Multiple Musings and Other Random BS

It's a new year, the holidays are done, and the children have returned to school after winter break. We had a fabulous Christmas, there were tons of packages under our tree. It was slightly ridiculous.

Okay, it was highly ridiculous.

But it was so fun.

Now, I find myself writing a lot of thriller/suspense and contemporary fantasy tales of recent. This is not a bad thing, and yes I do still write horror - it is my first love after all - but this thriller/suspense and fantasy kick has me wondering.

Perhaps some of my "horror" tales are not horror at all. They horrify me, but then again, I'm afraid to walk past a window with undrawn shades after dark so that doesn't mean much. And in fact, I frighten myself far more often than any story I've read, any movie I have watched.

I will admit though that this hardcore horror lover-girl is excited to see "The Rite". Anthony Hopkins is a so-good-it's-almost-stupid talented actor. And him in horror? Gimme, gimme. I'm hoping to be scared.

Then again, I also hoped for that with "The Last Exorcism" and was sadly disappointed. Oh, I was plenty startled by that one in spots, but overall... no lasting impression. I like my horror to scare me for months afterward.

Sadly, I haven't had that for a looooooong time.

Also, I have a story out - "The Cat Lady" over at SNM Horror Magazine in issue 1 of the January Jambalaya Issue. (clickable)

And January also marks the start of the Shock Totem Magazine's (clickable) bimonthly Flash Fiction contest (another clickable). This month's contest is already under way, but you can try to rush for it if you want, or wait until the March contest kicks off. You'll have to sign up for the forum and follow the rules (which means you have to READ them), sign up in the thread linked in the contest bit above, and check out the prompt. Shock Totem also reopens to regular submissions on February 1, 2011, so make sure you have something ready for them.

Make it something about a box. Ken would just love that.

All right, so that's it for now. I hope everyone has had a great start to 2011.

Peace & Love
~Effie

10 Things Every Writer Should Know....

10 things every writer should know before they start writing.

1) Basic plot. You need a beginning, a middle and an end. And basically, that is all you need to have. You can fill in the gaps later. Right now, there are more important things than plot to worry about.

2) Characters. I don't mean knowing the names, ages and what they look like. You gotta know how old your female MC was when she got her period, or how old your male MC was when he got his first stiffy. You need to know their grandmother's mother's maiden name. You gotta know how often they have sex. You gotta know if their mother has a skin condition of unknown origin, and if she does... exactly why is the origin of that skin condition unknown? These aren't just dolls! They are fucking people. If you're gonna pen down their story, you better know them better than their mothers do.

3) Genre. I know, I know. But you don't want to start a story as a romance, venture into erotica, then become a suspense/thriller, then sci-fi before finally settling into horror... just before it turns into a western, complete with "Well howdy there partner." Know what you're writing, please.

4) Setting. A story has to have a place to happen. Sure, the characters can travel, if need be, but they need a definite, central place for the story to focus on. Having fifty different places in one story makes for hectic reading.

5) Timeline. Some stories span hours, some days, some months and some even span lifetimes. You got to know how long this shit is gonna take so you can write accordingly.

6) Conflict. Gotta know who or what your characters are up against. There must be conflict, be it internal or external. Know the conflict. Make it fucking impossible to overcome. Then... have your characters overcome it anyway. "Protags must protag... and antags must antag." (Cathyfreeze said that on Absolute Write Water Cooler forums oh so long ago.)

7) Who is gonna win. Bad guy? Good guy? You decide, but you had better make sure that decision means something and isn't just because that is how you want it. No: it doesn't matter if it makes no sense in the story if all the other people die, I just want this one little girl to live, alone in the world with nothing but chain grocery store leavings to feed her for as long as her lonely lifespan lasts, which if I had my way would be forever and ever and ever and... shut up. Make your decisions count. Don't just do some stupid shit cause you want to. The story isn't really yours. You may create it, but it isn't your story. It is the story of the characters. Make sure it stays that way.

8) Will the winner of said conflict come away basically the same? If so... stop. Rethink. This is not so the character just goes on about his merry way like he or she never even went to Duggard Academy and got ass-raped by a baboon. It doesn't work that way. This shit changes people when it happens to them in real life and so, it must change your characters. They are, after all, people too.

9) How will this conflict change the world for your characters? This is not the change within the characters themselves, as is listed in #8 of this post. This is how things around them change. Do others feel the change this subtle conflict resolution has brought? If not, why not? If so... how... and why?

