Publishing

Greetings fellow writers. And blog readers. And people... Uhh, let me rephrase:

Hi guys. :-)

Okay, I have been bad again and skipped a few Wednesdays for blogging. I am actually going to have to change the day I blog to Friday from here on out. This is because of the day we have off from college. Thing is, trying to post mid-week is quite clearly proving to be too difficult.

On another note, as Electrostatic Fantasy is now complete I have at last pulled my socks up and cautiously peeked at the world of publishing.
One night, back when EF was still mid-writing, I had listened to an inspiring podcast on the Writing Excuses website and had decided to look into the publishing side of writing. This, I knew, wasn't entirely a good idea since there was no need to know about this side of writing until I had at least one complete manuscript (no agent would accept a work in progress, that's like buying only half a product from the store but for the full price). However, curiosity

Original picture courtesy of Chance Agrella

 got the better of me (right before killing the cat). I did not what I saw.

Don't get me wrong, I have no criticism to flaunt. What I mean is that what I saw ran a small chill down my spine. It was confusing. It was daunting. It made me think that, basically, nothing could be done to breach this field. Swiftly, I closed my browser windows and went back to writing. I decided that my reaction was due to the incomplete nature of my novel. Of course this work wouldn't get in as it was, it was incomplete after all. So research into publishing would wait until the manuscript was finished at which point the whole subject would magically take on a whole new perspective.

The manuscript is now finished. And publishing hasn't taken on a new perspective.

Agreed I have been very rushed with college work and that has provided a nice, legitimate excuse for ignoring the "post-writing" activities of my noveling. However, now that I have no such excuse I decided it was time to face the music. But I hesitated, I put it off. And I realised I scared.

I'm scared about the prospect of attempting to publish because it's a world that is so different from anything I've experienced so far. Granted, from what I've read it sounds as if job hunting and querying publishers/agents are not entirely different. In both you have to make several, detailed and accurate applications, be able to deal with rejection, learn from and improve from feedback and maintain and optimistic and determined outlook. And I was able to survive job hunting and my perseverance rewarded me with my current position.

Honestly, this is really a matter of dealing with something which is completely new. Before I started job hunting, I found the idea equally scary. Now, I think nothing of it.

So now I will begin my first leg on the road of publishing. I can't truly tell you what I expect to find; man-eating sharks, horror game monsters, angry postmen? But I will tell you this, I shall blog my findings and grindings here for sure. :-)

So here's to a new leg...hoping no shark will bite it off too quickly.

Oh dear...

I appears the Writer Monkey has forgotten about blogging this week been met with unforeseen project deadlines and realised too late that planning ahead might have been a good idea  Wednesday came and went too soon.

Please stay tuned until the weekend for a belated post.

Very sorry to make you wait. Gomen nasai! ^_^

Nightmares!

In a previous post I spoke about different kinds of sources where writers might draw inspiration from for novels. And by far my favourite source (as might have been evident) are dreams. I hope you bear with me on writing about this yet again, but I wanted to explore a different take on this inspiration source: nightmares!

As I said, dreams are my favourite inspiration source. The best ones have you moving about a world which makes sense (often in a very illogical manner) and has it's own rules and barriers. And best of all, you believe it totally. I don't know if I'm alone on this, but I've had dreams before where some idea which would sound wacky to anyone in broad daylight is the foundation of the whole world I'm seeing at night.

Flying monkeys in the sky? Why of course. Anyone would be a fool to doubt that monkeys could fly. Just like anyone would be a fool to wonder why these dimensional vortexes keep opening and closing sporadically around us for no apparent reasons.

But dreams aren't a "one size fits all". Okay, you might see a good dream which is a great idea for a book plot. However, what kind of book would it be good for?

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
freerangestock.com

There a different kinds of dreams, and not all of them will fit into every genre. The kind which I described above might be good for a Sci-Fi or "Alice in Wonderland"-ish novel, but I don't think it would do much for a romance or western. You see? What scene you see often also sets your genre. And honestly, some of my most favourites are nightmares.

"Why," I hear you say, "would anyone be mad enough to like nightmares?" Excellent question. To be honest, it's purely for the plot value. I like horror movies and stories myself. No, not the kinds with blood and guts thrown all over the place and no plot. The kinds where you have that unknown, creeping horror happening! Think of The Ring and Blairwitch Project. The stuff that doesn't have you cringing from the fake blood but rather adrenaline-shot from wondering "where is the monster?" type thing.

But alas, I find horror is becoming harder and harder to write and direct. Too many are falling for the "go with the obvious" approach. Result? You're sitting there bored or, even worse, laughing and wondering why you squandered a good tenner on the two-bit piece of rubbish in front of you now. Being so hitched onto my Fantasy writing as I am, I have tried and found that writing in other genres has me crippled. It takes more work, but it feels like the harder I try to "make it go right" the more awful the text becomes!

