New Look

Back in February, I got my first pair of glasses. That was a long time ago, and I'm just now mentioning it because I wasn't very excited at the idea of wearing glasses for an eternity. Don't get me wrong, I like glasses on other people. I think they can be cute and stylish, but on me, I was prepared to look like a grandmother for the rest of my life.

When I first got my glasses, I was amazed at how well I could see. I mean, I expected them to work and improve my vision but I seriously had no idea just how bad my eyes had gotten until I could see with glasses. Street signs that used to be blurry until I was right in front of them? No longer. Squinting and really concentrating on reading the guide on the tv? No longer. Having to magnify my computer screen so I could read without straining my eyes? No longer!

When I first got my glasses, I would sit and play a little game called, 'Amaze Yourself with How Blind You Used to be'. If I was a passenger in a car, I'd try to read a street sign at a stop light without my glasses, then flip them down and be thoroughly amazed at the difference. Yeah, geeky stuff like that.

Well, it's been months and I can finally wear my glasses without getting massive headaches. It took a long while and it's taken even longer to get used to getting my picture taken with glasses on, but I think I've come around and am ready to share my updated look.





Wearing glasses also led me to see how crooked my nose is so in every picture it seems like my glasses are lopsided. I swear, my nose has never been broken. I'm going to label my crooked nose as a distinguishing characteristic and embrace the asymmetry of my facial features. For a girl who is a little obsessive compulsive about even numbers, straight lines, and symmetry in general, it's definitely a bit of a challenge. But if you can't love yourself, who can you love, right?

Friday 45 (The Seductive Muse)

The Seductive Muse

Is strong, creative, beautiful and driven to creative projects that show the world who she is. She is able to stay cool under pressure, usually seeing the simplest solution to the biggest problems. She often desires a deep connection of love with one man but cannot give up the thrill of the chase. Needs many relationships and experiences to feel alive. Her open sexual nature and the power it gives her generally gives this kind of character a bad rap in the real world. This open sexuality often causes her problems when she looks to get married or start a family. May often find herself in the role of mistress as it is difficult for men to see her as a wife and mother, despite her charm. Sex seems to be the answer and root of all her problems.

She cares about the intimate parts of a relationship and loves being in control. She doesn't openly dominate men, but will manipulate them with her charm. She can read body language well and often tries to awaken those hidden desires in her partners and friends. She will construct a wall if she has been hurt by a lover, convincing herself that someone better is just around the corner. Friendships with other women are important, but rarely does she have a true best friend. She wants other women to express their sexuality as openly as she does, but only other Seductive Muses can truly understand her intensity and appreciate it. This also makes it harder for her to understand the other archetypes.

She fears losing her sexuality, allure and creativity. Rejection of any kind would be a huge blow to her ego, especially if it comes from a lover. She always wants to be the one who ends the relationship because her charm over men is what gives her power. Aging is her enemy. It would feel like the end for her. She may not get married but fear of isolation definitely fuels her need for people and attention. She might be afraid that other women hate her for the attention she receives, but she hates more not being the center of it. She is best suited to befriend Amazons, who are just as extroverted but also protective of her, like a big sister, and with Maidens who look up to her. If she is around other Seductive Muses, their friendships become competitive very fast.

Motivation for her is an urge to create and it doesn't matter whether she is publicly recognized for that creation or not. The need to produce things and experience life to the fullest is deeply rooted within her. She wears alluring clothes and is mostly likely always ahead of the trends. Everything about her ensemble will appear to be perfect and always has an inner glow or star quality that cannot be denied.

Developing her character arc: She will want to be recognized for her brain instead of just her beauty. She might have to learn that physical looks are temporary and superficial. She will want a true soul mate who sees her for who she really is. She will also need to learn to plan for the future instead of always living for the moment. To grow, she is best paired with one of the following;

The Woman's Man: He is capable of teaching her to value herself for her mind and spirit as well as her body.

The Messiah: He can teach her how to channel her sexual energy to advance spiritually.

The Recluse and Mystic: He can teach her to know herself deep down inside or how to be alone without fear of abandonment.

The Amazon: he can teach her how to set limits and accept discipline as a positive in her life.

Assets: Loves to be the center of attention, has a need to express herself, smart, creative, emotional, loves herself and body in a healthy way, loves to dress up and wear alluring clothes, enjoys sex, enjoys female friendships, encourages other women to be creative and sexual, inspires men.

