dragovianknight | Entries tagged with writing...so hard

While there is still a small niche market for Westerns, this category does not show up on most lists of bestselling genres. But if you love it, why not try to bring it back? I write the occasional boxing story set in 1950s Los Angeles. That sort of “men’s action” was big back then, not so much now. I don’t care. I like it. I just don’t do it exclusively.
So here is my advice. Either write what you love, or choose a popular genre and learn to love it. (Remember my “arranged marriage” analogy? Well, here it is again). When you love what you’re writing, your writing will be better, and it needs to be in this era of so much digital content.
When I think of the great pulp writers, I always include Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian. Those stories would combine Action/Adventure and Fantasy. Howard found his most sustained success with this series character.
But that did not stop him from selling other kinds of stories in horror, detective, boxing, and Westerns. He was a pulp writer, and proved it with his wide reach and production, all before his tragic suicide at the age of thirty.
So choose … write … experiment … and when you hit on something that works, hammer out more of it.
Especially if you come up with a great series character

From How to Write Pulp Fiction by James Scott Bell.

I have proto-ideas that I would like to write. I have...sorta-kinda words, at least when in impractical-for-writing places like the shower.

I also have a mental block where opening a writing program = too much pressure re: quality.

Which is stupid, because a) it's porn and b) I desperately need to goose my income for October, because September has been shit. New words...any new words...will help achieve this. WE LIKE MONEY, BRAIN, Y U GOTTA BE THIS WAY?

(I have also utterly failed at writing fanfic for the past month, so this isn't just a "zomg professional writing is too much pressure" thing. Brain is just really fucking contrary atm.)

Current Mood: irritated

On the one hand, I really like this font. (fontbundles.net affiliate link)

On the other hand, I'm 99% sure I've seen it and its ilk on bad-boy romance covers, ie it is not genre suitable except for the porn I am trying to wean myself off of. (And oh, god, porn...today I purchased my first ghostwritten gangbang short, which I have no guarantee of making my money back on, but it was that or despair of ever releasing on that pen name again. Wish me luck.)

And on the mutant third hand, even if it's not really genre-suitable for what I write, that is a very good price on a very nice commercial-licensed font if I ever decided to whore myself out making covers for other people.

(Also, I really need to be writing and not browsing font and stock photo sites, but apparently my brain has fixated on "how do I market" and is stressing over that to the detriment of actual words.)

Current Mood: anxious

Today, based on someone gushing about it in one of my writers' forums, I went to pick up Rachel Aaron's 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love. As it turns out (thank you, Amazon memory), I have owned this book for almost two years.

Much like with the Libbie Hawker blurb book, my failure to remember this book was a sign.
( Again, this gets long )

So, another writing advice book that just doesn't work for me. It isn't wildly at odds with how my brain works, and honestly, a lot of it resonates with how I write fanfiction. But by the 50% mark, it just hadn't given me anything concrete or enlightening enough to keep me reading for the rest of her advice.

For a while, it seemed like everyone on the writing forums I frequent was recommending Take Off Your Pants as THE book to teach so-called "pantsers" how to outline. Hell, in the initial rush of reading it, I might have recommended it to people; I don't, honestly, remember. If I did, I don't regret it, because she obviously has advice that works for a lot of people.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work FOR ME.

I was reminded of this yesterday, when - as part of my week-long-and-counting bout of depression and writerly angst - I decided I was going to write the blurb for The Fantasy Story I'm Not Allowed To Write Because Porn Makes Money. And lo! did I discover I owned Libbie Hawker's Gotta Read It: Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch that Sells.

( Because this got LONG and there's a table under here. )

So, I'm not throwing any shade at Libbie Hawker, her books, or her method. But, for me, whether it's her approach to what makes a story, the actual method of breaking down plot, or just the way my brain parses the method, her stuff doesn't work and winds up being actively destructive.

Which, I suppose, is why there are fifty gazillion books on writing out there.

Current Mood: hot

I really, really like Chris Fox's Write Smarter, Write Faster series of books. In fact, I think I need to re-read 5000 Words Per Hour and try to jumpstart my actual writing.

Write to Market has a lot of solid advice. In fact, the advice of figuring out what's selling so you can fine-tune what categories to write for is rock solid...except for the rampant mis-categorization of books on Amazon. So, for example, I might go to see what's hot in the fantasy, and find Dean Koontz's The Silent Corner: A Novel of Suspense sitting at #8, between Harry Potter books. Or a paranormal romance ranking at #9 under Horror/Dark Fantasy.

And it is incredibly frustrating to try and figure out what, if anything, would actually sell in a given category, when that category is stuffed with things that either blatantly don't fit, or have a tenuous connection at best. (Does The Colin McCool Paranormal Suspense Series really belong under "Folklore" or "Ghosts" or "Myths and Legends"? I don't know, but I know it's not what I'd be looking for if I were shopping those categories.)

This is mostly venting. I certainly don't have a SOLUTION, since most of the advice regarding writing to market mirrors Chris Fox's: go to Amazon, find the category you want to write, and look at the top 20 books to see how they rank/what's popular. If someone else has ideas, I'd love to hear them.

...but fukkit, RANDOM PORN until I hit 30k words.

Current Music: Nightmare - Avenged Sevenfold

And you know, I love Dragon Quest and all, but 28k in I have to say...I WOULD FUCKING KILL FOR SOMETHING WITH FOUR TIRES AND AN ENGINE TO SHOW UP RIGHT NOW.

