A different sort of writing exercise

I normally don't do a lot of these, but when I read this one on insevens' LJ this morning, my brain immediately ran away with the idea, because this is simply brilliant :)

1) Make a list of fifteen characters first, and keep it to yourself for the moment. That way you're not fitting the characters to the questions.
(I have chosen fifteen characters from the four novels I've been working on, both male and female.)

2) Ask your flist to post questions in the comments.
(for example: 'one, nine and fifteen are chosen by a prophecy to save the world from four. do they succeed?'
'under what circumstances might five and seven fall in love?'
'which character on the list would you most want on your side in a zombie invasion?')

3) After your flist has asked enough questions, round them up and answer them using the fifteen characters you selected beforehand, then post them.


So, anyone got any questions for me?

Camping, writing and laptops

This is not the first holiday I drag my laptop with me, nor will it be the last. Yet, even though campsites are swarming with laptops these days - I had so much fun laughing at all those people sitting on a bench with their laptops and connection enhancers at a certain spot on the campsite to get the best wireless connection, while we had almost perfect connection on our spot - most people don't get why I tag it along.
Nine out of ten times their first assumption is that I'm working, of course, that would imply I actually have a job (I'm not counting starting work for a postal service this week). When I tell them I'm writing, you get all sorts of questions about what you write, etc, etc, etc, you all probably know those. Then the mumbling about vacationing, relaxing, enjoying my free time starts, since, apparently, wrting is like working. They are partially right, since I do want to get published some day, but what I don't get is why it is so hard for them to understand that for me, being able to spend all day in and around our little camper writing *is* relaxing for me. I *am* on holiday, which means I don't have to feel guilty that I'm writing while I should be studying or cleaning the house. I don't have anything else to do, well, except for a bit of sightseeing every now and then, and I can focus on what *I* love doing most, writing and reading. I thought that was what being on holiday was all about, doing what *I* want.
During this holiday, I read two books (part two and three of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials) and spent the rest of my time writing, plotting, thinking about my characters and just plain enjoying my holiday. And, apart from the fact we had to go two days without our camper because of a technical defect, I did enjoy my holiday, thoroughly. Of course, managing to write between seven to eight thousand words during those eleven days is a big bonus, so, I'm calling this holiday a success :)

I can't say my behaviour is any better, though, since I don't understand people wasting their holiday browsing the net or taking a tv with them or the fact that most campers seem to be equipped with a satelite dish. Personally, I thought having an internet connection was not a good thing, since I ended up browsing the net more than I wanted to (and my kids kept asking if they could look something up for their Pokémon games on their Nintendo DS). For entertainment, we bring board games - this year we brought scrabble, triominos, tantrix, poker and yahtzee, simple games that can be a lot of fun, but don't take too long to play - the kids have their NDSs, and if the weather is really, really bad, we use my laptop to watch a film.
Of course, we barely noticed we actually *had* kids. After breakfast they'd disappear and apart from dinner time, we'd only rarely see them around. Sander (my eldest) actually never got 'home' before we went to bed. Suffice to say, they had a grand time as well :)
We're not real sightseers either. We like exploring the area - my men had a lot of fun on a wonderful low-ropes course - but we don't spend days driving/walking around to look at castles and such. As long as we still travel with our teens, the holidays are teens orientated. All they need is a swimmingpool and friends to play with (as far as you can call teenagers hanging around playing), so, we are content to spend our days lounging about, relaxing and just doing what we like best.

Honestly, though, both Kees (hubby) and I can't wait for the day we can go camping without our kids ;)

For those who are interested, photos of our trip can be found [here]

On Write-Ins

Until I 'discovered' NaNoWriMo in 2005, I had never had the opportunity to talk shop with other writers. Sure, a couple of friends read my stories now and then, and offered some constructive criticism, but that was all. So when I stumbled across the Dutch/Belgian Regional Lounge at the NaNoWriMo Forums, it was a real eye-opener for me. Besides finding out that there were other Dutch (and Belgian) writers writing in English, everyone on the forums enjoyed to talk about writing, whether it was about plot, characters, or just talk about their writing rituals.

