You Have To Take One Idea To The Finish Line...

"I realize how hard it is after putting in a full day of work to come home and do more work on your personal projects. But you have to do it. It is that simple. And you have to take one idea to the finish line. Listen, almost every artist I know has a personal project brewing, a kids book, a novel, a movie script idea… But very few ever take it to a point that they can show it to publishers, because it is always easier to start a new idea than to finish an old one."

~ Scott Fischer, being interviewed on The ArtOrder Blog.

As an Artist and a Writer, I can totally agree with this, it is easier to start a new idea than to finish an old one. And probably the main reason why I have never finished a writing project. Last year I started writing a novel I posted on this blog, Ghosts of Time. I started writing with lots of enthusiasm, and got good feedback on the first two posts I made. Then I started reading a blog post (apologies I can't remember which blog it was on now), but it said that once you had published your novel on your blog, you couldn't sell it to a publisher. Something about you having already used your first publishing rights on your blog. This made me panic and stop writing my novel. I loved the idea so much, I thought it would make a great and unusual novel, and one day I'd like to get it published.

This is still true, but why did I stop writing it altogether? I could have continued writing it, just not publishing it until I try to get it professionally published. The thing was, I loved the feedback, and the excitement at having posted it to be read online. To be able to get some feedback as to how my writing was coming along, that people were excited and wanted to read more. I also felt I was held accountable and had to produce a new chapter as people were waiting to read more. I loved that.

I started reading my Ghosts Of Time posts again recently, to post on a Goodreads.com group, Ambitious Writers. And I surprised myself with how good they were. Sure, I know I'm not a published author, and I am in no way perfect with my writing. But it still amazes me that I feel the same excitement reading my writing, as I did writing my writing. I loved it, and I wanted to read more. And in order to read more of it, I must write more of it.

But I want to be able to publish it? Therefore, I must not post it on here as I write it. But I do miss the excitement of posting on here and feeling excited about updating it. Then I remembered another writer's blog I read often. The Writeaholic's Blog. Aheila, who writes The Writeaholic's Blog, writes web series on her blog, which you can find from the links across the top of her blog (see Killing Time OST and Other Stories links on her blog). But she also writes stories (novels I believe), which she doesn't post on her blog, but lets us know how she's doing with them in her posts. Such as when she's writing for the Nanowrimo challenge. Perhaps I could find a story to write as a web series (a fun story I'm happy to share and hopefully increase people's awareness of my writing, as well as improve my writing skills), and keep my precious original story I want to write as a novel to be published offline, and then I can publish it without any troubles. That sounds like a plan! :)

Drabble Day "Apple"

I haven't written a Drabble in a while, so I thought I'd have a go at Aheila's latest Drabble challenge - Apple. Here's my attempt, a little over 100 words!

"An Apple was sitting on the teacher’s desk. Roxy hadn’t noticed it when she first got into class, but it was in plain sight now. She squinted at it for a moment, then returned her eyes to the blackboard. The ancient history teacher was waffling on monotonously, his white moustache hardly moving as he mumbled his way through the lesson. Nothing changes.

As she twisted a green curl between her fingers, a slight hum began to catch her ear. Drowsily her eyes drift back to the apple on the desk. It hums steadily louder as an incandescent blue light begins to surround it, growing stronger as the hum grows louder. Roxy rolled her eyes in annoyance, Just what I need!"

Vocabulary - Cachet

~ a quality of distinction and style that people admire and approve of

Remember Me

I just watched Remember Me, the beautiful movie starring Robert Pattinson and Pierce Brosnan. There is a line in this movie, a quote from Ghandi, it says: "Whatever you do in this life will be insignificant, but it is important that you do it. For you leave fingerprints on the people you touch in your life." And I think this is very true of the characters in this movie. Especially Robert Pattinson's character, Tyler Hawkins, who teaches his father to show his feelings and do right by his family. He brings his family closer together. This is ironic seen as another character in his life tells him he is going nowhere, with no career prospects, nothing big going for him. His own father tells him he has nothing, he pedalled on a bicycle to his office. He owns nothing, and not making anything of himself. Tyler sums it up when he says he is "Undecided... about everything!" He doesn't know where he is going or what he is doing.

