What I've Learned About My Writing This Year, Unorganized

1) I write best friends who are named Angie. I don't know why, but I seem to have written a lot of them. At least three, perhaps four, without even realizing. Why? *headdesk*

2) I like to write about en plein air marketplaces. This one I know why I like: it's because the depth of description in a marketplace is beautiful. There are smells, sights, different things to touch and do, different kinds of people to see, different tastes that linger in the air. It makes it lovely to write.

3) I have a thing for dragons, but I suppose I already knew that. >_<

4) Writing a children's novel has forced me to learn clarity and, I suppose, intention in writing. I have to constantly be aware of what I'm portraying, what it means that I'm portraying it, and how it's portrayed. I need to make things recognizable. I need to not promote stereotypes, and yet still try not to do the exact opposite of a stereotype just because the stereotype exists. I need to work with legends and make them recognizable without making them stereotypical. And it's hard, but I love it. And I've realized that it's leeched into all of my writing. I'm so much more aware nowadays of what I'm saying when I'm writing something.

5) I like to write scenes with food in them. The most memorable scenes of Redwall are the banquets. One of the reasons I love Poppy Z. Brite is for her use of taste as a sense in her writing. It's fun to make someone's mouth water about what you're writing.

6) The day I don't include a full cast of characters, of every race, gender, sexuality, religion, and ethnicity is the day I die. It's been that way since I first started writing seriously at ten, and it's the one thing I think my ten-year-old self got seriously right. Go, ten-year-old me!

7) I generally write modern-day fantasy. Also known as contemporary fantasy. Urban fantasy, if you can get past the paranormal romance connotation the phrase has gotten lately. And that enables one thing I like to do, perhaps too much: invent the pop culture. Bands, video games, movies, books, slang. It's really fun. I just don't know whether I should watch it or whether it's a good thing.

8) Trickster characters are probably something I should try to do without, because even though I love them, not every single thing I've written needs one. Really. I think. (But I love them so....)

9) Twins. Why do I write so many of them? I don't know. Is it the angst that one can create by making one favored over the other? Is it the twinny bond? Is it the sense that it's two-for-the-price-of-one? Is it the weird fascination I have for making one blonde and one brunette? Is it the fact that legends say they're cursed/powerful/awesome/evil? I've been doing better, but still. I suspect that I will write twins yet again sometime soon, and I will enjoy doing it.

10) Witty dialogue, I think I overuse you. But there's nothing more satisfying than when characters spar verbally. There's nothing more satisfying than a snide comment. This might be why I adore Snape, come to think of it. But when I edit, I always have to cut some of the witty dialogue. Dear characters: I know you're brilliant, but sometimes things are more important than you getting a hit in on your rival. Thanks. Me.

YA Challenge: Day Numero Uno

It's day one of Dora Goss' YA challenge, which means that Morgana Tremaine and I need to get our butts in gear. Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time reworking about half of the first case, but I need to finish up on that and continue on to work on the story. I've been doing the editing in Scrivener for Windows. I'm not sure why, but the block I've had about editing it vanishes if I do it in Scrivener-- maybe just because it looks so different from Word? Scrivener isn't all it's cracked up to be, though-- I accomplish the same thing as Scrivener through a mix of Word and OneNote. I could do it all in OneNote, which is basically the same as Scrivener, and sometimes I do, but I prefer Word. One of the things I do like about Scrivener-- the ability to turn smart quotes into straight quotes with a click of a button. Why smart quotes exist I'll never know. >_<

Okay, enough Scrivener babble! Time to get cracking! I'll be updating throughout the day, just as I do in my LJ when NaNoWriMo's going on. Below is my handy-dandy progress bar for mapping my daily progress. If you'll remember, my goal is 1000 words per day of writing or 3000 of editing. I've set bars for both, so you can see what's the what.

2061 / 1000 words written. 200% done!

2765 / 3000 words edited. 92% done!

Precisely Why I Never Accept "At Least They're Reading" As An Argument

"A word about beginning readers. We strongly object to the Goosebumps and Spinechillers books, as well as to Sweet Valley High and other lightweight romance series directed at young readers. 'At least they're reading,' parents sigh. But these books are the literary equivalent of TV cartoons. Just because your child develops a taste for cartoons doesn't mean that he'll then go on to watch National Geographic specials. The cartoons train him to pay attention in five-second bursts and teach him that he doesn't need to think in a connected series of propositions because bursts of images will work just as well. In the same way, Goosebumps and Sweet Valley High books develop a child's taste for short sentences, simple sentence structure, easy vocabulary, uncomplicated paragraphs, and shallow, simple plots. This won't help him make the transition to decent literature; it may teach him to turn away from anything that makes his brain work too hard. A diet of Goosebumps does not promote the patterns of thought that produce intellectual and personal excellence."

- The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, p62.

Of course, we have a better example than Sweet Valley High and Goosebumps nowadays...

So, My Summer's Booked

I got into the Alpha Writing Workshop in Pittsburgh PA, so I'll be going there at the middle to the end of July, the 15th-25th. The workshop is with Tamora Pierce (amongst others) and she's been my favorite author since I was about nine! At the end of the workshop, we'll be going to a sci fi and fantasy conference called Confluence, which is a really big and awesome one. Bringing me to my next news-- I also entered a story in a writing contest for the conference. I haven't heard back yet, but if that fits their bill, then I'll not only be attending the conference, but I'll also have a story in the program book!

So for the summer, I not only have that: I'll probably have some sort of orientation and registration at whatever college I end up going to (it's looking like Ithaca at the moment), I'll be visiting Becky (or I better be!), I'll be visiting Paul (for a weekend, maybe, if I ever actually ask), I'll be finishing a novel (because I need it before I go to any writing conferences) and et cetera. Goodbye, summer. I shall miss thee. *dies*

Mr Raccoon; AKA Tanuki-san

I saw a raccoon today, or yesterday, considering it's a couple of minutes after midnight. This completes my collection of well-loved shapeshifters-- in Japanese mythology, raccoons (actually, their Japanese cousins, the tanuki) and foxes are both shapeshifters. It was a funny little thing.

In other news, the readership of the story I'm posting online at the moment jumped from around 4300 to around 6700 in five-six months. Go me!

Still working on Lauren's cupcake purse; major pain in the butt, and I need to get mine in gear while we're talking of such things. Lauren's b-day is coming up fast. I also need to get a story finished in time for June 20th, which most likely isn't going to happen unless I write all of it tomorrow. It would've been awesome, too. Le sigh.