Tidbit #1: I'm not making a whole hell of lot of progress with Dandelion Tears. What started out as a story of a hybrid woman trying to keep her human husband from being kidnapped and taken back to her home planet/pod keeps getting sidetracked whenever I decide to add a smidgen more detail to the mix.
For instance, since I decided to make one of the protaganists a mulatto woman (yeah, I researched that: time spent, 45 minutes), I needed a new name. The old name, Freyja, was one I picked from Norse mythology (yeah, I researched that: time spent, two days six months prior to starting this particular story) so it didn't really fit. So off I went to Wikipedia to research war goddesses (don't ask). I didn't find any to my liking, but after doing an hour's worth of research, I found a Greek deity called Nyx. I also found a name for a mid-major character called Thanatos.
Then I decided I wanted to give the character a tattoo that would match up with her extremely dark personality. So I spent another two hours (spread out over two days) researching black flowers (note: there is no such thing as a real black flower). I finally found one to my liking (a black lily), then spent a half hour or so describing and making it fit with the overall theme of the story (again, don't ask...well, maybe you could ask).
Go ahead, ask away.
"G, how did you describe the tattoo?"
Glad you asked, because here it is:
"On her breasts were two of the ugliest looking black lily tattoos that she'd ever regretted having done. Starting with the oozing yellow center at each nipple, the six deep purple petals were drawn to maximize visual discomfort. One pedal on each breast shot straight up to the shoulder, four more shot out horizontal, with the two of the tips touching at the center of her chest. Four more shot down diagonal with two more tips touching at the bellybutton to form a nasty triangle, while the remaining two dropped straight down to the waist. All the pedals were adorned with silver thorns and blood red teardrops, while the triangle contained a psychedelic pattern specifically designed to lobotomize and hypnotize anyone who looked at it."Nasty, yes? Or does it need a little more work?
Anyways, right now, the current stoppage is due to the fact that I'm thinking about how I'm gonna write about two semi-dead humans becoming reanimated so that they lead a small scout patrol of reproductions to the first plot climax.
Tidbit #2: I'm finally screwing up (no not really) the courage, the gumption, the wherewithal to jump in feet first and sink to the bottom of the lake where I shall get stuck until my lungs explode from the lack of oxygen, to start querying Line 21.
I have my synopsis at the ready, my manuscript polished to a high glossy finish, and most importantly, a decent place to start at, which is the Query Tracker database.
It may be a tough go, simply because my manuscript isn't the latest flavor of the past few years (YA), but I think that this time around, I can weather the rejection storm with my feet firmly planted in the ground and shaking my fist in the air, and saying, "You will not beat me, because I have a secret weapon at my disposal!"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
What secret weapon? Why my blog of course. What, you thought I wasn't gonna share my pain with at least 143 of my closest friends?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!
HAH!
Tidbit #3: Well, there is no tidbit #3, simply because while I was handwriting tidbit #3, I was starting to come off like a major league sourpuss, so I decided to trash what I wrote (note: it was about poetry, and no, it wasn't about why it doesn't affect me like other genres, but more about the seemingly endless supply of publishers who publish it).
Instead, how 'bout I leave you with this funky video link from the movie Johnny Dangerously.
That tattoo sounds painful! Yikes - that would have hurt.
ReplyDeleteLove that video link. :)
descriptive, although it makes me think twice about getting another tattoo - or maybe i will just describe the tattoos i have in a blog post.
ReplyDeleteI like those names. Thanatos is a Freudian term for the death instinct. Could make a nice name for a certain type of person. I modified it to Thanos for a planet in one of my stories.
ReplyDeleteLynn: It's much more than that. The next couple of paragraphs that's connected to the description tells how it's symbiotic in nature and that it comes and goes as it pleases.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the link. Weird Al is one of my faves.
Ryan: I actually like tattoos. Not quite ready to get one of my own (diabetic and all that) but I find tattoos on women to be visually pleasing most of the time. It's one of the few things that I enjoy writing about.
Charles: I originally went searching for dieties that were connected with either war or death, but the ones that I first wanted to use I couldn't quite figure out which one were which (sisters you might say), so I choose their mother and their brother for name usaged. I have a familiar written into the story so he's called "Thanatos".
i am glad i don't have a tattoo, cuz it prolly would be something like you described..
ReplyDeletemy dislike of needles would require me to become quite drunk, to have a tattoo, hence i would loose my creative control and slur whashevsher yoush thisnks owuld be good..
Bruce: Can sympathize. I'm a diabetic and because I give myself 21 shots a day, there are times where I really feel like a pin cushion and there are days where I simply shut my eyes to block out the image of the needle connecting with skin.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, for familarity purposes, the usage of a prefix and suffix of existent names might suffice in creating the required roots for the reader to socialise with existent dieties traits, etc.
ReplyDeleteSometimes writers block is a time to reflect, and ponder and wonder, and as such can be a paradox, as you may come across other revenues of expansion, albeit subconsciously or inadvertantly.
Keeping up the pace of thought to verse can be challenging at the best of times, and a titbit of thine own is to have a recording device at hand to converse your will into future action.
Best of luck to you, and as a fellow writer, I wish you success and prosperity, and regardless of publication, you will achieve this, as experience is knowledge, and knowledge is power, and power can be sharing your knowledgable experiences - hopfully in the form of print.
I enjoy your humour, and am thankful for your blogging endeavours, which are a source of inspiration to others - particularly I.
Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.
Andrew: Thanks for stopping by. Your visits are always enlightening.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as of late, trying to establish any kind of pace, whether slow or fast, seems to an exercise of one step forward and two steps back.
Whenever it seems that I'm finally getting into a groove, something of necessity brings me to a halt until I can get it fixed.
And of course by the time I can get it fixed, I lose whatever momentum I got going for me.
The thing is this: I'm writing a story with some fantasy elements in it, and since it's something that I've never really written before, everything that needs to be done in order for it to make sense is something that is brand new to me.
So a lot of this is mostly by trial and error, but I have been able to glean quite a few writing tips from other writers who specialize in this kind of stuff, so at least I got a basic idea on what I need to do.
Just thought I'd drop a line, your last entry listed on my dashboard says page isn't there. Didn't know if you knew that, but also thought I'd tell you that the next installment of the private blog has been up for a bit as well.
ReplyDeleteCarla: Thanks. I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I made a minor faux pas last night. Blogger kept on giving me an error message while I was composing a post for Valentine's day and I couldn't figure out what it was until I hit the publish button.
The post published and that's when I realized that the date/time was formatted incorrectly.
So I quickly made a few changes to the post and thus, the message you got in your dashboard saying "Page not found".
That post will be seen in its entirity on Valentine's Day.
I'm bit anal when it comes to blogging, so when I give less than my best, it bothers me.
Johnny D. Wow, haven't thought of that film in years.
ReplyDeleteDavid: It was such a funky and funny film when I'd first seen it at the movie theaters that I fell in love with it. It's been one of my faves since.
ReplyDeleteJoe Piscopo was an absolute riot in that film.
Kind of reminds me of the first "Airplane" movie.
I watched the first Airplane again two weeks ago. Still funny.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Keaton is always good. An underrated actor for sure.
Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteI think he's great in comedy and serious drama.
I thought the movie he did with Nicole Kidman called, "My Life" was a very good piece of drama.
This post never popped up on my RSS feed...Google bastards!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Google and Blogger can be such a barrelful of laughs sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI had posts from other blogs pop up in my reader yet not show up on the blogs until hours later.