On Writing

In the past six months I've tried my best to dissect the writing process. I've read an endless number of blogs, articles, and books on the subject. The only consistency I can come up with is that there aren't any. No right way to do it. Which is great because it means I haven't been doing it wrong, but thats still not very helpful when you're stuck. And for the past month I have been "STUCK". I've barely written a word that I haven't later deleted. So this morning I had a thought. Maybe writing is the thing I hate about writing. And yes I know how that sounds. Let me explain. I love the staring off into space while a story plays in the theater of my mind. I love talking to my husband about my characters and what kind of mess I'm going to get them into and out of. I love those moments when I figure out how to piece together the puzzle that is my plot. But I really don't look forward to putting my butt in a chair and my hands on a keyboard, while twisting words to fit the images in my head.

So what do you guys think? Is there a good way to trick myself into liking the BICHOK?(butt in chair, hands on keyboard)

Still alive...

but winter is just killing the socially active me. I will return...let me just find a nice warm blanket first.

Weekly Review: Betrayals by Lili St.Crow

Well, my intentions to give you guys a weekly book review was swallowed up by the holiday monster. So to figuratively get back on the horse I give you my opinion on a new young adult series by Lili St. Crow.

Betrayals is the follow up to Strange Angels, a vampire/werewolf/teen angst themed load of fun. It has all the trappings of high school drama meets the strange and unusual. The main character Dru is somewhat reminiscent of Buffy, but with a lot more grit and common sense. One of my favorite things about this character is you don't get the typical urge to slap yourself on the forehead whenever she makes a decision. She's smart and savvy about what she calls the "real world".

However, in the second installment Betrayals Dru discovers just how much of a noob she is to the "real world". Its nice to see her off balance a little after how surefooted she was in the first book. Her sidekick and possible love interest Graves is a character to love. He is the constant in her ever changing world, and a friend to make any girl envious. There is also a character to lust. Christophe fills the story with mystery and tension, as well as, giving Dru and the rest of us some butterflies.

The story is getting deeper and the twists more precarious. I will definitely be picking up the third book of the series Jealousy in 2010.

Pretty, shiny things...

Oh, the siren's call of a new idea. That first excited rush of possibility. For the last seven days I have been caught up in pursuing a new book idea. I've fleshed out an outline, developed a few characters, and wrote a three page synopsis. After working on a single story line for the past six months the change up has felt great. However, it has also been a distraction. I'm into the middle of my first novel, (aka TSC) and now all of these great ideas keep tugging at my brain that have nothing to do with TSC. Now the fear of never completing TSC is creeping in. For now, I'm letting the ideas come. Satisfying myself with just jotting down the concept. I'll give it a few more days and then dive back into TSC...hopefully.

So does anyone have some advice on staying focused? Is this deviation from TSC a good thing or bad? Let me know what you think.