Scream

So, I'm in the kitchen, finishing up the dishes after dinner, and I think to myself: "You have to check your Scribophile page."

For those I haven't yet filled in, Scribophile is my latest addiction. But it's not a habit I'm going to quit any time soon.

Scribophile is an online community for writers, where they can post their work and receive critiques from other members of the site, in order to improve their craft. It is a great place to post stories you want to submit to a publication or a contest, since the crits will note any grammatical, continuity, characterization and other error you might have missed. It's also an even better place to meet like-minded people!

Anyways, back to the story!

Winter blues

I started and abandoned writing several posts since the last time I was here.

I know I shouldn't be neglecting the kind people who take the time to read my modest blog, but I couldn't gather up the courage to write anything remotely inspiring or interesting since December.

So today I decided to allow myself an online outlet for my winter frustration. I'll start this post by saying: 

I HATE this never-ending winter!! 

How to get over the post-NaNo blues

Ever since NaNo ended, I feel depressed.

The feeling resembles the kind of dull numbness after an amazing party that had you dancing in the backdrop of the perfect blue sea of the Mediterranean, while watching the sun rise (memories of Galea come rushing back for those of you who were there and danced to "Sunglasses at Night" with me :)). 

Right now my mood resembles the aftermath of that party. I feel tired, empty, exhausted and highly unmotivated to do anything productive. Up until yesterday I hadn't written a single word, or read anything apart from Facebook messages and posts. 

I want to get back that exciting feeling that kept me going during NaNo. So, I devised a plan, to avoid getting sucked into a hole of watching senseless YouTube videos, while painting my toe-nails and thinking about all the goodies I will be eating over the holidays (I give myself an almost free-pass that time of year).

And the winner is....

28 days, 1 breakdown, 50 cups of coffee, 97 pages and 50,210 words later, I did it!
The first draft is done!

I have to say I started NaNo with the best of intentions but the worst of expectations.

I am not very well known for my ability to finish things. Starting them has never been an issue on the other hand. I am a master of starting, talking, planning, analysing (I can even simulate pretty accurate near-writing experiences) but I had never so far attempted anything as big as actually completing a novel. Because let's face it: It's crazy, right?

Ithaca

I have been thinking a lot about the story I'm writing, the story I want to write, the kind of writer I want to be instead of the the one I am right now (which is all over the place).

For the past 26 days I have been writing and reading and keeping notes.

I try to educate myself as far as the publishing world is concerned and the possibilities for new writers as myself, who are trying to break-through.

I have been reading book reviews by people I one day hope will be reading my books, researching other authors (both YA and not), adding new books to my Amazon wishlist for when Christmas is around the corner and I will treat myself to some new stories (I am especially eager to read "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green).

At the same time I have gone through the five stages of the NaNo experience. These are the following:

When the going gets tough...

First of all, I would like to apologize for my last post: It was self-indulgent and served no purpose whatsoever, other than to boast my ego, so...sorry.

This week has not been very good writing-wise. Sure, I have achieved the word counts I wanted to reach (I just finished typing the 37,350th word and am at page 70 of the manuscript) by sheer power of persistance. The puffy, pink cloud of the initial enthusiasm has become increasingly thin though, and my belief in what I have written so far has disappeared faster than you can say "NaNo".

Me ... again

So, I did some soul-searching and decided to update a few things about my blog.

1. Appearence

Let's face it. This blog is not a beauty-pageant winner. It's not even close. It watches the contestans from way back in the audience, then looks at its leg-warmers, mini-skirt and baggy sweater and hungs its head in shame.

It's not that there aren't great templates to choose from. There are. To be honest, though, I would really like to personalize it. Until now, I haven't taken the time to see how I can make it better (I hate buttons and they hate me) but I am willing to experiment since I have some spare time on my hands (brought to you by a very recent tonsillectomy!).
 
As soon as I find a way to shrink my pictures from one million ultra-mega-dragon-bytes to just the few thousand Blogger allows, I will get to uploading fotos I took with my very own camera, to make your entire reading experience much more .... well, me!

Until then, I will just use a simple template for the sake of all our nerves.

NaNoWriMo update - Day 12

So, it's time for an update I'm told.

Wordwise I am on top of the world, Felix Baumgartner style. I wrote almost 3,000 words today and plan to write more tommorow (21,000 or 39 pages in total so far.)

As far as the quality of what I write is concerned, yeah.... that's more like being in a Jules Verne story: 20,000 leagues under the sea, I'm waving at a freaky fish with bad mouth hygiene and a lamp thingy hanging from the top of his head as I am writing this. 

I have come to terms with this though. You can't be both prolific and write quality prose, right? Who cares if Dostoyevski wrote Crime and Punishment AND The Gambler in one year, right? Right? 

NaNoWriMo – Day 7

Ok...so I've made it through the first week of NaNoWriMo without signs of exhaustion, depression or the feeling of utter despair in sight of everything I cannot accomplish. Instead I've managed to write 10,019 words of what I am hoping will become my first book so far and I have to say: I feel pretty damn good!

The NaNoWriMo experiment

This year I'll do it! I'll actually attempt to write more than 10,000 words in a month, even if most of it is shit. Because in November, quantity kicks quality's ass!

If you're the world's biggest procrastinator and prefer looking for kitten mittens online (even if you don't own a cat) instead of writing, this is your chance to prove to yourself that you are not a total waste of carbon. Try this with me, and fail miserably at it (or not)! It will be fun :)

You are not alone

Writing is a very lonely venture.

