Happy Accident

This shouldn't surprise me... but a light went off when I read this earlier tonight. "Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating (Latin, excruciatus, or "out of the cross")."

Sometimes... I think when they say write what you know... you should stick to it. I've been working on my story again. Basically, up until the part where they move to Europe, I'm good. I'm writing what I know. Now... I have them in Europe and need them to visit London, Rome and of course Prague where move to. I know one day I'll get there in real life and figure out exactly where they live, what they see, etc... but it's hard to capture the feel when I've only got reference books, the Internet's and Live Earth and Google Maps as my main source material. I know I can log onto touristy websites and forums for other help but it would help so much if I could just go to those places and experience it for myself so that my characters can as well.

The characters I've created I know intimately-- I know Andrew hates fresh tomatoes and Italian food, but ends up studying in Rome anyway. I know Isabel is afraid of marionettes and is given one by her father sometime after she moves to Prague. I know things about her family and their personalities. I know their life experiences, birthdays and hobbies. So-- I have no problem with my characters-- it's just the settings troubling me right now. I don't recall having so much trouble writing far-away places when I wrote fanfic. Oy. I also need to remind myself that this is draft one of the story and can fix details and fill in later, after I know exactly what's happening. I just wish I knew where the story was taking me now.

So, to figure that out, I bought me a new journal and I think I'm going use it to work things out with my story.

I still fear that Isabel's story has far too much Catholic guilt in it. Did I really have to set her on a spiritual journey? Why oh why did I make Andrew her twin brother and feel the need to give him such a huge part of the story? I still don't know if I can truly write about a young, somewhat idealistic yet orthodox Catholic priest. I don't want to say conservative because there is no way that Andrew could be what I'd consider conservative-- at least not completely. He might espouse a few conservative ideas and traits but he's not what I'd deem conservative. Of course, I base the characters of people I know or would like to know and of course have parts of me in them as well. In my real life, I have lots of Catholic friends and family, some practicing and some lapsed. I have some who are not at all religious, some Protestant and some Jewish. But I'm not at all religious or devout, but suddenly, it has become important to me. But I'm still perplexed, why did I have to use this point to write what I know? I'm not writing a story for a Catholic audience and I'm trying to keep it broad but it keeps coming out of me.

Maybe I should go back and work on Lena's story. She's a good, very lapsed and non-practicing, maybe even non-believing Catholic. It's amazing where I was spiritually when I started that story as to where I am now. Besides, I better finish Lena's story before there's a cure for AIDS. Man, it's been a long time since I started it. It's changed so much. At least I am not longing writing about the future-- a few years ago I had no idea what would happen in 2005 when I had to take the story into the future. It's set in early '98 and probably ends somewhere around '06, but as I started writing it a few years ago, '06 seemed like a long ways away, now it's two years already gone by.

I really wish I could finish one of my stories.

and the first day of NANO.

I haven't written a thing yet. No story. No idea. No nothing. Nada. Now I want to nap. Someone throw me a bone, give me an opening line... help.

Ah... I haven't been posting... the writing is going slowly. But, here's a page of writing quotes I found interesting.

Oh, I signed up for Nano 07. Here's my page there.

I write angst. I can't help it. I know all my stories, my fanfic and my original fic are full of angsty plots and real-life dramas. Maybe a bit melodramatic, maybe not. I write real life with elements of comedy. I'm not bitching or complaining... it's just what I do. I can't write horror, mystery or scifi or fantasy.

Someday, I'd love to write a historical drama (it will have angst since part of it will be set during the Spanish Inquisition, but that's a bit challenge yet to come.)

Anyway, it seems like the Goo Goo Dolls are my writing soundtrack for my two latest stories. Isabel is packing up her house to move to Europe and is listening to this song on repeat:
( Acoustic #3 )

She tells her brother that it reminds her of their mother. He tells her that he wishes she wasn't so damn angsty at times. I'm reworking the relationship between Isabel and her dad, David. At first, I had them have a huge blow out and stop speaking, but it's not necessarily what I want to do. I just don't know how I'll work it out. I suppose I'll get there and figure it out.

I came across this article about male/female twins that piqued my interest. I'm writing a story with a set of male/female twins. I wonder if explains my characters any? Probably not because in my universe my female twin gets married and has a couple of kids.

I wonder if I had a male twin that I don't know about, ;-).
Still not married. Still no kids.

Sometimes I rely on the various baby name websites out there on the Internets, other times I really like Behind the Name because it has first names and last names in many languages and their meanings, plus names by usuage such as mythological names, pop culture, biblical names and so on and so forth. I've found it useful when looking up names for characters of certain ethnic backgrounds.

Tonight someone on my flist from my other journal posted a link to nymbler.com which is a baby name assistance sort of site. It's really cool. I just spent the last little while poking around there.
Funny how my real first name brought up "other similar type names" which were variations of my second name and middle/confirmation name.