Even better was actually meeting my fellow NaNo writers at the 'Kick-Off Party' and the 'Thank God it's Over Party', meetings held in Utrecht to celebrate the start and end of NaNo. I had never met so many writers or had so much fun talking about writing, even though we're all very different persons and have different styles and different genres. Suffice to say, the meetings were a big success for me and I wanted more. I heard about the frequent write-ins some of them organised and I really liked the idea, but unfortunately most of the writers live in the west of the country and that seemed just too far for me to travel frequently.

Over the past couple of years I made a couple of friends at the meetings and after last year's NaNo, we decided to hold our own write-ins. So the four (five now) of us come together (mostly at my place) about once a month to write, bounce ideas around, vent about writing problems, discuss characters or ask advise on how to handle certain scenes. Sometimes the smallest word from one of them, gives me a multitude of ideas for my story, and I hope that goes for them as well.
Of course, we sometimes end up just chatting for hours or watching funny clips together, but the opportunity is there, and that's enough.

For me, meeting these people and having these write-ins are a large part of keeping me motivated to write, and they deserve recognition :)

So, THANK YOU, YOU ROCK!!! :D
(You know who you are)

Keeping myself inspired

Sometimes a writer needs more to keep themselves inspired to write, more than just their imagination and determination. I don't just mean ways to gather ideas/plots when creating a story, but something to keep themselves connected to said story. Maybe you have a certain song that reminds you of one of your characters, or a map of the world you created. Maybe a picture of a certain forests reminds you of the journey your characters take, or maybe the symbol of the clan your character represents. These motivationals help us keeping forcussed, keeping our attention on the story, even when we're not writing.
So, what keeps me inspired? What helps me focus?
I like to create a visual of my characters that I can put on my desktop when I'm writing (and when I'm not writing). I like to look at my characters and ask them questions when I'm stuck, or just look at them and imagine their expressions in certain situations (like anger or joy). I also just like to stare at them, wondering where they hell I'm going with it.
I started making these visuals when I started doing NaNoWriMo. NaNo wasn't the reason for making them, a comment on one of the forums I like to hang out in did. Someone asked for a program to create faces, so she could visualise her character to help her write him better. Someone mentioned an online face making program, and I almost downloaded it ... actually, I *did* download it. But just before I started installing it, I remembered that I have 'the sims 2'. Why would I install a program to create faces, when I had *the* perfect program (well, in my eyes) to create my own characters. So, I opened the 'sims 2 bodyshop', started creating, and soon had my first motivational. The only downside of using programs like these is that the faces look too beautiful (no blemishes), but hey, we can't have everything, can we?
From then on, I made one for every novel I've created (which makes four ... I know I said three in my last post, I forgot one that I had to shelve pretty early because of a big plothole I couldn't get out of, and that I'll have to solve at some point in the future).

Here they are:
CyMagick Incorporated

From left to right: Isaac (detective), Tess (orphaned girl), Tiana (computer programmer and witch) and Kadri (computer programmer and Tiana's best friend)
For some reason I had a very clear picture of what my characters would look like, but overdid it a bit when I started downloading a lot of clothing from different sims sites to create the perfect outfits. It was fun, but even in novels people change clothing, and I'd have had to make several versions of them. Actually, as you can see, with that motivational, I only used the heads anyway.

