Fiction Writing and Other Oddities

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Nothing in Particular

Still slaving away at my NaNoWriMo novel, so other than just heads down working, I haven't had any real revelations this week. I am up to 34,000 words, though, and unless I have some sort of a melt-down, I actually expect to hit my 50,000 mark before the end of November. Yippee!

Hmmm, maybe it's not strictly true, however, that I haven't had any revelations. I went to a writers meeting on Saturday where I was surprised to find that I didn't actually learn anything new. That's a shocker for me. I can't remember the last time I went to a meeting and didn't come away with some nugget that helped me with my writing. I had big expectations, too, because it was a special session with a big-time author, with the topic of writing dialogue. The author was a fantastic speaker and really, really funny, so it was enjoyable, but not actually thought-provoking. In fact, I'm having problems remembering what she even said.

Except a couple of things that depressed me:
  • Unpublished authors don't need/shouldn't have web sites. (Well, e-x-c-u-s-e me for living.)
  • Blogs are a waste of time/unnecessary. (Well, fine.)
  • If you give up your blog, it's taken over by porno sites. (Yeah, that is unfortunate, but since they are constantly linking to my site and trying to make mischief, that's sort of expected behavior.)
I guess that's all sort of true and I only excuse myself for having a web site as a lowly, scum-sucking, unpublished hack by saying that I write the newsletter for my local rose society and I have issues of that newsletter on my web site. As well as articles I've written on writing (although the fact that I'm unpublished sort of makes those look suspicious--I mean if I knew anything about writing, wouldn't I actually be published?) and a few other things. So, I'm hoping the site is a resource at the moment, which can be expanded when I publish.

On the publishing front, I understand my contract with Cerridwen is quite possibly in the final stages of negotiation, so I might actually come into visual contact with it before Thanksgiving. Possibly.

Since I'm writing fresh material now, I do feel better about writing in general and new ideas are flowing in like a virtual tsunami. Unfortunately, I think what it's depositing upon the beach of my mind is flotsam and jetsom. I got some real kicker ideas for short story/novelettes, but they are not saleable ideas--they aren't romances--they are just stories set in the Regency about rather unlikeable and nasty people. I'm afraid I rather like unlikeable and nasty people. The one I'm just dying to write is entitled (in my head) The Malicious Young Man. If you've ever read any H.H. Munro (Saki) then you'll have a pretty good notion what I have in mind--if you sort of took Clovis, twisted him up a bit and stuck him in the Regency.

Where would you sell something like that? Shrug. Who knows. I'm going to have fun writing it, though, and maybe I can convince Cerridwen to e-publish it. If it sells any copies at all, I may write a few more and eventually stick them all together into an anthology of sorts. Maybe I'll call them: Malice (for the first story--a shorter title than The Malicious Young Man), Revenge (for the second), and Murder. I rather like the idea. I rather like the idea of writing to suit myself instead of trying to meet the demands of a market that appears to be completely uninterested in the types of stories I like.

Anyway, that's enough for tonight. I've got to get back to work.
Let me know what interests you!

1 comment:

RK Sterling said...

Ok, I'm a little late to this blog, but I have to completely disagree with the first two points by that speaker. Every agent and publisher site I've read says the exact opposite. They all say that it is important for unpublished writers to have a web presence. In fact, I was just looking at the submission requirements for one publisher the other night, and they even said if you are submitting to them, they will "google" your name to make sure you are serious about writing and marketing yourself. So, phfft to that writer and kudos to you! :)