The Write Read

So I came across a random line that reminded me of something my Creative Writing teacher said last semester. Read what you write. And learn from it.

I do that on a regular basis, to the point of depletion of my meager bank account. Oh how it suffers. I just finished a series (five books) in four days and now I'm looking for a new one.

However this isn't a post on my apparent status of no-life-itis. This is a post regarding learning from what you've read. Have you?

I have. I have read many paranormal books and series that make me want to rewrite entire scenes from my book, or pat myself on the back. And others that have my holding my hands over my eyes so the massive eye roll that I just gave doesn't send them careening onto the floor. In the end I have learned, learned, and learned some more.

However, the most important thing that I am still learning, especially from the authors that I well and truly love, is that I am not them and they are not me.

Yes, I find myself frequently intimidated by the way they craft a scene, build emotion and characters. Yes, I worry that at times I fail to do any combination of those things even remotely right. And yes, I stress myself out over who I can't be. Them.

I am me and there is nothing for me to apologize for, but I still learn. And read, because well, for me that's the fun part. Getting lost in a story that somewhere, in the recesses of my mind, the writer is picking apart all the stuff I don't like about their book and being sure that I don't commit those crimes in my own.

So the question is, do you learn from what you read? Do you even read at all (gasp)? And if so, what are you looking for when you read?

Rinse and repeat.

Emphasis on  repeat. Seems that I can only get through my rewrite to a certain point and then it all goes to pieces. Then I have to write yet another rewrite for the rewrite in order to fix something that went tragically wrong. Often its so wrong that I have no idea where to pull the thread and unravel the mess that I made. It also doesn't help that my characters are going ahead without me, telling me a story that I'm not prepared to write yet. They are on book two and here I sit on book one ironing out all the details and making it nice and shiny.

All this so that book two will come along so much easier and hopefully without the pain of childbirth every time that I open up a word document. Though it could be said that I brought this all on myself since I did everything bass ackward. I wrote a multi-main character book in first person. I didnt define the world as well as it should have been and my characters need some fine tuning.
Now I am changing it from first to third, flushing out my world and characters and adding my descriptions so that the concept and characters can be "seen" by the reader.

But enough of my complaining. I still love the story and now that I have my formula I think that I am back in business. I might even start posting excerpts from the book just to get some opinions. Hopefully this will be my final rinse.

The failure of music

I must apologize for iPod magic. I liked the idea, but it didn't pan out. mostly because I made the mistake of implementing a new project in the middle of finals. Not to mention the fact that I am in the middle of a rather hairy rewrite of my primary WIP.


So iPod magic, while the idea is neat, especially considering my iPod's content, is on hold for the foreseeable future. I can however tell you a little bit about the concept that I began when it came to what was supposed to be a story based off of Bruno Mars' "It Will Rain".

My story was based off of a man who lives a quiet life to himself. Throughout the story it seems like he is in mourning. His wife has died. There are continual (not overbearingly, however) references to "when she was here" or "it was done for her". Now I only got roughly a thousand words in before I had to put the keyboard away for books, but I had the story outlined. The story was to continue to unfold about this half a life that this man now leads and then at the end of the story we find out what happened to his wife.
She comes over to pick up the divorce papers that he has just signed.

I think another issue that arose for me was that this isn't my genre (general fiction). To me, real people and their lives aren't that interesting. I'm a fan of things with a supernatural/sci-fi bent, so this story about a man being swallowed by the misery of his divorce didn't scream out "oo-ooo, write me!" and therefore, it didnt get written.

I will put it on my back burner with the rest of my simmering ideas and maybe, one day, it will get written, even if its just for me.

Well, I am off to nurse a migraine. Hopefully I will be back in my regular schedule pretty soon.

iPod Magic

This is a challenge that I first read about in the pages of Pete Morin's Uneasy Living. It's only for myself, but here is what I plan on doing.

Every two weeks I am going to write a short story inspired by a randomly selected song from my playlist. This will be interesting.

I plan on posting excerpts from those works here after I finish that particular song (song info to be included). Now for the reason for this challenge.

My husband paints and since it had been awhile since he had drawn or painted the human body,  he set out to just sketch them on a more regular basis. Needless to say his human anatomy has gotten better with practice.

To me that is what this challenge is about. Improving my writing by writing. Yeah the concept isn't new or even a slightly startling revelation, but I needed a way to challenge myself that would be authentic to who I am as a writer and not have to involve writing prompts.

Also, songs can help me tap into my emotional side and help me form words for feelings that I honestly don't understand how to put into words at times.

Anyway, it is Friday and it marks day one of my challenge. The song is Bruno Mars' It Will Rain.

Hopefully I can live up to the challenge.