There'll be dragons

From left to right: Aidan Beckett (pilot), Jade Peretti (dragon trainer), Syméon Valeshi (healer and dragon guard)
My main character for this story was inspired by John Sheppard, one of the characters in 'Stargate Atlantis'. I kept imagining a intelligent, but lazy-ish pilot in a very technological world, who found himself surrounded by dragons and magic in an attempt to save his latest client. So, the most logical thing for me was to use a pic of Joe Flanigan as John Sheppard (only with more pointed ears, since my pilot was an elf). Jade I always invisioned looking a little like Tonks in Harry Potter, but since there were barely any pics of her, I made one using 'sims 2 bodyshop'. Syméon is a very stoic man, and who does stoic better than Severus Snape? Now, I love Alan Rickman, but he was just not what I thought Syméon was like, and someone somewhere had used a picture of Adrien Brody as Severus Snape in a RPG, so I chose a picture of Adrien Brody as Syméon. And then I added two cute little dragons (even if the dragons in the story were anything but small) to complete the pic.

Ki'vahn

From left to right: Specialist Joshua McKinnon (scientist) and Ki'vahn Pyrrin (elf and stowaway with a knack for maths)
When I started writing this story, the only thing I really knew is that these men would bond over chess. So the first thing that I wanted in the picture was something to do with chess. I had a bit more trouble describing them, because I didn't have a clear picture yet, besides the fact that Ki'vahn has pointy ears (and if you look hard, he looks like Aidan Beckett (aka John Shepard) with pointy ears). I actually had a 'sims 2' John Sheppard, so I just started messing around with that one until I was satisfied. After that, it was only logical to use Rodney McKay as Joshua :)

and last, but certainly not least

Echoes

From left to right: 3x Noah Smith (360 yr old owner of a bookshop) and Gareth Jones (PA of one of the directors of an organisation that protects Earth from aliens - which I still need a catchy name for)
Since this story, including Noah and Gareth, was inspired by 'Torchwood', my vision of these two characters wasn't even up for discussion, So, yes, I shamelessly abused pictures of 'Torchwood' and 'the Bill' for it. Of course, the only thing Noah and Jack Harkness have in common, are their immortality and their penchant for drinking water (err ... and err ... enjoying sex, though it would take too long to explain Noah's view on that). And while Gareth is kind of like Ianto Jones job-wise (in short, meticulous), he is more relaxed and easy-going in his free-time (though, who's to say Ianto's not like that?)
See last post for a little more on this story.
As for some of the pics in this motivational: the victorian picture was made by fanbot @ LJ, the small inlay in the bottom left corner was made by me (using a picture from the film Lorna Doone - since that's set around 1675)

Pfew ... that was a long post
Anyway, welcome to Cayendi's world :D

Who's writing this story anyway?

I have to admit, I haven't written that much in the past three weeks, instead I'm revising a little - yes, yes, I know I shouldn't do that in the first draft, but up to now I didn't exactly write my story linearly, and to keep track of it, I needed to put everything in order before writing on - and I'm also thinking about my plot and characters *a lot*, and really enjoying it all :)

Three weeks ago I wrote about a new character, well, new ... a walk-on character turned villain. I was over the moon about what that villain could contribute to my story. But it wasn't all fun.
Don't take me wrong. I still *love* the addition of a real villain in my story, but ...
With the villain came new plot ideas, and, seeing as I was already nearing 10,000 words, I had to face up to the fact that I would never be able to round it off within reasonable limits and still call it a short story, which I had intended it to be.

Just to show how characters can 'take-over' a story, and how sometimes stories don't end up becoming what they started as:

'Echoes' (working title) started life as a lovely little gay romance, in which an approx. 400 year old immortal falls in love with a young man who resembles an ex-lover (from about 200 years earlier). Resembles in character more than looks. I wanted to call it 'Reincarnation'.
Then I had this fabulous idea, which I won't go into right now, as I'd be spoiling the plot and rambling for ages, just know that one of the characters turns out to be alien, and the other belongs to an organisation that protects Earth from aliens. So, it evolved from a romance to a romantic SF/Fantasy story, with a dash of detective work. Nothing wrong with that, besides that the title really didn't fit in anymore, so I renamed it 'Echoes' (with the help of the friend).
And finally, I added a real villain who likes to steal alien artifacts, which not only makes the story longer, it also adds kidnapping and torture. So, more complex and, hopefully, more thrilling, but too long to be a short story. *sigh* Of course, my working title probably won't fit the story anymore either, maybe I'll have to go with the alternative: 'Smith and Jones'.

