Guilty Pleasures

This month for AW Blog Chain, we are doing a post about our Guilty Pleasures. Shethinkstoomuch posted before me, and the next person in the chain is Lindzy1954. Guilty Pleasures. I must admit, it was quite difficult for me to come up with some because in books and tv especially, I am bit of a snob, and if it's tacky, I probably won't like it. Then there is the fact that I am of the opinion that if I like something, there is no reason to feel guilty about it. So hardly guilty pleasures. But I have come up with a few things finally... Some children's programs/movies - and I don't mean great stories like Harry Potter or the Golden Compass. There are some which are obviously meant for just kids, but I still enjoy them. Not many, but here are the few things: Disney movies - Atlantis, Anastasia. These two I have got on DVD, and I simply love them. Anastasia even has a sing-along extra feature for songs, and yes, I do that. Only when I am alone though. :P Jane and the Dragon - one sunday morning, flicking through channels, I came across this, and I just found it totally endearing. I even love their title song. Jane is a girl knight, and she works for a king, and lives in the castle. She found a dragon, who has now become her friend. And there is a boy knight who is jealous of Jane because she kicks his ass at everything. Another guilty pleasure is stationary. I do not need anything. I already have enough stuff to fill an isle in a stationary shop, but I just love it. Especially journals. I have a real thing for them. And pens. Notebooks. Stickers. You can see where this is going... Totally unrealistic but hero-always-wins type of action movies/shows. One man cannot fight 20 people at once, and win. That's what the realistic people tell me. My answer to that is, who cares? The action looks cool on the tv, and the hero wins. If I wanted reality, I would watch documentaries. Here is a list of all participants in the chain: Claire Crossdale - http://theromanticqueryletter.blogpost.com Fresh Hell - http://freshhell.wordpress.com shethinkstoomuch - http://shethinkstoomuch.wordpress.com lostwanderer5.blogspot.com - http://www.lostwanderer5.blogspot.com Lindzy1954 - http://www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com RavenCorrinnCarluk - http://www.ravencorinncarluk.blogspot.com Forbidden Snowflake - http://alleslinks.com/ AuburnAssassin - http://clairegillian.wordpress.com/ DavidZahir - http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/ Charlotte49ers - www.amandaplavich.com Fokker Aeroplanbau - http://rightfarright.blogspot.com/ laharrison - http://lesleyharrison.wordpress.com/ collectonian - http://collectonian.livejournal.com capes&corsets - http://theseventhcircleofelle.wordpress.com/ vfury - http://helencorcoran.wordpress.com/ Bsolah - http://benjaminsolah.com/blog JackieA - http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.com/ LadyCat - http://carolsrandomness.blogspot.com AimeeLaine - www.aimeelaine.com/writing/blog

Outline Angst

I discovered after several years of hassle that I am an outline person. A good, solid outline makes not only the whole novel writing enjoyable for me, but also gives me a better result at the end. With my last novel (NaNo Draft), I also came up with a method that works for me. So when I decided to start outlining for a new project, I figured it was no big deal. I knew exactly what I was doing. It would be a piece of cake. Well, more like a piece of plastic cake that you can't eat, as it turned out initially. There is nothing wrong with the outline bit. The problem was me. Initially I brainstorm, and in the process I know how some things are going to happen. But even before the brainstorm the idea would have had been in my brain, and I would have a general plot in mind. I started outlining along with brainstorming. What I ended up doing was writing beginning of the outline millions of times. Because I would start doing it, and when I started, I started from beginning. In one session, I didn't get very far. This happened for quite a while. Also, outlining properly means answering hard questions as to how exactly certain things are going to happen. Well, I don't know at this stage how everything is going to happen, so I went off again to something I did know. For a good few weeks then this went on, madness without method, and not much to show for it at the end. Then I decided to do NaNo in February. Here I must interject: Nothing like NaNo to get things moving. At least that's the case for me. As soon as I made that decision, I thought if I don't get that outline sorted I won't be able to start NaNo on time. So then yesterday I started with plain, old fashioned method. I took several empty sheets of paper and a pen, and began to write from the beginning what happens. There are still things I don't know, major questions that need to be answered, but this time, I do not allow myself to go back. It's just like writing a first draft. First, you must get to the end. What I am now doing is going from beginning to end with the things I do know, and where I don't know how or what I write things like - "he does something and something happens". My favourite words are "something" "stuff" "somehow" - yup, very creative. But in one day I made more progress than I made in weeks. I haven't suddenly learned a great deal of information. This information was already in my head from brainstorming and from thinking about the book, but I simply wasn't working methodically enough to finish the outline. I let myself get distracted by things that needed to be sorted, questions that needed to be answered, before making sure that what I knew was going to happen made sense. This is merely the first draft of the outline. I call it my "skeleton outline". Once that is complete, then I will go back and try to fill in the gaps about things I don't yet know. But at least by that stage, I will have a general idea of the whole story and how everything is supposed to fit as a whole, and more importantly I won't be fed up of the beginning by going over it again and again. So there you have it - even outline has creative issues.