It might be fun to make up different stories and invent characters to populate galaxies far, far away, but when someone spends day after day in front of a PC or a piece of paper, avoiding anything that might mess with their "juju"(be it music, the latest episode of your favourite TV show, or a loved one stripteasing down to an elephant-shaped G-string - photos upon request) the tormented writer may suddenly find himself/herself in desperate need for some companion other than that of people living in aforementioned made-up galaxy.

Writers without borders

So I wrote 1,000 words a day after I came back from my holiday, sometimes even more (good -girl-patting-my-own-shoulder-thing-going-on-at-this-moment). I felt good about writing too.

I entered three competitions, started a new short story and went on with my "novel".

The thing is, although at the beginning writing became easier, I now find it extremely hard to go on with my stories. It's like a spell has been lifted or the effect of some kind of drug is wearing off. So I don't write. But I find that writing about not writing is quite idiotic, so I'll try not to write about not writing.

Instead I'll write about why I think I don't write, which is far more interesting.

My Opus Magnum a.k.a. the reason I don't sleep well at night

I have had an idea for a novel ever since I was 17. The sudden illumination came during class (I must have been bored to the point of a nearly vegetative state) and I wrote down in 20 words what the story would be about on the last page of my biology book, between learning about the human genome and the heredity pattern for the sex chromosomes (how can one NOT get inspired???)

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it

I just read a very interesting article in the NY Times by Elmore Leonard, concerning the 10 things a writer should avoid when writing.

Here it is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html

Enjoy!

Burning the midnight oil

So much for not neglecting this blog...Well, at least you will be pleased to know that I have written one short-story and two flash-fiction pieces since the last time I posted here and besides that I have completed reading "On Writing" by Stephen King and started reading "The tortilla curtain" by T.C. Boyle (which shows a lot of promise).

"On Writing" was a great book. If anything, it lifts the veil of the writing fairy-tale and myths and confronts some simple truths about it, which personally made my life a little easier. If you're looking for a book that will take you by the hand and give you all the much desired "tricks" to write the next best-seller...well then this isn't what you're looking for.

But for those eager to find out, how the mind of probably one of the most successful contemporary fiction writers works and how he makes his magic happen, then rest assured this book is everything you ever wanted. I thoroughly recommend it to any writer! King doesn't promise to turn you into a best-selling author. What he does say though, is that hard work almost always pays off, unless you are a really bad writer. In that case, there is no hope for you. Sorry! Try cleaning a car instead.

I will keep up my writing then (in the hope that I am not a really bad writer) and submit to short story competitions and literary magazines. And should I get accepted for publication or actually make a shortlist of any kind, you can count on me shouting it out from the rooftop and in this blog, for the whole world to hear.

I think I should go to sleep now. I still have to work tomorrow.

"I can do better than this!"

Steven King's advice to aspiring writers

On writing

I started this blog because I wanted to do something about my writing. I wanted to get it out there. Practice the craft of telling stories and hear what other people thought of it. So far though I haven't written so much in that respect. I am shying away from actually doing what I set out to do, because let's face it: It's terrifying.

Writing is a very personal thing. You put your heart into it in the hope that, what you have to say will interest other people. It may even be considered vain. To me it's a necessity.

I've been writing ever since I could hold a pen steady enough in my hand and put coherent sentences onto paper. My first poem was called "Travelling" and it talked about the joys of seeing the world. I was 9 or 10 when I wrote it. I kept a diary for most of my life. My first diary was a little magenta block, where I wrote things like: when I got my dog, what I did at my aunt's house when I visited and so on. The entries became more eloquent with time and it was the most cathartic process during the awkward years of adolescence with all its frustrations, heartbreaks, fights with family and friends, school or just the stress of growing up. I continued writing when I went to university. I wrote short stories in the form of grown-up fairy tales, poems, anything that went through my mind and needed to get out.

I stopped writing for 5 years. They were good years, probably the best so far, but something was missing. When I realised I needed to write in order to feel complete and happy, I decided to do something about it. So I enrolled on a course. Maybe you find the idea ridiculous; "A course to learn how to write! All you need is talent". Talent is the start. The rest is the work you put into it.

I don't expect to learn how to write. I am hoping for guidance, in order to see if what I'm doing has potential, to get into some useful writing habits and maybe gain a different perspective on the art that's telling stories.

Try writing a book or, better yet, forget about the book. Try writing a good short story and you'll see that writing is more than an instant inspiration. It takes time, discipline, perseverance, patience and many cups of coffee. Writing is a risk. There's no safe way doing it. There's no magic rule for a good novel. There are no rules in general. You just have to sit down and do it and hope that what comes out, is worthy reading.

So yeah, I'm scared about putting myself out there, for the whole world to see and judge. I'm going to take it one step at a time. I'll start by saying that, from now on, I will try posting things relevant to writing and not random topics. II'll write about the troubles and joys of writing, I'll post links that I think might be interesting or useful to any other writers out there. And at last, I'll even attempt to show you what I'm made of: a universe of fiction characters living in my head fighting for their voices to be heard.

I hope you'll stick around.

Me

I am a 27-year old writer trapped in the body of a translator (not the kind that translates Martin Amis and Philip Roth, but the one that deals with sentences like "silane-modified polymers" and "put screw 1 into hole 2" - not as exciting as it sounds I can assure you...)