So, instead of having two unfinished novels and a short story, I now have three unfinished novels (right, one finished first draft and two unfinished novels)

On one hand I'm happy with the fact that I still have more than enough imagination/material to keep me writing, but on the other hand ...
All I really wanted this time, was to write a short story.

Inspiration is a bitch!

I always say, "Inspiration is a bitch, with a lousy sense of timing."
And boy, was I proven right again today.

I've only been writing a little today - in the waiting room at the physiotherapist's - trying to make sense of my scene order, and rewriting the beginning of a scene that just didn't sit right with me. The rest of the day I've been studying and making wallpapers, without any thought of my story, but that's nothing new either. My A5 binder is close enough, should inspiration strike me.
Just before I planned on making dinner, I needed to go out to do some last minute shopping. So, I got my wallet, my coat and my bike and cycled to the the small centre (less than five minutes cycling from our house). As usual I tried out some dialogue that may or may not end up in the story - for some reason I always do that while cycling - when, suddenly it hit me. I had this walk-on character, only featuring in a failing blind-date, that would be THE perfect villain. Upto now I had a protagonist, a villain that wasn't really a villain, but no real villain. All of a sudden it all came together. But ... I was on my bike, with no paper to write on, and, of course, I didn't even take my cellphone (with voicerecorder) with me. *sigh*
So, I could do nothing but try and keep it in mind until I got home. Now, I know that doesn't sound hard, but to me, it can be. If I don't write an idea down instantly, I might get distracted and lose it, and no matter how hard I try and remember, it just won't come back to me.
I remember coming back home, parking my bike and telling my husband that the cooking would have to wait, I had to write something down first. I dropped the shopping on the counter, got my binder and sat down to write everything I could remember down. I think I've got the most imporant things, so it'll be all right, but next time, I'm going to make sure that, for small trips like these, I at least have my cellphone with me.
Anyway, by the time I finished writing, hubby had already cut the potatoes and put the chicken on the grill. All I had to do was make the salad :)

And now ... of to insert my new plot idea into the story :D

Almost a year later!

Last time I posted about my writing, I was still researching a new story.
Well, that story is now over 50,000 words. Yes, I WON NaNoWriMo 2007, and damn, it feels good :)
I have no idea what went better this year, but halfway through I already knew I was going to make it. Of course, afterwards I went back to not writing for a while (November kills!, it really does), and when I finally went back to writing somewhere in Januari/Februari, I had a new story idea, which meant putting my NaNo story back on the shelf ... temporarily that is.

So, to recap the past year:
- partially edited the first draft of CMI
- won NaNoWriMo 2007
- wrote an unfinished 50,000 word story (working title: Ki'vahn)
- started a new story (approx. 10,000 words and counting - working title: Echoes)

What will the rest of 2008 look like?
- finishing editing first draft of CMI
- finishing Ki'vahn
- finishing Echoes
- come up with a new plot of NaNoWriMo 2008

Pfew ... I doubt I'll finish everything this year, but I'm damn well going to try!
and I'll keep you all posted on the process :)

Research and other ramblings

I have been writing a bit, but I've been striking more. Not surprising, since what I deleted were two versions of a beginning that I had rewritten, but still contained some info I needed for a later scene. So I kept moving those parts forwards until they finally served their purpose and are now officially moved to the 'unnused scenes' file.

I haven't had time to sit down with Holly Lisle's books yet, my non-writing life is keeping be rather busy at the moment, busy enough not to find time to study either. So, same old, same old.

Taking some time for myself last night, I have managed to change the layout of my blog ... or both my blogs, since my LiveJournal received the same treatment. I was good to be able to spend some time on something as frivolous as this, while my life is running past me. (on that same note: I'm so looking forward to my second singing lesson tomorrow)

Right ...

Research.

