Off we go!

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice here, I had decided that I would start this WIP at the precise moment, 4:09 PM yesterday. Starting was challenging but fun. I haven't been this serious about a WIP before. I was telling the lovely Cait yesterday that I feel like if I can just get through this MS and get it as polished up as I can, then the dam inside my head will break and nothing will stop me anymore. As it stands I've spent a lot of time day dreaming about novels, planning novels, writing parts of novels, and not enough time writing novels to completion and revising novels. This will be a big step forward for me from being a hobbyist writer to becoming a querying writer, and hopefully, beyond.

Being Michelangelo

Today Taliesin and I were discussing our impending doom, aka how in just ten days we have to begin writing our novels. After I read a Frankenstein analogy retweeted by Jenny, we got to talking about the steps to creating a novel and came up with our own analogy: Being Michelangelo. I've never been much of a sculptor, but I know what it's like to turn a rough sketch into a finished drawing. But Taliesin mentioned chiseling out a statue and I found it fitting because, a perfect slab of marble looks pretty (the swirly mist stage where you haven't made any firm decisions and your idea looks great), then you have to make it all ugly by breaking into it (the decisions), then you start seeing a human figure but it's all wonky and ugly (the first draft), then it improves (the following drafts) and so forth until hopefully you've polished it so well you're left with your masterpiece. Even Michelangelo has to make a crappy statue before he makes a perfect statue.

This should have already been obvious to me, but for some reason imagining it out is helping me cope with my feelings of "ruining" my pristine marble slab by hitting it with those initial hammer strokes, cutting away the areas I won't need when I start the first draft of the body. It's giving me new courage.

Music

Thought I'd share some of the songs that are inspiring my WIP.

LI theme - "Too Close" by Alex Clare. I twist the lyrics in my head for this one, it's not that he's growing apart from the MC, it's more that he and the MC are so goal-oriented that he feels like they're too deep in their missions to fall in love.

MC theme - "Not In Love feat. Robert Smith" by Crystal Castles. Similar to the other song, the MC is resisting falling for the LI, rather than it being over. For some reason these songs just work in my head even though the lyrics are off.

Love theme - "Melody" Clark Owen feat. Lena Katina. The way they sing the duet parts is perfect for when the MC and LI are working together.

10 days left!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!

10 Life Rules

This blog-like device is mostly just a writing journal for me, I've never given a thought to readership, but if anyone does read this and wonders why I'm not talking about writing. I think the foundation of a successful writing career is having a well balanced writerly life, so I'm laying out ten life rules that I think will help me along the way.

1) Remember that the world has always sucked; it's also always been beautiful.

2) Remember to follow your heart, follow your muse, be smart but not fear-filled.

3) Remember that goal-related activities come first, but it's ok to relax sometimes; it's ok to need to be alone sometimes.

4) Remember to leave the past in the past after you've learned from it.

5) Remember to fix yourself; help other people humbly.

6) Remember to keep in touch with loved ones, near and far; don't burden others, but don't refuse help just for pride.

7) Remember that it's okay to get and look older.

8) Remember to maintain your health but not obsess; eat quality, splurge occasionally.

9) Remember to maintain your intellect but don't feel like you have to know everything.

10) Remember to keep your own score and use outside rating systems only in practice, never in heart; change your internal rating system with careful consideration.