Join me for some Fictional Fun

I would like to invite you all to join me in a fun blog chain. Here is how it works: Pick characters from published books, as many as you like and from as many books as you like – but ideally more than one – and invite those characters to a dinner party. The dinner party can either be with you as a host, or with one of those characters as a host. Write a scene about that dinner party. You can write it in any way you want – conversation, action, whatever. And from any POV you want. In the beginning of your post, just give us a list of characters and the books they are from. What other details you give is entirely up to you. If you would like to participate, let me know in the comment section, and I will add your name and link so people can come and visit you. If you know the day you will post, then please post that too. And I hope you will. The more the merrier. We can all post ours during next week (from 18th to 24th January), any day that suits you. I will post mine on the 18th. It’s just something that currently popped into my head, and I thought it would be more fun if other people did it too.

2010 Reading List

One of my goals for 2010 is to read 75 books. Here, I shall add books as I read them. A public record of the progress, and of course to share with you what I read.


Having gone slightly mental with book buying in 2009 (okay before that too, but especially last year I think), I find myself in posession of over 100 books which I have yet to read. And no doubt I will probably be too tempted to buy more before I have read those, so really, far too much choice and hard to pick the next great novel or non-fiction as the case maybe. But there is a great satisfaction in looking at a large pile of books inviting me.


Feel free to make your comments, opinions about any you might have read. This post will be available by easy access under the "Reading" section.


BOOKS READ

1. The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock - 08/01
2. Life in Harem - K. Erhan Bozkurt - 09/01
3. The Hand of Oberon - Roger Zelazny - 12/01
4. Write the Breakout Novel - Donald Maass - 13/01*
5. The Court of Chaos - Roger Zelazny - 14/01
6. The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank - 20/01
7. Proust was a Neuroscientist - Jonah Lehrer - 02/02
8. Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg - 10/02
9. Description & Setting - Ron Rozelle - 15/02
10. A Writer's Diary - Virginia Woolf - 14/03
11. Journal to the Self - Kathleen Adams - 16/03
12. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice - 24/03
13. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - 25/03
14. No Second Chance - Harlan Coben - 31/03
15. Gilgamesh - N. K. Sandars. translator - 13/04
16. Trumps of Doom - Roger Zelazny - 22/04
17. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien - J. R. R. Tolkien - 25/04
18. Getting Into Character - Brandilyn Collins - 03/05
19. The Inimitable Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse - 04/05
20. Thief With No Shadow - Emily Gee - 15/05
21. Artemis Fowl* - Eoin Colfer - 20/05
22. Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal - J. K. Rowling - 20/05
23. Stargate Atlantis: Casualties of War - Elizabeth Christensen - 29/05
24. Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal (audio book)* - J. K. Rowling - 15/06
25. Science Fiction 101, Short Stories & Essays - Robert Silverberg - 19/06
26. Journey Into Space - Toby Litt - 20/06
27. Blood of Amber - Roger Zelazny - 22/06
28. Sign of Chaos - Roger Zelazny - 23/06
29. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J. K. Rowling - 23/06
30. Forbidden Fruit - From the Letters of Abelard & Heloise - 23/06
31. Dispatches from the Heart: Love Letters from the Front Line - Jamie Amrbose, Editor - 24/06
32. Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks - 27/06
33. Nella Last's War - Nella Last - 01/07
34. Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self - Joseph Galliano - 03/07
35. On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony - 12/07
36. Nella Last's Peace - Nella Last - 22/07
37. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident* - Eoin Colfer - 26/07
38. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code - Eoin Colfer - 27/07
39. Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception - Eoin Colfer - 29/07
40. Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony - Eoin Colfer - 30/07
41. Lord Edgware Dies - Agatha Christie - 31/07
42. The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie - 02/08
43. Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie - 04/08
44. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case - Agatha Christie - 04/08
45. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe - 12/08
46. For One More Day - Mitch Albom - 13/08
47. First Law Book 1: The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - 15/08
48. Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne - 18/08
49. The Pocket Power Book of Integrity - Byrd Baggett - 20/08
50. Zer to Pidha Chhe Jani Jani - Manubhai Pancholi - 22/08
51. Sleeping Murder- Agatha Christie - 23/08
52. The Outsider - Albert Camus - 24/08
53. Love Story - Erich Segal - 24/08
54. The Hitch-hiker's guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - 26/08
55. The Catcher In the Rye - J. D. Salinger - 31/08
56. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - 03/09
57. N or M? - Agatha Christie - 06/09
58. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone* - J. K. Rowling - 08/09
59. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* - J. K. Rowling - 11/09
60. Tempest - Jamie Debree - 12/09
61. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban* - J. K. Rowling - 15/09
62. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - Rennie Browne & Dave King - 18/09
63. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare - 19/09
64. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy* - Orson Scott Card - 20/09
65. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling - 23/09
66. Writing the Breakout Novel* - Donald Maass - 25/09
67. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke - 28/09
68. Execution Dock - Anne Perry - 01/10
69. Naked in Death - J. D. Robb - 06/10
70. The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke - 09/10
71. The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley - 13/10
72. Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazny - 18/10
73. Storm Front* - Jim Butcher - 21/10
74. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams - 24/10
75. Mahatma nu ardhu ang: Kasturba - Navjeevan Prakashan Mandir - 24/10
76. Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams - 26/10
77. Flights of Love - Bernhard Schlink - 29/10
78. The Stars my Destination - Alfred Bester - 05/11
79. Three Hearts & Three Lions - Poul Anderson - 09/11
80. Memory in Death - J. D. Robb - 12/11
81. Princess Diaries Book 1 - Meg Cabot - 15/11
82. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury - 16/11
83. Buckingham Palace Gardens - Anne Perry - 18/11
84. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick - 19/11
85. Ysabel - Guy Gavriel Kay - 24/11
86. Superstate - Brian Aldiss - 25/11
87. The Fountains of Paradise - 29/11
88. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton - 04/12
89. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle - 06/12
90. Princess Diaries Take Two - Meg Cabot - 07/12
91. Princess Diaries Third Time Lucky - Meg Cabot - 07/12
92. The Hours - Michael Cunningham - 10/12
93. The Road - Cormac McCarthy - 13/12
94. Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercrombie - 17/12
95. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie - 19/12
96. Fool Moon - Jim Butcher - 20/12
97. Princess Diaries Mia Goes Fourth - Meg Cabot - 29/12
98. Princess Diaries Give Me Five - Meg Cabot - 30/12
99. Princess Diaries Sixsational - Meg Cabot - 31/12