10) This is the absolute most important thing any writer should know before they start. Writing is fun. Writing is therapeutic. Writing is a great way to kill off a certain someone time and time again... all while being perfectly legal for you to do so because it is fiction and has no affect on the person in reality. They needn't even know you've killed them (or how often). If you aren't having fun, you aren't doing it right.

Writing Without Thinking: My Way

Okay. So, a little silence on the blog front from me for a while, other than my novelette pimpage, so I suppose I owe you guys a real post.

So, a few years ago, I was in between writing projects and had no new ideas forthcoming. But I felt the need to write. Those of you who write as well, you know that need. Those of you that read... well, it's inexplicable. I'd say it's almost like a need to scratch something you can't reach, but pleasant.

As I had no new ideas frothing in mine tiny brain, I decided to go with something old and borrowed. But what? I couldn't think of anything that interested me to write about. That's one thing about writing... the writer has to be interested too.

So, I'm looking around my house, looking for inspiration. I didn't find it, but I did find my DVD shelf and a thought occurred that tried to be inspiration.

I would pick four DVDs from my collection and have a day-long marathon. Thusly armed, I would sit down that night and just write a mash up of the plots. Just something for myself, something to do for the fun of it.

Instead of picking them all myself, I decided to enlist my kids to close their eyes and pick at random... one DVD from each of us.

First pick was mine. I picked Message in a Bottle.

My oldest son picked next... Sexy Housewife Orgy or some such thing. (Remember that we picked with our eyes closed, so he didn't intentionally pick the porn).

My Daughter picked... The Parent Trap (the original).

My youngest son picked The Silence of the Lambs.

Deeming the porn unsuitable for daytime watching, I re-placed it on my shelves and had my son pick another film, though I decided that I would keep the erotic aspect because it was originally picked.

His replacement pick was Exit Wounds.

Looking over these titles, I thought to myself, "Shit a brick. What am I even supposed to DO with this??" But, I stuck with my plan, watched the movie-marathon and sat down that evening to write.

I kept writing for months on that story. It was nuts, it was wildly unbelievable & cliched.

It. Was. Awesome.

I had so much fucking fun writing that story. It was seriously stupid in the storyline department, but it was some of my best writing. Because I didn't have to think about it too much. It was already there, I had the basic lines of my plot... cannibals, twins, sex, cops and romance. I dug it so hard.

Basically, though, this exercise taught me not to think about my writing too much. Get thee the basics and write the fruition of thy sullied mind. Don't think about it until it dies.

My writing has gone through many, many changes and grown by leaps and bounds. I tried several genres before settling down to horror. My mash-up story occurred just before I came to my horrible home. It is no longer my favorite bad story (because it really was awful) but to this day it remains the one I had the most fun writing. And writing should be fun, shouldn't it?

Peace & Love
~Effie

And It's Black Rainbow Pt. 2

So, I just noticed that Part Two of my novelette Black Rainbow (clickables!) is up over at The Piker Press. If you read part one, go on and read part two. See what is up with Fox Thomas, Emma and Percy. You don't want to miss it.

Blurb: Fox and Emma try to forget what they both want, and can never be ... but even as they push away their thoughts, something else is listening ...

P&L
~Effie

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite!

Hello there.

As I talked about last Friday, I have decided to rewrite my novella and turn it into a novel. Well, I am proud to announce that the rewrite has begun. All other projects, save one collaboration with another writer and of course my short stories, will be on hold until this rewrite is done.

From here on, this project will be called "Sister" for the sake of the blog, although that is not the true title of the work. If you have been a follower of my blog for a while, and have read my posts, then you know which project this is. After months upon months of putting it off, I have finally started rewriting it. It is a rather big undertaking. The novella has its moments that are extremely good, but for the most part, the writing skill is so varied that I am forced to just rewrite the entire thing and use the great parts in the new manuscript.

So this begs a question. Of course it does, do you not know me by now? There is always a question.

In rewrites, what kind of goal do you set? Me, I am hoping to get a chapter of writing rewritten a day, which means this project will be done within thirty days, give or take a few. Maybe forty days, as I have some extending to do.

When rewriting, do you take it as it comes, or do you make goals? This is my first major novel rewrite. I had a novel that I revised and revised and revised in, but never a total rewrite. The revise, revise, revise did not work for me. I ended up with jilted scenes and chapters that seemed unrelated to the true story even though they were... THAT novel is a total mess and it will take a lot of work to make it "doable" again. That novel, I am afraid, is one of those epic tales that spans generations and will be much larger than the 80,000 words it is now. But that is another topic altogether.

