New Year, New Start

I realize that it has been MONTHS, no exaggeration, since I have posted in here. I apologize profusely to all my Mission: Write compatriots. This blog is supposed to be a group effort, a "writer's support group" in a way, and I feel that, now that I actually remember about it, I have been neglecting you all. Please forgive me and know that I am going to make an effort to post more and read and comment, even if I WILL require nudgings to do so at times.

SO. My writing endeavors since last I posted in here. How have they been doing, you may ask...?

Abysmally.

But don't worry. I'm not. You see, there is now hope. I have (with the help of a book on writer's block) decided to just stop waiting for the "right moment" to come along to write, and just write a page a day. 1 page, that is all! After all, as someone once said, if you write 1 page a year, by the end of the year you'll have a 365-page novel. And if I happen to get motivated\inspired\into the groove enough to write MORE than 1 page a day, that's fine. Just 1 page minimum is all I'm requiring of myself.

Next! I'm working on yet another story. A novel. And this time I am going to stick to it. No overplanning, no overthinking it. Just the barest minimum of research here and there for certain elements of the story, and otherwise it's all putting the pen to the paper.

Oh, on that note, I am still employing my "Dirty Notes" strategy. It's working wonderfully so far. I can write all over the page, make notes in the margins of my notebook, etc. I have picked out ONE notebook to use, instead of spreading my work all over in various notebooks where I can easily lose track of it. This one notebook is pink. I shall name her Anne, after Anne of Green Gables. Hopefully all that imagination that girl has will rub off on me.

My book will be about goblins. Well, not exactly, but a girl called Goblin by all except those who truly love her... they number just three people in the world, it seems, and they call her Song. The story involves love, betrayal, a catastrophe, a self-revelation, an adventure... the works.

Excuse me, I just had a "flash of inspiration," as they (or at least I) say. My faithful notebook-y companion, Anne, is by my side. I must go write now.

To Heck With It; or, A New Start

I am WAY overdue for a post on here, I feel. I just have not been feeling my writing mojo, which is my excuse every time, and a pathetic attempt at avoidance at that. If there is anything I have learned about writing, it is that mojo does not come from the heavens by way of a miraculous beam of light shining down upon the mojo-istic writer. It comes through simply sitting your butt down in front of your computer's word processor, or notebook and pen, and just WRITING. Or just staring at the screen or paper until you finally write the first word, the first line, then the second.

Then again, this is, as they say all too often, easier said than done.

Remember how I said that I would work on my story Six Gifts? Well, that failed. I have to admit that it failed miserably. I just... am not getting anywhere with that story. I keep going around in circles, trying to work things out, running into walls, attempting to claw my way over them, only to find a raging river with no bridge to span it. My desire to work on this story has been slowly dwindling over time, to feeling that it is not a cherished brain-child, but a chore that needs to be done someway, somehow. So I am going to take a break. Put it out of sight, if not out of mind, and start on developing an entirely new story.

The idea for said new story came to me only recently, and it's a wonder that I did not think of it before... It will be about one of my not-so-secret loves.

Goblins.

I love myths, legends, stories of magic and unhuman wonders. They have allowed to me to escape within my mind for my entire life, to imagine and expand upon countless 'what-if's. This story will be no different in allowing me to explore existing stories about goblins, and perhaps their magical cohorts (elves or fairies, anyone?), as well as applying my own spin to said existing stories. I look forward to this breath of fresh air, to laying aside Six Gifts for a while until I feel ready to come back to it and work on it with a renewed passion.

And before I forget: my Dirty Notes. I haven't been following up on them, as you may have guessed from the start of this post. At least, not so much as you would immediately notice, but I have done a little writing--just a little, but surely better than nothing--about my goblin story. Some is in a notebook. Some is on the computer, and I intend to print that bit out and look it over after I finish this post. I am thinking now that perhaps it might not be the best thing to quit putting my ideas on the computer cold-turkey. There can be a sort of harmonious balance between the computer and the notebook. But at least I can make sure the writing on the computer gets put on physical paper to be "dirtied up" later.

FOR TODAY, HOLD ME TO: Printing out what I have on my goblin story and looking over it. Sitting down with the intent to write for a minimum of a half-hour.