17. My weekly writing update and other thoughts

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

I've noticed that I rarely discuss my own writing in here, and that is going to change. Every week I'll post a writing update of sorts. Just so those that stumble across this blog will have an idea on what I do. The fact of the matter is that I haven't been writing all that much in recent months. My productivity following the turn of the new year went downhill. That was of course following the motherboard crash on New Year's Eve. I was a week without a computer, and I'm not all that used to writing long hand anymore. Even if I did it for years before I got my computer. Growing up, I would sit on the floor of my bedroom with a clipboard or notebook resting open in front of me as I wrote for hours upon hours. Now my fingers get tired much too quickly when I try to do that. My hands are just so used to typing. Much of my writing in recent years has been non-fiction in nature as well. Even though when I began writing it was fiction that pulled me in.


My first love is still fiction, but I find non-fiction easier to get out of me. I can think of a topic, plan a bit of what I want to say in my head and then sit down to actually get it onto my screen in the next day or so. When it comes to my fiction I have a block. I can think up lines of text and dialogue, but they stay locked in my head forever and a day. It takes me forever to write a story, and my novels never end up going anywhere because I sit there thinking of what I want to write instead of actually writing it. Does anyone else have that problem? How do you get over that type of block if you do? I don't know what to do. I've been wanting to work on a short to submit to Phaze's Heat Sheet Sparklers contest, and the deadline is fast approaching, and I haven't even begun. I do have the idea in my head, and I do know where I want to go with it. It just isn't materializing on the computer screen in front of me.


In case you were wondering on what type of fiction I write, I write mostly romance and erotica. Mostly of the male/male variety, but I do also write traditional romance as well, and I've wanted to try my hand at lesbian fiction too. My first love though is the male/male story, and this is way different than what I began writing when I was younger. I started with traditional boy meets girl, and I liked writing it, but it wasn't until I began writing male/male fan fiction after the introduction of Queer as Folk in my life that I truly found what I think is my fiction niche. I'm currently working on what I think will end up being a novella or novel if I can manage it. The writing has been slow, but I have quite a few scenes done.


That is another thing about me. Unless it is a short story, I don't write scenes in order. I'm what some call a pantser. I write flying by the seat of my pants. I'm not much of a planner or plotter. It just doesn't work for me. I have a few basic ideas and I just write as I go along. I let the story lead me. It is what has worked for me. There are times though that I've wondered if I planned and plotted a little more in advance if the words would leave my head from my fingertips a little bit faster.


I was hoping to have this entry talk about my writing exclusively, but there are some other thoughts floating around my head, and I wanted to get them out. No better place to do it than here. In the past couple of days, there have been anniversaries to events in this countries history. Tragic events. Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and today marks the sixth anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Two events that I remember everything about. I remember what I was doing when they both occurred. I remember my reaction. Both events touched me greatly. Even though I didn't live in the area of the events I was saddened. When Columbine occurred I was studying to be a teacher, and the fact that the shooting occurred in a school scared me so greatly. I kept putting myself in the what if phase. What if it was me in that classroom or one like it some years down the road? What if ... I know one can't think that way, but people can and do have those thoughts when a tragedy happens. When the bombing occurred ten years ago, I was a freshman in college. I was sitting in front of my television in my dorm room watching the coverage of the tragedy on my small television. It almost feels like it was only yesterday, but it was many years ago, and I am still saddened by both events. Tragedies happen everyday, but those two marked themselves forever on history. People will never forget either day. I know I won't.