Rewriting a novel or novella is largely different than short story rewrites. I can write, rewrite, revise, edit and submit a short story in a single day. In hours, if I am really cooking. A novel... totally different story.

To be fair, even though "Sister" has been a long going on (read as years) project, it was written in a matter of months. It was simply that those months were spanned out over several years. So, I have some work ahead of me. The story arc is fairly consistent, but there are monsters around every corner, no redemption for my protagonist (how is that for fucked up?), and of course, tons of people die throughout the story. I admit that I like to kill main and or major characters. But that need not happen in all of my stories.

I am growing, people! It is a frigging miracle.

So, can I write a horror novel without killing loads of people? Sure I can. I can leave people alive. Does that mean no one will die?

Say it is not so!

Well, it is not so, people. I will kill someone... just not quite so many someones.

So, tell me a bit about rewriting the novels. It is a new experience for me and I would like some other takes on the experience.

And on Friday, along with my word counts, look for some news from me with... clickable linkage (haha, not clickable this time).

Bet you are really curious now huh?

Till then...

Peace & Love,
~Effie

Free Fiction!

My friend, Neil Colquhoun, has some fun stuff just for you. If you want some fiction for nothing, with no effort except to check your email, go here (clickable).

And there's even an extra blog post from me today. Woo hoo!


Peace & Love,
~Effie

Hold me to it!!! P. 1

Okay, you guys. Here's the thing.

I only wrote a little bit this week. A very little bit.

A grand total of 2200 words.

I know, that sucks huh?

I have no defense except that I've been busy as hell. That's all I got, though. I'll make it up next week, I promise. Possibly over the weekend... who knows?

As I sit here, looking at that paltry number and scoff a bit at myself, I want something from you guys. Don't be nice to me. Make fun of my little numbers... kick my ass with words. Seriously. I need it for bringing up such small numbers. It's sad. I deserve to get my ass stomped.

But for now, I'm actually gonna go write some more. Those words will count towards next week.

Till then...

Peace & Love
~Effie

So. What would you do, buddy?

I love what if situations. You can ask what if till the proverbial cows make their way back to the green pastures of their birth and/or origin. What if is great.

So, there's an idea. A little nugget of something squirming around in the back of thy sacred brain matter and it's half-formed. Half-baked. Still doughy in the middle.

As I said, what if is great. So is "What would you do, buddy?" Want to know why? Cause you're a person. If you ask it of yourself, and of those (family and friends) you know intimately to yourself [assuming you know them well enough to be able to guess what they would do], you can gauge a general concensus of what a normal person may do in that situation you've got going in the back of your head.

That is, you know... if you are indeed normal.

I have a quirky situation in the back of my head that I have no idea what I would do with, or what anyone would do with. It's quite strange, this. It's not a situation I've ever run across, in book, film, or that thing called life.

So. I can be creative with what a person might do with this... situation.

But is it right? That's the question. I could do this all day.

What if, what if.

Sometimes what if's a bitch too.

Peace & Love, y'all
~E.

It's a Flash of Shocking Proportions!!!!

Okay y'all. Listen up.

The incredibly awesome people at Shock Totem Magazine are hosting a Flash Fiction Contest every month, with the exception of two months during which the previous winning stories will compete for possible publication in the magazine. So, how hard does that rock?

Very hard, baby. Very, very hard.

You can get the rules on the ST forum. Every entrant must become a member of the forum in order to compete (as well as request access to the hidden contest sub-forum via a forum moderator or administrator), as all competitors must vote, and are encouraged (you don't have to critique each entry, but hey... there's no entry fee. All it costs is a little time and you have to read in order to vote anyway, right? Let the writers know a little something of your thoughts, you know?) to leave at least a quick sentence or two about each story submitted for the contest.

I competed in the very first contest which was held in January, and I have to say that the critiques and thoughts given about my story (which tied for the win with three others, all listed on Shock Totem's web site) were worth the time. More than worth it. I'll be competing again for the next contest, which starts March 1, 2010. This contest is prompted/themed, so make sure, if you plan to submit, you go through all the steps (register for the forum, read the rules, request access to the contest forum, and read the prompt on the first of each month) and do it right to have a better chance at getting votes. I'll be looking for you there.

Peace & Love, y'all
~E.

On the mill...

I have another story up at the Piker Press!

This one is short--not very long at all at 700 words or so. But, it delves into grief and guilt, and maybe even responsibility. I guess that depends on your point of view.

That's all I got. I don't blog nearly often enough, but I try when I have the time. But for now...

Peace & Love, y'all
~E.