I used to think I could write about anything I wanted to. I have a good dose of imagination, and ideas keep popping up into my head.
But sometimes, sometimes you need to make sure you get your facts straight.
This is one of those moments.
With all the plot ideas I have, I've turned a small entertaining scene into the beginning of a more intense set of 'head to heads' between my main characters. (ie: they bond over chess)
Their way of playing is not the same though, so I've been googling around to see if I could find out a little about the history of chess. When I did, I also found my 'point of origin' from where player 1's people have split from player 2's people. Though neither know there even was a split. Player 2's crew has just rescued player 1 from certain death and are taking him to their planet. Player 1 thinks he's on some boat and doesn't even know what a planet is.
So, they bond over chess, and player 2 quickly realises player 1's tactics are slightly old fashioned. He's still bloody good though, so he's interested in playing him again. And what began as a simple way to meet someone, has now turned into something more.
So, I'm researching history and trying to make sense of the tactics and strategies either one may or may not know about. What I really need is to familiarise myself with the game again, and see if I can come up with some way of evolving player 1's game in a different way than our modern chess, and not just make it look like he's stuck in the middle ages.
For now I'm coming up empty though. I have found some links, but not enough to satisfy me, and half of them are links to chess books.
I love my writing, don't get me wrong, but I'm NOT going to buy books on chess for my story.
I have a big job ahead of me, and part of me is excited, but another part of me just wishes it was over and done with already.

I'll keep you posted on how the research is going.

Back ... on writing

As 'there'll be dragons' was fading from my mind, a new story wormed its way to the surface. Again inspired by the same fanfic.
At this point I've got less than 5,000 words written, but it feels stronger than 'there'll be dragons' did. The characters are just as clear, as are some of the plotlines. The story just feels more right for me at this point.

As with 'there'll be dragons', there is still a lot of research to be done, and what I've written so far is more like a warming up than actual story (though the first couple of scenes are the real deal), but I'm amazed at how many ideas spring to mind by just trying to validate certain facts about my main character and his race. For the last couple of weeks I've been letting it all sink in, and my mind boggles with all the things I need to tie in together.
Research, research, research.

I decided to start with Holly Lisle's latest book on writing: Create a Plot Clinic (see link in sidebar). I'm hoping reading it (and doing the exercises, etc) to strengthen the plot(s) I already have.
I'm also thinking of reading her 'Create a Culture Clinic' after that, since my character's race is very important to the story.

I'll let you know how that goes :)

Nano 2006 - a learning experience

So, I 'failed' NaNo 2006, and only managed to write about 9,000 words.

I had my characters and I had a main plotline and a subplot or two ...
but it wasn't enough.
I knew there were still some things I needed to figure out. I thought they'd come to me once I started writing ...
I was wrong.
The first couple of scenes went off without a hitch. I knew I needed to research travelling distances and such, but those could wait.
Then I realised I needed to know more about the dragons I had. What was there use? Who were the hunters chasing them? And what was that deep dark secret in character three's closet?
No matter how many times I tried to come up with something, it wouldn't be forced. My writing slowed down, my ideas were still running strong, but couldn't be written without the much needed and uncooperative background. Holes appeared in my scenes, many of them highlighted by the words [ENTER SUBJECT].

I have to admit that there was one other thing that stood in the way of the story. It had nothing to do with the story itself, but it did influence my lack of inspiration for it.
I was reading too much fanfic at the time. (err ... still am actually)
Granted, the same fanfic gave me the idea for one of my characters, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't stop incorporating the fanfic's characters into every thought, every idea I got, up to the point where I just couldn't see my story anymore.

The story started losing its appeal to me and I stopped writing.

I am not about to throw the story away though.
There are many things about that world and the characters that I love too much to diss it. But ... it is going to need a major overhaul and mountains of research before I can think about writing it again.
So, for now, 'there'll be dragons' is going in my archive until I'm ready to write the story the way it wants (and deserves) to be told.