I'm sure all of us have felt lost like this at some point in our lives. Having watched this film it has reminded me of how all the people I have met at some point in my life have left an impression, or a fingerprint, on my life. Some people are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. But they all leave an impression on your life, and manage to enrich it in some way, often teaching us lessons in the process. I used to think the only way to make a difference in the world, and to leave an impression, would be to leave behind art, writing, or even a movie, as those are the people who are recognised and remembered. But we also remember if someone has been especially kind to us, a smile, a pleasant comment, these things we remember. So perhaps if we are all a bit nicer to one another, passing on a pleasantry, then perhaps we can leave a pleasant impression, and be remembered in other people's memories.

2012 - Serious Writing Year?

I have a New Year's Resolutions list a page and a half long, so many things I want to do this year. But most importantly, I want to take care of myself. Often when striving to achieve this or that, we neglect ourselves. I want to make sure I have some 'me time' - some time to myself, to relax, unwind, and follow my dreams. I have dabbled more with my fiction writing and art goals this last year, but never for very long. I want to become a serious fantasy & science fiction artist and writer.

The big thing I need to do this year? Practice my skills. To actually sit down to write and draw daily. The only way to actually improve my skills is to sit down and use them, often. I often get all excited when Nanowrimo comes up, and the same with scriptfrenzy. But if I don't actually get much writing done that month, and don't complete my novel or script by the end of the month, then I stop writing. Why? There is no rule that says you must only attempt to write a novel in November. The amazing thing Nanowrimo has taught me, is to actually sit down and write. I learn so much simply by doing that. Personally I struggle to reach my word count targets each and every day, but I do manage to hit half my word count targets each day quite successfully. So I should be able to write a 50,000 word novel quite easily in 2 months.

I want to spend this year honing my craft, writing scenes and practicing writing challenging scenes. Scenes with action in them, description, dialogue, drama, suspense, everything. I want to improve and write something I am really proud of. Only then can I reach the stage of writing something worthy of publication. And that is my ultimate aim. Probably next year, or the year after, depending on how I get on. I want to be able to call myself a writer at the end of this year, knowing that I have improved my skills and made progress. These are my main writing goals/tasks this year:

• Write daily, 15 minutes one day, 60 minutes the next.


• Write 100 word Drabble's (as part of the Writeaholic's Blog's weekly Drabble challenges).


• Write short scenes from movies and tv (practicing writing prose).


• Learn new vocabulary - a new word from the dictionary each week.


• Research Science and History, for use in novels and short stories (for Space Opera and Time Travel fiction).


• Plan a short story / Write a short story.


• Plan a novel / Write a 50,000 word first draft of a novel.


• Learn how to edit and rewrite a novel (and short story).


• Read 10 novels from start to finish this year.

Here's hoping for a productive and well written 2012!

Nanowrimo 2011 Here I Come!

Nanowrimo 2011 is fast approaching, and I have decided to have another go at it. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It is a Big, Fun, Scary Challenge, but it's addictive and I love it. I am spending the last couple of weeks of October planning it, and hope to have a blast writing it next month. Here is the synopsis so far, it's called "Urban Sci-fi" (working title):

Urban Sci-fi

Earth, the fabled long lost homeworld of the human race has been found. There are billions of primitive humans living on the planet, blissfully unaware of the many extraterrestrial species eager to explore and exploit them and their little planet. In it's defence, an interplanetary Union despatches a covert team of human and non-human specialists to find and protect this planet from extraterrestrial exploitation. For some it is an exciting voyage of discovery, for others, an emotional journey to their homeworld, and discover the secret origin of their own species.

Yet just as they begin to uncover the mysteries of this planet, on the verge of discovering how the human race miraculously crossed over into space with no knowledge of their home planet, extraterrestrial enemies start crawling out of the asteroid belt, and prepare to wage war on them and their long lost planet.

You can follow my progress on the Nanowrimo website, my username is Green_Raven.

Wish Me Luck!

Hitch

Here's a short piece I tried to keep down to 100 words, but landed on 116 instead. It's inspired by the move Hitch starring Will Smith. I recently rewatched it and loved it. So here's a little Drabble Day style writing based on the main character...

Tall, dark, and handsome. That was how they’d described him. The description fit pretty good. A pretty generic description, although Alex Hitchens was anything but generic. With a suave style all his own, a walk and a smile that exuded confidence with every sway of his well built shoulders. One wink and a lopsided grin from him, and every woman he aimed it at, would gladly fall to her knees. No woman could resist him. Except the one woman who stole his heart. All the while he was busy teaching others how to win the woman of their dreams - it was the woman of his dreams that finally taught him how to fall in love.