*breathes*

Okay, that's out of my system. I can go back to letting Alena eviscerate a troll now.

Edit: Or a giant spider. I bet I could work a giant spider in...or a flying wolf, maybe. Hell, a fucking munky. MAYBE A PURPLE DINOSAUR I DON'T KNOW. *twitch*

Current Mood: cold

I think I'm going to repost "A Dark Forsaken Road" (Dragon Quest VIII AU; Angelo gets imprisoned and brainwashed by Rhapthorne) to AO3. The idea is that posting will encourage me to actually finish the damn thing, and then I will continue to write.

Of course, with my luck I will proceed to write in a dead fandom, but. You know. Can't have everything.

I should import my Dragon Quest icons to Dreamwidth, just in case.

Edit: Does a story need a major character death tag if the character(s) in question don't stay dead? (Yes, I do abuse my fandom's resurrection magic, so there.)

Current Mood: tired

I've had a surprisingly productive afternoon. I opened Liquid Story Binder and set up a planner for Fallen Knight, and now I have the remaining chapters mapped out, at least as far as (most of them) having titles and one line summaries of what I expect to happen. (I think of the chapters as episodes, so each is really a mostly self-contained storylet.) I'm still not sure how I'm working the end, but I shouldn't get totally stuck except on details.

Now to see if I can do the same for Indestructible. And I suppose I should also paste it all into 750 words.

There are new bunnies lurking around, though, which is terribly frightening. I don't NEED more stories at this time!

Edit: Wow, that was over 1000 words I just added to 750 words (a scene I wrote in the notes for the chapter)! And it's not even a fraction of the length of that chapter. I'm doomed. :D

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Loreena McKennitt - Coventry Carol (live)

I can't believe I didn't haul my ass out of bed until almost 11 this morning.

I also can't believe I woke up with the realization that, the way the first half of Fallen Knight is going, there is no good way to justify most of what I had planned for the second half.

*sulks*

*kicks rocks*

*makes self go do laundry*

Edit: And then one of the cats randomly FREAKED THE FUCK OUT when I picked her up, and now my arms look like the world's most incompetent suicide attempt. *goes off to find alcohol and to swear in pain a lot*

Current Mood: aggravated

Dear KITT and Ali,

Please stop snarking at each other so we can actually proceed with the story.

No Love,

Teh Authoressssss

( No, srsly, they won't shut up. )

I swear, I want to wring both their necks. You know, if KITT had a neck to wring. And if they weren't both fictional.

Perhaps tomorrow it shall be time for more Indestructible.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Nox Arcana - Gifts of the Magi

Don't worry about a funeral; I plan to leave the body for the cats to eat.

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: Adiemus - Cantus Insolitus

As in, I dun wanna write. But I have to write my ficathon walked into a bar fic. It should be easy! It's Hades! And Angelo! In a bar! Bitching about their mothers in law!

But I dun wanna.

And of course, that means nothing else is getting done, either, because I feel like I should make myself sit here until there are 500 words. Sigh.

Current Mood: discontent

Dear Brain,

( Icky dream imagery behind the cut. )

More exhausted and tired than when she went to bed,
Dragovian Knight

And I have writing angst that I kind of want to post about, and I kind of don't want to do it on my IJ behind lock because I would sort of like to have, you know, a conversation about some of it. But that has to be weighed against my fear of people wandering in and pointing at me and calling me a bad person.

Current Mood: distressed

My two complete Valdemar fics are uploaded to FF.net, and one of them is also on AO3...though since AO3 wouldn't import the FF.net version, I had to fill out all the information. Which I hate, much preferring FF.net's dropdown lists. Because I'm lazy, and tagging things requires thought.

Now I'm kinda sorta thinking I should play more with my characters. And finish Violations, my novella, though I suspect that's still a bit too ambitious for me. Also, there is a tiny part of me that feels like AO3 has a more judgmental audience, since it's the sandbox that the cool kids built, so I'm not completely comfortable there.

At some point, I must finish my Knight Rider fic, too. Which is also probably more ambitious than I have skill for.

Writing for public consumption wearies me. :(

Edit: And argh, is there any way to make AO3 stop fucking numbering the parts of my series? Or at least edit the numbers so they're correct, since I'm neither writing nor uploading things in order?

Current Mood: down

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Page Summary

Because I am probably not the only one who needs to read this
I want to write
Font musings
Instead of "the month of writing", July appears to be my "month of talking about writing books"
I need to not read Libbie Hawker
On Writing and Marketing
I have been trying SO HARD to resist this...
This morning I blew out 2k words in 45 minutes
In a probably doomed effort to get myself writing again
Huh
ARRRGGHHH!
Note to Characters
I am going to write if it kills me
I have a bad case of the dun wannas
OMGWTFBRAIN!
So that's done

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Entries tagged with writing...so hard

Because I am probably not the only one who needs to read this

I want to write

Font musings

Instead of "the month of writing", July appears to be my "month of talking about writing books"

I need to not read Libbie Hawker

On Writing and Marketing

I have been trying SO HARD to resist this...

This morning I blew out 2k words in 45 minutes

In a probably doomed effort to get myself writing again

Huh

ARRRGGHHH!

Note to Characters

I am going to write if it kills me

I have a bad case of the dun wannas

OMGWTFBRAIN!

So that's done