oh hai

I know, I've been a bad blogger. I won't bore with the details of work and school, but I figured that I would do a quick update. I promise to post something more interesting when I have time.

First of all, I'll start by saying, "My Muse is back from vacation." At least, that's where I liked to think she went. For the last couple of weeks, I've been in a writing funk. The exciting intro rewrite that I had planned for Concealed took a turn for the worse. For some reason, it started out as dark and dreary, and moved onto lame and cheesy. Not sure what happened exactly. But as I was taking a look at deleting a section and trying to point it in a different direction, I came across ANOTHER idea. Yes, you heard me, yet another intro idea.

So what did I decide to do? Start over of course. I plotted it out better this time: adding in smaller details, giving good reasons for why Neira is doing what she's doing. I even have dialogue down. And best of all, I'm introducing my villain into the first chapter. Out of everything I have in my book, the relationship between my antagonist and protagonist is my favorite all around. It's amazing to write, to picture, to create. The more I thought about their characters, the more details started popping up for the second book.

I know, I know--I'm not even done with the first, why am I thinking about the second? Because the second is not only going to be absolutely fantastic, it's also important to the first book. I'm not a one-book-at-a-time writer. I look at the big picture, the jumbled up puzzle being put together throughout three books.

In all honesty, as much as I hated not writing for several weeks due to lack of motivation, I never stopped thinking about wanting to disappear into my own head and party with my characters my book and my characters and my story. The longer I took a break, the better my ideas were becoming. They were stewing, simmering inside. I know I always say I'm excited for this new idea or this new chapter, but this time, I think this is it. I think this is the start I've been aiming for. This time, I'm not stopping. I'm going to write this new intro, mesh it with the 50k I wrote before, and finished the last 20k. It's going to take a lot of work, but I'm done letting my Muse slack off. This story has gone through a full 2 drafts and almost 3 years. I'm too excited to stop now.

As a last side note, the awesome folks over at YA Highway have posted this lovely link to Publishers Weekly about dystopian novels. I wouldn't be a good little dystopian/urban fantasy writer if I didn't relink it. It's a great article that makes me very happy seeing as it tells of dystopian novels growing quickly in popularity and numbers. I can't wait to read some of them.

Off the beaten track

My writing, for the most part, revolves around young adult. It's a genre that my heart belongs too. Emotions, hormones, coming-of-age--it really wasn't so long ago that I was smack dab in the middle of acne and angst. I relate very well to YA. I'm only 21. I'm still in the middle of my coming-of-age story. We, as new adults, are still finding our way. We're in college or looking for careers, searching for love, contemplating our futures.

We're also at an in between. No longer teens, not quite adults. Sure, we're over 18, but does age really determine what makes us adult? The stories, emotions, and thoughts in teens are so different from adults. But early to mid 20s are so different from teens and from late 20s/early 30s. We are our own genre. We're the transition. There's still maturing to be done.

I think this post came to be from a new novel idea. While I haven't even written anything of it yet, I did type up a brief summary. The SNI (shiny new idea) came to me a couple of months ago. I have no idea what random thought/image/sound stirred it up inside, but suddenly this idea was here and it wouldn't go away. For the most part, I pushed it aside. YA was the genre I loved writing for and this new idea, it was adult. BLASPHEMY! I had other SNIs waiting. Feral, Ultimatum, Inescapable--not to mention the book I am actually writing now, Concealed. No, this new idea would have to wait.

But the more it sat in my head, the more it grew. I didn't even consciously think about it. These scenes just started moving into my head, dropping off their suitcases at the door and making themselves at home. I pointedly (and mentally) stared and politely asked them to leave. Now was not a good time for company when I already had all these other scenes visiting me as it was. They refused and continued to simmer...until tonight.

There was no more shuffling it to the back. It made a home inside my head and it was not leaving. Finally, I wrote something down. I plotted, mapped, contemplated the major plot and sitting back and looking at it now, I'm quite proud. I guess the real question is, after Concealed, do I pursue 100 Lives, or do I work on my others? My best friend and lovely writer, Sarah, had suggested that I work on Ultimatum (working title) which is a YA contemp-turned-suspense. She really enjoyed the idea, and so did I, but if I keep getting bombarded with 100 Lives scenes, I'm not sure I can resist the urge to write it. It holds a very special place in my heart and tells stories that I hope will be moving, beautiful, and chalk full 'o messages. It's emotionally and spiritually intense and I just hope I can portray that as well as I can in my head.

I love making graphics

Because even if others don't like them, at least I do.

Curious about the broken-8 tattoo? You should be.

TV is invading my head

I love Netflix. Not only am I having DVDs sent to my house every 3-4 days, I can also stream some online. Since I started my subscription, I've been finding all these treasures that I never knew about before. My parents stopped the cable bill and me and Sarah never paid for TV at our apartment, so I never got into many TV shows other than the ones I was obsessed with before like Lost, Scrubs, Family Guy, etc...

Now I'm finding a plethora of amazing TV shows--each one inspiring me to write. My head is buzzing with ideas, and I finally realized the HUGE plot point for the second book. I mean, in the second book I had this kid that my MC Neira has to protect. Sadly, I didn't have the reason why. I knew he was important to Neira because he was important to the Initiative--the branch of the government who hunted down people with magical abilities. I didn't know why he was so wanted though because he doesn't have powers, he isn't a Drifter, but Morrison (Leader of the Initiative) wanted him, so Neira had to get to him first.

Well thanks to the buzzing in my head from the new shows I've been watching, the reason came to me and really, I like it a lot. It fits in perfectly with the idea I had.

Not only that, these shows are helping me to form characters that were lacking. Adarin comes to mind when I think of that. His character is very difficult for me to nail down, though I'm not sure why. I think it might have something to do with the fact that there aren't many guys in my book to divide all of the character traits that I like. Adarin can't be a d-bag, charming, nice, brave, playfully arrogant, actually arrogant all in one. It's choosing which traits that I want him to have the most. I think I'm starting to realize which ones he should have.

I think I give thanks to Darken Rahl and Richard from Legend of the Seeker, and Doctor Who for character development. These two shows are the ones stirring thing up in my head. Both are simply epic, bigger-than-life shows. These are the kinds I really enjoy.

(This screenshot...is hawt.)

(o hai thur!)

TV has even been invading my dreams. Like last night, when I had a dream about me and Sarah having a casual conversations about our books--while doing hand-to-hand combat. Not intentional, but rather practicing. I blame Legend for that. Those fight scenes are so ridiculously epic that my mind has to dream about it.

Let's not forget about the dream I had about zipping around the galaxy with Doctor Who a few weeks back. Nuff said.

Anyone have a TV show that really gets your mind spinning? Do your dreams ever involve them?