Living the Fictional Dream

Every Day Fiction just published its August table of contents, and I’m not on it. How is that different from the last 12 EDF TOCs, you might ask? Well, it’s not different. However, August is EDF’s last TOC of the year. The fact that I have not been on any of their TOCs since July 2010 is not particularly remarkable in most respects. The past couple of years, I haven’t been able to devote the same amount of time and effort to my writing as I did from 2007 and 2008. Two pregnancies, working full time, and being a mom to two under two saw to that. It’s hard to find time and energy to write when you’re suffering from lack of sleep, lack of spare time, and feeling like you’re going to toss your cookies for the better part of two years.

But, despite everything that was going on, I did have one story published in EDF in 2009, and, to my surprise, it was selected for EDF’s third anthology. I’d had a story in their first anthology, and four stories in their second anthology. But, this year, since I didn’t have a story published, I don’t even have a chance of making the fourth anthology. So, the streak is broken.

I did actually manage to submit a story to EDF a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t sure if it was in time. Apparently not, as it’s still classified as in process in the submission queue.

Anyway, I know it’s my fault that the streak is broken, but it still makes me a little sad. But, hey, the girls are getting older now. I’m moving from having two under two to having two toddlers. Maybe that will be easier? Um… one can hope, though the increased mobility makes things challenging in different ways. So, maybe next year, I’ll be able to write more and get some more stories out there on submission, to EDF and other places. The girls are starting to enjoy Sesame Street, maybe that will give me a few minutes in front of the laptop to write.

Is it possible to write with the theme song to “Elmo’s World” playing in the background? I guess we’ll see!

When you are “with story,” what is the first thing that comes to you? That germ of an idea. The one that seems much too small to spawn anything like a story or a novel. That little whisper in your ear, begging you to sit down at the keyboard. That first inspiration of a story to come. Is it a character? A setting? A line of dialog? I even read a quote from one author that the germ that spawned her best-selling series was a scene that she dreamed.

For me, it varies (probably true of most writers). For “Bridge Club,” it was the idea of superheroes wives working behind the scenes. “The Widow and the Stranger” came from me thinking about Atlantis. “Honor Bound” came from a writing prompt provided by one of my writing group mates that challenged me to write a compelling action sequence. “A Castle in the Clouds” was inspired by a chapter title in the novel Little Women (even though, in Little Women, the castle in the clouds was not literal).

Usually, though, my first inspiration is an idea — something not grand enough to call a plot, but that little idea the plot evolves from. Occasionally it’s a character or something else, but usually, it’s an idea or situation.

Recently, my muse has been whispering a title in my ear. Normally, titles are one of my worst things. I feel that it’s really difficult capture the essence of a story in a few words that are exciting enough to draw a reader in. Very seldom to I write a title that I’m actually excited about, though I have come up with a few. I was particularly partial to the title “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less.” I also really liked the title, “The Widow and the Stranger.” But a title is very rarely my starting point.

There was one story that came title first, but that was because the writing exercise my writing group was doing was to pick a title from a provided list (spawned from the automatic title generator) and write the story inspired by the title. That story became “The Care and Feeding of your Sleeping Knight,” which was in the top 10 stories at Every Day Fiction for quite a while.

Currently, my muse is whispering a fully formed title in my ear. It’s very strange. I have a title, but no story. I’ve bee poking at the title, noodling it around to see if the story will begin to work it’s way free. Tonight I got a small glimmer of a possible plot that would match the title. Nothing solid yet.

It’s definitely a different way of thinking about writing. It’s like building from the top down instead of from the ground up.

Happy writing, all!

It’s the end of an era. There will be no more new Harry Potter. The books are long done, and now the movies are, too. I got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight, and it was quite good.

There’s always a sense of loss when something really good ends, isn’t there? I’ll never have that sense of anticipation again of waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out, of attending the midnight release party, of holding a brand new, unread copy in my hands. The story has been told, and it’s over. I can re-read them and visit the universe again, but it will never be new again.

R0wling created such a vivid universe with the Harry Potter series. And it was so well plotted. Things from the beginning that worked fine then, but take on a whole new meaning when seen in the context of the whole series. Sometimes I wonder how much was painstaking outlining and revision to make things match up and how much was that wonderful sort of zen thing that comes over you when you’re with story and somehow you get to the end and the most brilliant things line up that you hadn’t even realized when you were trying to get it all down as fast as you can type.

Coming down from a story like that is bittersweet. Part of me always wonders if I will ever be able to write something that good, something that will touch so many people. Or even a more modest number of people. Then again, I bet Rowling never thought her little stories would become such a phenomenon when she was scribbling them down in a cafe in England. So, anything can happen, right?

Anyhow, good bye, Harry Potter. I will come visit again. Definitely when the girls are old enough to be introduced into your hallowed hallways, and possibly before.

How did I spend the holiday this year? Well, I spent time with my family and went shopping. Then, though, while the girls were down for their naps and my husband went out with his mother, I polished up a flash piece that I wrote during the writing group’s Story Every Day contest this year and **gasp** submitted it. It’s a funny little horror piece that I revised with the help of my writing group. I wish I’d had the chance to send the revised version out to see if they liked it better, but there was a bit of a deadline. Hopefully, the new action sequences work.

We have a meeting next week, and after they give me comments on another little flash bunny that’s been tweaking my muse of late, we’ll see if there’s anything there. I have a market in mind for that one, too.

I feel so productive, LOL.

Uh oh… just heard someone stirring. I think nap time is over!