. It could happen and I hope it does happen for you, but keep your mind open. Reading books, living inside another character’s world, feeling, seeing, experiencing everything she does. It’s exhilarating. Maybe you have a keeper that you read over and over or maybe a new novel by someone you’ve never read, either way the writing can inspire you to move forward with your own idea. To explore the rich spendor that is your own imagination. To bring to life, a character so real that you want her to be your best friend or so stimulating you want him to sweep you off your feet not your heroine. Remembering why we write and drawing on that is some of the best inspiration I’ve found.

What inspires you?