* rereads

Changing POV?

You would think that with the first draft finished, all you have to worry about is editing and making the book as perfect as possible. Obviously, not if you are me. As I think about revisions and editing, I find myself seriously wondering whether this book should have a first person POV. Currently, it's multiple third person POV, with most of the scenes belonging to MC and others divided between one antagonist and one supportive character. So I have kept point-of-views to the kind of minimum. So why you may ask am I considering first person? Okay, even if you can't be bothered to ask, I will answer. This is supposed to be MCs journey. As there are plenty of strong characters in the book, in the third person it might seem like there are other characters better capable of doing the job MC is supposed to do. In the first person, it would become more personal. MC would relate his experiences - he finds himself in a situation and chooses to do something, and we get to feel his motivations and his feelings (of course technically, we should be able to feel that in a well-written third person too) But I think that perhaps because he is not the only person with strong magic, if written through first person, it would matter less that others have strong magic too. Because rather than being a story about a plot or a world or all those characters (because we go in their heads), it will be just a story about MC. His situation is the only one we have to worry about. Solution - not a solution, yet. But I have decided on a way forward. I will write few scenes from the beginning of the book in first person and see how that feels. I am aware that my doubts maybe because I am considering the first draft where the book is clearly not what it should be. However, before I spend a considerable amount of effort editing, it might be wise to be sure about what POV I want to use. Have you ever felt doubts about POV? Any suggestions, comments, tips?

Adjusting Brain to Get Back into Routine

I like going away. The only problem is it takes a bit of time to get back into work habits. This time, I have also returned with a horrible cough, so ended up spending my last day-off sleeping till 2 in the afternoon, and even now, not feeling particularly productive, so this will be a rest day while I catch up on reading some of the blogs. Of course I haven't forgotten my book or my characters. I think about them. They remain in my head. But that's a pleasant pass-time. Now I need to return to doing actual writing/editing. Hopefully, by end of this week, I will start. Considering editing of my NaNo novel, I think the edits will need much longer time for what I want to accomplish, so I certainly need to write something else alongside. Still trying to figure out, which book I am going to choose (I have two stories in mind), and how exactly I am going to do it. Meanwhile, I am at least working towards one of my goals - to read 75 books.

Goals for 2010

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you are not suffering too much from hangovers. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, and this year I am not going to make a resolution but rather have a bunch of goals that I want to work towards. My goals are bit like my outlines - general structure remains in place, but the insides are fluid. Having had several life plans that changed drastically in my relatively short life, I think the fluidity is important. You have to adapt to your circumstances and of course to the possibility that things that are important to you today might not be important to you tomorrow. So goals ...here they are, in no particular order... Ongoing

• Journal
• Blog
• Exercise (this is the one I have the least confidence in)

Reading

• Read 75 Books

Art

• Complete a whole Art Journal

Writing

• Edit and Polish Book 1 (NaNo Novel)
• Create a short list of agents and prepare submission package (NaNo Novel)
• Start submitting NaNo Novel
• Write at least 2 new first drafts (we will call them by creative names - Book 2 and Book 3)
• Edit Book 2
• Submit already complete short stories (with revisions where necessary)
• Continue with WB course
• Find an Agent

Wish me luck, and no doubt I shall keep you posted with my progress throughout the year.

What are your goals for the New Year?