Picture courtesy of Mark Sylvester
freerangestock.com

Nightmares. This is where they truly come in handy. I feel  like nightmares come from the essence of fear itself, from something that actually makes you scared. And that's why they can make for some really interesting horror-story bases.
One of my favourite nightmares was one which involved a creature that looked remarkably like The Groke from Moomins. This thing, although very much a cartoon character, had scared the living daylights out of me as a kid. Especially this scene from the TV series! I mean look at it! This dark, hulking creature, that's supposed to freeze you to death if you touch it, standing motionless in front of you and just staring with eyes as white as floodlights!

Although I'd not watched the Moomin animations for years, one night I had this dream with a creature that morphed between human and Groke form and ate souls. Yes. Freaky. To me at least.
Needless to say that I felt like I'd gone through something of an adrenaline rush when I woke up. But now I had an image in my head that I knew was terrifying. Something different, but something that others too might find scary.

One of the key things about writing is not trying to please others but writing so that you are happy about your story. And I can think of no better gauge of horror-story-goodness than how fast it makes your blood race! And while there may be many people who aren't afraid of the Groke, there are still plenty of frightening things associated with the dark.

Are you a fan of horror?
What kind of sources do you draw your inspiration from for a good horror story?
Which movies and books do you think have got it right, and which ones failed the mark?

Activeness

And she's back!

Yes, I must apologise that I once again sunk into the deep dark void of where'd-she-go-ness. This time, I honestly have a good excuse for it which doesn't involve me being excessively lazy.
For once, I was actually truly so busy that sacrifices had to be made. Prioritising meant that blogging had to take a back seat for the moment or either sleep or deadlines just would not have happened. So thank goodness for half-terms and their existence, eh? So here is my recovery.

Picture courtesy of William Younger
freerangestock.com

But to be honest, I like being active. The last three weeks or so have been 'running around like a headless chicken' style, and yes when you're in the fray all you can think of is "Oh when will it end?" And then you finish your deadlines, you turn all your work in and turn around and say, "Ah, actually that was quite fun."

That's me. I have noticed that actually, during times of quite and lack of things to do, I have a tendency to fill that void with things to do. Have you by chance ever seen the movie "Yes Man"? Well, that's more or less me. Just like Jim Carey went about as "Carl" collecting phone numbers for Korean and guitar classes (and everything else), so do I find myself collecting odds and ends to do.
Yes I would like to learn to script software programming languages.
Yes I would like to join the art society.
Yes I would like to purchase and read the entire Game of Thrones series (along with 15 other titles).

The only problem is that what often escapes my infallible logic are the needs of higher-priority commitments. The result? A pile of incomplete activities and hobbies that have had to be benched in favour of the more urgent. Yes this bothers me to a degree. I don't like having a lot of incomplete activities lying around. But I've also noticed, that I truly dislike having no incomplete tasks on my hands.

Strangely but honestly, there is nothing quite so off-putting for me as the site of a clean and neat office desk with everything in the right places, everything new and untouched. Like a field of unbroken snow that has fallen overnight. It is not disturbing if I know I'm about to use that desk and that stationary. In that case I'm just enthusiastic because I love new stationary. :-) Just as if I were about to jump into that sheet of untouched snow. But it is if I'm supposed to keep that desk looking like that. For me, a desk like that symbols a desk that is hardly used, a place in which nothing happens. A messy work space (not chaotic but with stuff littered about) for me shows someone works there and does things. And I like having stuff to do!

Picture courtesy of Chance Agrella
freerangestock.com

The best is when I can work those hobbies into every activities. :-) Tweeting right after I get up. Reading when I get home. Noveling on the weekends. Something of the sort. It's the variety of activities that makes life interesting. Seeing new faces, talking to new people, trying new things. And you find out things about yourself that surprise you.

I found out that I'm quite an avid reader. Before I started writing, I don't think I'd managed to read a single book through. I much perfered spending my free time with my game consoles. Then I realised I had to start reading fiction to get a feel for how other writers approach their trade. Now I find myself more eager to read a good book and having to work at playing games!

Oddly, being very busy helps me get everything done! It's when I have a lot of time on my hands that I don't see to manage to get anything finished on time. Same with my novels. NaNoWriMo especially seems to go better for me and have a higher chance of succeeding when I'm busy than when I'm not. Of course then there are just times when you are so busy you don't have time to get things done, but those are few and far between in comparison.

If someone came to me and asked for help because they couldn't seem to motivate themselves to get things done, I would recommend that they get more active. It's odd how it seems to work but it does. And busy times, when I look back on them, seem to be the happiest times I have. :-)

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a book series to complete.

Your friendly neighbourhood Writer Monkey!

Postponed

Hi guys!

So unfortunately college work has overtaken me this week and I'll have to postpone today's post.

I'll try to get two posts done this week to catch up, probably will blog by Sunday latest. :-)

Thanks for staying patient, will write soon.

Monkey, out.