Writers In Fiction

I make no secret about being a TV-series junkie. They are high up on my list of all-time favorite past-times, because you get to follow your beloved characters for years, not just ninety minutes like in a movie. At the moment I'm hooked on a new-to-me series called Castle. Not only does it star Nathan Fillion - Shiny! - as the main character Richard Castle, but Castle is also a successful writer of mystery novels. Add in a beautiful and savvy lady homicide detective, delicious, skin-crawling suspense and just the right amount of humor, and voilá - a mystery series that has held my interest all the way up to the current fifth season (impressive, since mystery usually isn't a favorite genre of mine).

But enough with the praise - promoting Castle isn't the purpose of this post. Rather, it got me thinking about how many movies, TV-series or books might be out there about writers (though not necessarily about them actually writing). There's no deeper meaning or purpose behind this query, just a curiosity to see how many I can think of.

Off the top of my head, I was able to come up with the following (that I've seen and enjoyed):

Castle (TV-series)

Stranger than Fiction (Movie)

The Answer Man (Movie)

Californication (TV-series)

Paperback Hero (Movie)

Shakesepeare in Love (Movie)

Music and Lyrics (Movie)

As Good As It Gets (Movie)

Becoming Jane (Movie)

Finding Forrester (Movie)

A Lovesong For Bobby Long (Movie)

Romancing The Stone (Movie)

I'm sure there are more I've seen or read, especially books, but I can't think of one. I'm probably missing something mind-bogglingly obvious... Let me know if you come up with any, so that I might smack myself on the forehead with a D'oh!, Homer-Simpson style.

NaNoWriMo Status Update Day 20

Word count: 32,344 words.

996 words under target.

I'm slogging through at approximately 1,300 words per week day, racing to catch up to target word count on weekends. The writing is terrible, but I'm loving my characters and still coming up with ideas non-stop for what I might put them through. For the sake of the story, I hav vays of making you suffer! Mbwahahahah!

The draft is all over the place and I'm already jotting down ways to fix the somewhat disconnected chapters. Sometimes I'm so tired after a full day at work that I can't form a proper sentence. But I put down words on paper, regardless of the slaughter-house feel, because otherwise I wouldn't write anything, and that would be worse. To quote Nora Roberts, romance author extraordinaire: You can fix anything but a blank page.

How’s everybody else doing?

May the words be with you!

My Reasons For NaNo-ing In 2012

It's that time of year again. November. National Novel Writing Month. NaNo is to writers what Christmas is to kids. Exciting. Long anticipated. Over far too quickly.

At the beginning, thirty days seem like enough time. 1,666 words a day don't seem so difficult to manage. After all, the writing doesn't have to be at Shakespearean levels of greatness. Basically, we only need to put words on paper. Fifty thousand of them, not even the length of a standard novel. It's the first half of a first draft. In my case, a very rough first draft. No editing allowed, at least for me, otherwise I won't  make it to fifty thousand. 

Which is exactly what I need right now. I've gotten into this habit of editing while writing, which kills the famous Flow. Something to do with left-brain vs. right-brain activity: one side is active when being creative and actually writing down your story, the other is active while editing. Try doing both at the same time, and your brain-halves get deadlocked, creating the infamous Writer's Block. 

Obviously, I'm no brain-brainiac, but that's the gist of it. So I'm planning on using this year's NaNo to break this obstructive, perfectionistic habit of mine and just write. It's a great incentive, because I only have a couple of hours a day to write, max, and if I start editing during that time I won't manage even the 1,666 words per day. 

So from tomorrow on, that's my mission: A month of all writing, no editing.
All fun, no brakes. 


See you on the other side and may the Words be with you.

Chapter 2 Of Chamaeleon Chronicles: Shattered

In Chapter 2 of my current writing fun-project, The Chamaeleon Chronicles, Sam's dreams of a crime-free future are shattered for good. She must let Fang, her inner wolf, handle a precarious situation and finds an unexpected ally. Maybe.

Hope you enjoy it.

Again, feedback of any kind is welcome.

Chapter 1 Of The Chameleon Chronicles

I'm working on a story which I plan on posting in weekly chapters of approximately 2000 words each on this blog, The Chamaeleon Chronicles. It's about Samira, a space-traveling werewolf who ends up journeying with a crew of lowlives and misfits on a spaceship called Chamaeleon. Sort of Kate Daniels meets Firefly.

In chapter 1, Sam's trying to quit her criminal ways and go legit, which of course isn't as easy as it sounds, especially when an old enemy gets in the way.

This is just for fun, but I'd love your feedback (here or directly on the blog), if you have any to give. Hope you enjoy it.

Link to Blog

Forwarded: How To Become A Better Writer

Love this list by Rachelle Gardner on how to become a better writer. Creativity doesn't stem from writing itself, but from our experiences, our observation of the world around us, our curiosity in what makes others act and react, our own hopes and fears and dreams - our life.

They say write what you know. We don't know what we don't experience.

Analyzing Me and Writing (2) - How Reading Inspires Writing

Two posts ago, I listed four quotes that completely apply to me in terms of writing. Simply listing them here on the blog apparently wasn't enough for my feverish little brain, though. I kept thinking about them for days and nights and those life-preventing times called the working hours. So finally, I wrote my thoughts down, because that always helps me muddle through things.

Here are my thoughts on quote number two:

Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.

Susan Sontag

It's true. I get inspired to write by reading other people's writing. If I'm really enjoying a story, the urge to write something of my own itches in my fingertips. Solutions to problems in a story I'm working on spring to mind as if they've always been there and only needed to be unlocked. By reading.

Yet this all happens on an unconscious level, because I'm completely immersed in the world and characters I'm reading about. I'm not consciously trying to work out my own story-problems, or fervently trying to come up with new ideas. They just suddenly pop into mind, nudged to the forefront by something in the book I'm reading. Sometimes I get all excited about the idea, but if the book is that good I keep reading and later have to dig deep in my memory to find that idea again.

Not all of them are useful, but even the useless ones often bump me onto the right path. Some of them are downright crazy, and these are my favorites because they tend to be different and fresh, even if they aren't always useful, either.

So, the bottom line for me is: Reading stories opens and unlocks your mind to the infinite possibilities in storytelling and I believe that's why it inspires people to write something of their own.