Flaws: Is unable to do things alone, lives for the moment, never thinking or planning for the future, falls in and out of love easily, is manipulative and flirtatious, is impulsive and promiscuous, is very self-focused.

Examples:




Samantha Jones from Sex and the City (Kim Cattrall)















Vivian Ward from Pretty Woman (Julia Roberts)




















Marilyn Monroe






Do you have a character who fits into the Seductive Muse role?

45 Master Characters (Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters)

45 Master Characters (Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters) is a book by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. I've been slowly reading it and making notes for a long time now. Basically, it divides characters into hero and villain categories and tells you what composes the character and gives you examples from movies and literature throughout the ages. It also has a great section on supporting characters and plotting tips for both male and female journeys.



I highly recommend this book for writers. I found it very informative and while I don't sit down with a copy of it every time I develop a new character, I thought the information inside was very helpful. I'll be posting some of the notes I've taken from the book to share with you soon.

Feta Cheese

So I am in the process of rewriting chapter twenty in Penalty Killer. I already had a long first paragraph rewritten and in place but I decided to start from the hospital scene and nix the ambulance scene. I erased the big long paragraph and started over.

With a new paragraph in place, I decided to go back and read it, just to be sure it flowed better than the last paragraph I had written. Imagine my surprise when the eighth sentence of my paragraph discussed the abject horror and stress of watching the feta monitor.

That's right. Feta. As in, the cheese.



You know the prickly hairs that stand up on the back of your neck when you've been away from your feta cheese too long? Apparently, so does Tallulah.

Obviously feta monitor was supposed to be fetal monitor. That's one of those mistakes that Spell Check just wouldn't pick up on. 8)

Titles

How do you come up with titles for your work? Is it something you start off with or something you come up with toward the end? How do you know when a title fits the work you've written?

For me, I never felt like I put much thought into the title. With some of my work, I really thought about it and considered it. Those were the works which the title was an actual line used in the story. I love stuff like that. Others, were just temporary titles I never really worked on and I don't really like but nothing has seemed to stick.

So what's your protocol for thinking up a clever, catchy title?

Flair

Made two new buttons for my blog today, both for Zarya. You can check them out at the end of the blog. Zarya is the mermaid character that I've been working with for the past two (and soon to be three) NaNoWriMo years. I am quite sure there are more buttons to be made for characters I haven't introduced to the blog yet but just haven't had the chance to check through my work.

I am almost finished with the Penalty Killer chapter I am working on! Just another 500 or so words. I am just trying to figure out how I want it to end.

It is noon here already and all I've done is straighten the house a bit, eat breakfast and lunch, and write. So, I'm going to get the clothes out of the dryer, get ready to go to the gym, and hopefully get some more writing in before my evening yoga class.

Wish me luck! I've never attempted yoga before so this should be quite the experience.

Yay!

A few days ago, I wrote a seven page journal entry (by hand) and today, another three pages! Then, I wrote about six pages for Penalty Killer! Makes me feel productive!

And for the record, I too, hate when people excessively use exclamation points, but I'll make an exception for the occasion.

Groovin'

*Do you know how difficult it was for me to leave the 'g' off the end of my post title? I don't like apostrophe'ed-losing-letters kind of stuff. I'm a lamespice, I know.*

Anyway, I'm just about to sit down and rewrite/edit a chapter in Penalty Killer. I feel like I haven't even looked at it in months, but it has probably been more like several weeks. Maybe that's what I needed. Maybe I needed to distance myself from the piece. There for a while it felt like I had rewritten/edited so much Tallulah and Gennadi that I'd somehow become disconnected from them as characters and just too entwined in the get-it-done aspect.

And of course I never make it easy on myself when I go to do a rewrite. No, no, can't have any of that line by line read with minor structure and punctuation correction. I have to rewrite it, word by word, chapter by chapter until I have a whole other document. So 350 pages of work generally becomes about 700+ in the long run. I have tried to refine my habits but I feel awkward and out of place any other way.

Also, this brings me to the point of the post I had intended to write in the first place, you know that moment when you put a finished work away and out of your mind for so long that you get kind of excited to read it again when you happen to think of it again? Well, the other day I was going through Once Upon an Ocean Lullaby and Once Upon an Ocean Nightmare to see exactly where the story ends. As NaNoWriMo manuscripts, once November is over, I tend to forget them, but with NaNoWriMo looming in the not-so-distant future, I thought I'd get a leg up on the brainstorming part of the challenge.