So if there is a name you like, but aren't certain you want to use it, it will generate suggestions that you might like instead. I think that's cool, because sometimes, I can't get the name of the character I've created quite right. My main characters usually come into my head with first, middle and last names already figured out, but sometimes the minor characters are hard to name and I may only need to use a name in passing or handful of times and those are hard to name.


There was a site that I found a while back that was hysterical in poking fun at bad baby names. Ah, never fear, here it is. It doesn't seem to be terribly up-to-date and can be a bit sarcastic, but lord is it funny.

I'll see what other sites I can add to this post later.

So, apparently script frenzy is starting soon. I'm not sure that I'm going to attempt it, since my attention is focused on writing a novel more than a script. It might be fun to try, but I don't have an idea in my head at the moment. We shall see. Anyway, I saw this on one of the NANO forums regarding script formatting software and thought it might be helpful.


In case other people came here I just wanted to point out opensource script software called Celtx. Script writing software isn'tnecessary, of course, but I've found it helps me to have some of theformatting done for me. The "standard" commercial software isexpensive, too much so for me while I'm just playing around with theidea of script writing.

http://www.celtx.com/

Not so much block, but fear. I was talking to my mom today. A long time ago I let her read some of my first novel. My mother is a voracious reader and I was telling her a bit about my new story today on the home from getting take-out and I have this huge story concept and how all my characters are related to each other. I know everything about them, where they come from, how they're all related and who they are, whether or not they are in my stories. Some elements I've taken from my own life of course, as writers I think we all include bits of ourselves into our characters. There are parts of my personality in all my characters, most especially my two main female characters. I don't see either of them, Lena or Isabel as Mary Sues-- but yet-- in some way maybe they have an idealized or less idealized sense of myself. Neither of them are only children and they have done some things I wish I'd done, probably the old, if I went back to high school, I would have done things differently kind of thing, but they aren't really me. But they're my creations and for all their faults I love them and I do want to share their stories... and yet here I am, worried about showing them to my mother. I think she has an interesting enough life that I could probably write a story about it. There is a sadness about my mother, all that childhood angst and drama that makes good story telling, but there's no way I am capable or ready to write the really deep, personal stories that are in my head. That's why none of my characters have ever been an only child. My characters don't come from perfect families but the families I've given them are far more functioning than my own or my mother's. I really would love to write my aunts into a story, but I'm afraid it might not go over well, so I try to keep out personal relationships. ;-)

Oh.... also, I think the Santa Fe Real Estate community, my peers, would be great fodder for fiction. I *know* Annette Benning's character from "American Beauty" but that's an aside.

I wrote fanfic for years, I posted all my Highlander stories, I kept my WIPs up on the Internets for a while and had no problem with thousands of people reading those stories, which, while using canon characters were original stories, written by me, with plots I created from the depths of my mind, but why am I having a hard time sharing with my mom. If anyone who would understand my settings, my characters and my plots, it would be she?

trixiesficused to be my sounding board and I'm not signaling her out for any reason but I miss talking writing with her. I talk about my new story with schaden_freude and she's ever so patient and sweet to put up with me and the world of fanfic was a great place to be because I had beta readers and friends who'd let me talk fic with them for hours. I guess I'm feeling isolated back in my world of original fic and need a gentle reminder that writing can be a very quiet, very lonely place sometimes.

So, I'm wondering if any of you feel this way sometimes writing fiction of any kind, (fanfic or original). I'm not looking for cheerleaders or volunteers to read my stuff, I'm just speaking outloud and wondering if I'm really alone in these observations.

Well, the writing is going all right. I'm under 5k to go. I can't believe I've written this much in so short a time. Of course, it's not pretty. I don't know if there is a plot or if there is anything worth reading when all is said and done, but I'm pretty damn impressed that I took a back story from a pretty much half-written novel and went running with it. As I've been writing this, I've been working on bits and pieces of my other story (all in my head) but I think I'm getting a idea of where the story will eventually end up.


Word count so far into this thing: 45293. Wow... 4707 words to go. This story won't be complete in 50k. I'm thinking if I can wrap it up in 75,000, I'll be doing well. There isn't much left to write. I have three scenes maybe four scenes to write and then the story will be done. I suppose the rewriting, revising and editing can start after that. There is a lot of details I've skipped over as I"m writing, (mostly historical type stuff that I'll fill in later. I know I'll have to work on dialogue just to make it sound like a 20 year old from the 60s, rather than the 80s, which was my era. So once I hit 50k, my next objective is to finish the story!

Hmmm... how are you doing Cathy? Don't give up. I like what you sent me so far. I want to read more.

ETA: I have 641 words left to write! I know this story will be longer than 50,000 but maybe not by much.