write fiction

To get things started for the new year I submitted some work to the university’s literary journal. This school is huge so I don’t know what my chances are of making the cut, but what the hell it was a fun experience.

Since I was a little girl, my dream was to write fiction books. I wrote one when I was seven that was seven pages long, but then my computer crashed and I lost it. I have a memory stick now, luckily, so I can save my work in case my laptop crashed. Anyway, writing is a big part of my life. I won a competition just a few months ago. I was in the newspaper and my mum published my story in her magazine. The story was called Santa Snores and the competition was Xmas themed. The story was about a girl who heard an odd noise on Xmas Eve and it turns out it was Santa asleep on her roof! :D Odd funny moments in the story but im not funny so it wasnt that funny.

I have always been a writer at heart (although my profession as a Financial Analyst takes 12 hours of my daily life).

My dream of becoming a writer (fiction) started in high school when I became part of the school publication. That was when I knew that I had a gift for writing. But living in a third world country doesnt give you a lot of choices in life. Or maybe that was the truth that I was convinced to believe in. I was told to take up Accountancy in college as this profession is a sure way to the easy, secured life. So I became an accountant, a slave of the corporate world.

Eventhough I have been very far from achieving my writing career, I am not giving up on this yet. I still believe that one day I will write a story that a child will remember until his/her growing years. I want to write a movie for kids, or a simple story book, or a movie-length piece. But for now, I have to do well on my current role and be steadfast to the hope that one day, maybe my chance will come.

I’ve had a vivid imagination since I was a kid, and I’ve been making up stories in my head all my life. I would LOVE to get seriously started writing and not just think about it. The problem is I’m also a world-class procrastinator. lol Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get motivated….aside from the fact that I’m not getting any younger? ;)

Last spring and summer I would take my lunch break in downtown Lansing (a few steps away from my cube farm in the government). I usually went to either Beaners (now known as Bigby Coffee) or Decker’s Coffee and wrote out a few passages.

My problem was finishing things. I had a few good ideas but I could never seem to tie them together in a satisfactory way. Almost all the fiction I’ve ever written is in spiral notebooks, unread by anybody.

This summer I’ll have an ample amount of time to work on prose. I don’t want it to simply collect dust, though. It would be nice to at least transfer some to the computer. There is much more to be said about this goal.

For now I think this would take time that I don’t have.
I may return to it, but my list is currently full. :-D

J.

I wanted to post a new chapter today but blogger is being a bitch. There are times when Internet makes me lose my patience!!!!

So I better cool down by exploring Soul Food Cafe

This amazing link given to me by Calico Thanks so much!

Check out the Lemurian section. ;)

The usual advice to beginning authors is “Write what you know.” I would add, “Write what you love.”

and further adds that…

“Every weekday morning I take a 2 mile walk and plan what I’m going to write. Then I come home and write for 5 or 6 hours. I work from a synopsis, because it’s easier when I don’t have to figure out what to say and how to say it both at once. I produce about 5 pages a day, which is a miracle when you consider all the distractions associated with working at home (cats, telephone, e mail, shelves full of books).”

I’ve been visiting author’s website to see how they work. :p

“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them, Mr. Eskine. I should like to write a novel certainly; a novel that would be as lovely as a Persian carpet, and as unreal.”(Lord Henry in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde)

Wilde puts down exactly how I feel about writing sometimes. I am too fond of reading to be writing them.

Sigh.

I looked up Lian Hern after I finished one of her books today, Grass For His Pillow. I came across her official website and to my delight there are some reference there on how she writes.

Here are some of the excerpts from the site:

“I became addicted to gel pens and bought them by the handful. I carried my notebook with me and wrote on the road, on trains and planes and in waiting rooms.”

“I write the first draft by hand in big notebooks, using only the right hand side of the page, working for four hours or so each day, usually in the mornings, and walking for miles at other times to let the next scenes float to the surface of consciousness. I reread and rewrite constantly, making corrections and additions on the left hand page, indicating where these are to be inserted in red ink.”

” I use a large sketch book to draw maps, plans of towns and houses, calendars with phases of the moon, time charts and plot outlines. I look at art books, illustrated histories and my own collection of photos.”

” When the story is finally down I have it typed onto the computer. I used to do all my own typing but the sequel and the prequel were too long.”

Try and visit her official website LianHearn.com

There are plenty of pictures there!