Whispers between my Ears

They are giving me whispers lately. My characters that is. Everyone has a scene that they want out, but no one is shouting or even just having a seat at the forefront of my mind and telling me plainly how they want it. Instead they whisper, at the most inconvenient times I might add, a scene that comes out really awesome.

I mean I love the wording, the emotional context and the movement of the scene, but they always come when I am nowhere near a pen and paper or my laptop. Needless to say that I have lost countless scenes due to the whispering between my ears.

Its frustrating because I have the most difficult time with the emotional parts of my book. I'm logical to a fault. The reason for that goes back to my childhood, a long story that wont get told here, but in the end it left me a little detached from the emotional side of myself. It sucks but I don't know where to start to unlock that steel door.

Anyway, I manage to always work out my emotional stuff in my head but I am lost when it comes to putting it down in words so that I can show the emotional context.

I'm rereading all of my favorite series and this time making notes on the emotional "showing" that happens, especially with males. I'm hoping a trip down rereading lane will inspire me or at the very least give me clues to what I'm doing wrong, right and all the goodness in between.

Well, wish me luck.

In the Storm of Quiet Chaos

I like my blog title. Sorry just a random thought. But it is sort of how I'm feeling right now. At the moment both of my WIPs are at a stand still. No one is screaming too loud at me for me to write their lines or cultivate their stories. And yet there is chaos running rampant in my head.

Freaking migraines. I had a lovely Biology test today (bleck), but I think I did okay considering I had three hours of sleep before my toddler climbed into our bed, clawed at my right eye to signal she needed her diaper changed. She's been doing that a lot lately, waking up in the middle of the night to get her diaper changed and then going right back to sleep. I just wish she would use words instead of abusing me from my sleep.

I woke up with a migraine (went to sleep with one too), but half a Loratab later and I'm only drowsy. Yes, I took a Loratab for a migraine. When they are kicking that bad, nothing else works.

Okay, onto something more conductive than whining. Let's talk writing.

I am currently stuck with one of my characters. I heart stars and rainbow him, but he is beginning to frustrate me. His "voice" keeps changing. I can't seem to keep him consistent in my mind and its frustrating.

I know people sound different and don't necessarily use the same diction and syntax when they talk to their friends versus when they talk to their bosses. I know I don't, not that I have a boss at the moment to worry about.

However, he seems to change depending on the mood he is in. The problem is that he has no "mood" he is part of a race of beings that in their creation by the AlphaOmega (or AO as it prefers to be called) that doesn't have a concept of human emotions. It allows them to judge Vampires for crimes they may have committed without being distracted by the emotional complications that could easily arise. My Guardians are the ultimate judge (until their dirty little secret comes out later) and their lack of emotional understanding makes their job easier. But it makes mine harder.

Maximus, the character in question, has flickers of emotions. That isn't a good thing at least until he becomes a member of the Emortuus ranks, which doesn't happen until later. By the way, an Emortuus is a higher being that has control over human emotions. It's more complicated than that, but I don't want to bog you down with too much explication.

I'm trying to edit out his emotions and I'm fighting him for control to make sure his voice remains the same. I'm getting to the point where I will just write the freaking thing and let my beta readers tear it apart because this is the fourth edit (first complete overhaul) and I'm ready my hair out.

Introducing...me, Kelsey Jordan.

What to say, what to say....

A little about me... As you can see I have a hard time selling myself. I don't want to seem maniacally boring or like such an egotistical ass that the mere mention of my name sends a wave of collective eye rolls to the audience. I guess I can just strive for the truth and let wherever I fall be what it is.

In my personal life I am a wife, mother of one, and psychology student. I'm an avid reader, but I tend to be genre specific (I'm trying to branch out, but it isn't working so far). I'm a writer. I started in poetry when I was thirteen (*gasp* nope wasn't born with pencil in hand), but in the last three years I made the leap to fiction.

Currently I have my primary WIP, a paranormal romance, is part of a four book series that happened to spawn five world books. My secondary WIP is part of a seven book series that I'm fighting my characters to keep in the fantasy genre (I'm losing as of late). But if I include all my outlined projects that are in the works but sitting on the back burner, I'm running around twenty books.

I'm unamused by that number. It's too many and yet I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that sixteen of those twenty will get written. The characters that scream at me are giving me no choice. Hopefully they won't all end up on my shelf in the once upon a dream category.

As for my inspiration, well it honestly often starts with a question or one sentence. My primary WIP was started off of a one sentence writing prompt and my secondary off of a question I had after I read a series by G.A.Aiken.


In the Introducing...You blog I mentioned the name of my would be followers and where it came from. The first book in my series is titled (as it stands now) Authentic Lie. Its in rewrite (again), but this one is more painful than the last because well...I decided to change from first person to third. It makes the book better but it's a process to say the least.

Hopefully as time passes, I will introduce you to some of the characters and you can get to love (or hate) them as much as I do.