So I'm skimming through chapters and I get so engrossed in the story it's as if I'm reading it for the first time, which I guess, essentially, I am, but you know what I mean. Not that the story was incredible or the writing was phenomenal. I just got caught up and every now and then, it amazes me just how creative my mind can be. Not just any mind, my mind.

Even as a writer, I never consider myself very creative. Most of my stories are rooted in the real world and I embellish details to suit my mood and the characters in the story. NaNoWriMo is different. I used that challenge to step outside my normal comfort zone of mainstream romantic fiction and dove face first into the supernatural/fantasy world.

And when I think about my work in those terms, about how creative and whimsical I can be, it makes me appreciate this writer's block I've had. I know, "appreciate" isn't exactly something a writer should say about writer's block, but hear me out. I live and breathe my stories, as I'm sure lots of writers do. It has to take a toll. It has to happen for a reason, right? (At least that's what I'm telling myself!)So, instead of being ashamed of my writers block and frustrated with it, I'm going to embrace it, accept it, and (gently) push myself to at least journal and brainstorm in between bouts of writer's block.

Making Changes Everywhere

A couple weeks ago I joined my local YMCA. I'm trying to get into a shape other than round. It is slow going and takes a lot of will power, but I'm getting into a rhythm of some kind. Haven't done as much writing as I would have liked, but I'm getting back into the groove of things for sure.

A few weeks ago I was watching Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show and he had his Paris episodes airing. On one of those episodes he was talking about Love Locks. I've heard of them before but was never really inspired by them until that show. Seeing those padlocks on the bridges inspired a new idea for a story. I've already started character mapping and have a first chapter written.

For those of you who aren't sure what Love Locks are, it's a tradition where a couple writes their name and the date on a padlock and then affixes that lock to (most notably) a bridge. They would then kiss and throw the key over the bridge, symbolizing their everlasting love.

I couldn't help but be inspired by the idea, so I suppose I should thank Craig Ferguson and the Late Late Show for the Paris shows.

Woot!!

Okay, so I know it has been ages since I've written on the blog and I feel more guilty about that than I should. There for a while I could pump out at least a chapter a day and I had more than my fair share of ideas. I have a folder full of finished manuscripts to prove it. Then one day I sat in front of the computer and nothing.

For days.

And days.

And days.

Until those days turned into weeks and those weeks turned into months.

If you've ever suffered from writer's block I'm sure you understand how debilitating that feels. It's not that I didn't have ideas. I had tons of them, but when I turned my computer on and focused on writing, it was like running head first into a brick wall. I was dazed and confused, staring at that oh-so-cliche blank computer screen for minutes looking for anything to distract me from not writing.

Ever hear of this thing called "the internet"? Well as a writer it can be your best friend or your worst enemy. In my case, this time around, it was my worst enemy. I let it distract me. And not just for a day or two or even a week. I let it become my writing. I couldn't find the words I wanted for my story? No problem! Let me check out Facebook. I knew what I wanted to say but every sentence felt like getting a tooth pulled without the luxury of Novocaine. Still no problem! The internet is full of nifty little websites to sidetrack and derail.

Well, the other night I had this awesome conversation with my friend Samantha. She and I are just now finding time to reconnect via the internet. Chats, texts, Facebook. We had one of those interwebz chats the other day and both came away with some pretty sweet ego stroking. Afterwards, when I should have been cuddling in bed with my husband, dreaming sweet dreams of vow renewals and vacations, I was stuck trying to get my writing mojo back. The words were there, the ideas were there and that confidence I'd been lacking, was finally back.

At 6am, I hammered out a complete chapter in less than 40 minutes. I don't know if it's gold. Right now, I really don't care. I haven't reread it because I know that I will be able to find fault somewhere and if I ever expect to move on and finish the story I can't sweat the details before the finish line. But it's done. One whole chapter closer to where I need to be.

Apparently all I needed was someone else to tell me I can do it and that it's worth it.

Now it's 4:34am and all I want to do is dive back into my writing. I feel like I have so much to catch up on, to make up for and I don't want to lose this steam so you'll catch me burning the midnight oil for another hour or so, hoping to plot out and begin Chapter Sixteen of Penalty Killer.