Tag Archives: Inner Editor

Recurring Dreams

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Writing Prompt: Have you ever had a recurring dream?

There was this dream I had when I was little, but I unfortunately don’t remember it, other than Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty was in it. 

Lately, I’ve had several dreams where I get into arguments with both my mother and an aunt.  I guess you could say that it’s a recurring dream, because in the dream, I’m arguing with them (not at the same time, thankfully, because I don’t think my mind could handle it).  The location is usually at home too, and while I don’t remember what I argued about, but they’ve been really weird. 

I had a dream the other night where I saw some random person smother someone else, and then went to look out a window.  After calling 911, of course. 

I had this other dream where there was a fire, and my house was full of smoke.  I grab my magical binder, my flash drive, my laptop, and underwear, and throw it into my backpack.  There was something about being in a restaurant, and people staying over. 

What I find really interesting is that I tend to dream more vividly, and have dreams that mirror real life when I write in my journal before I go to bed.  Perhaps it’s an easy way of dealing with my thoughts and feelings if it appears in a dream, like writing about it opens the door for me to think about it.  A dream  could be just a dream, and there could be nothing behind it, but it’s still an interesting connection.

Overall, I don’t have very many recurring dreams, other than the ones where I’m arguing with family.  If I do, I don’t remember having them, which wouldn’t be that unusual.  While I don’t remember every dream I’ve had, I do remember a fair amount of them.

A Couple Lists Plus Some Inspiration

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One of the things I love about writing is that there’s inspiration to be found in anything.  Hate the ending of a book or movie (or even a tv show)?  Write your own version.  See someone wearing the most bizarre outfit?  Write into your novel.  Overhear a weird or interesting conversation or phrase?  Make it the opening line/conversation in your novel or short story.

Like, any job working with the public is writing gold!  I work at a museum, and the things you hear and see, provided enough material for 2 novels.  And if I’m being completely honest, probably enough for several more novels.

Reasons Why I Feel Like I Need to Write

  • I want to continue some of the projects I’ve started because I want to see how the story ends.
  • I have a few ideas that have some promise, and I want to see how they work out.  Plus, I want to get them out of my head, so I can have room for some shiny new ideas. 
  • I have quite a few prompts I want to write about, plus some quotes that I find very interesting and that “speak” to me. 
  • I’ve been feeling stressed/upset/worried/depressed/anxious, and writing in my journal seems to get that out of my head.

Reasons Why I’m Being So Hard On Myself About *Not* Writing:

  • I feel like I’m not writing, even though I am.  It’s like if I’m not working on my novels, I’m not writing anything.
  • I keep on telling myself that they’re not any good, even though there are some good things in the things I’m working on.  There’s always something good in everything I’ve written, even though there are spelling/grammar problems, major inconsistencies, and just some plain funny stuff. 
  • The work that I’d have to put in if I want to make it the best that it can be is overwhelming.  If I do it in baby steps, maybe it won’t be so overwhelming. 

Guacamole

Posted in Flash Fiction by

I actually did something besides work on Turning Point!  I’m really excited about this.  I actually found the prompt for this over at Flash Fiction, and I thought I’d share it.  It’s © Nicole R., so don’t steal it or anything.

Title: Back In The Argument

“So today, we’re going to look at some bungalows,” Katie said. 

 “Why?” asked Ryan. 

 “We have to live somewhere, and I thought it would be nice to live near the beach.”

 “I don’t really want to go gallivanting around town just because you want to see a halcyon,” Ryan retorted. 

 “But I love the beach!  And I thought you did too,” she said quietly. 

 “Not enough to live near it,” he answered.

 “But think about how convenient it would be!” she insisted. 

 “I don’t know what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours,” he said, “but you are not the empress of this house.”

 “My parents always told me I was their little princess,” she said.  “And I want to live near the beach.”

 “For the record, most girls grow out of it,” ryan said.  “It’s not normal.”

 “Are you saying that I am acting aberrantly?” she said.  “Wait, did I use the word aberrant right?”

 “You did,” he said.  “And yes, that is what I’m saying.”

 “But we can eat guacamole all the time at the beach!”

 “We can do that now,” Ryan said.  “Besides, if we move, we won’t have an avocado tree.  We’d have to buy them.”

 “I will not be deterred by that!” she insisted.  “We love guacamole.”

“I give up,” ryan said.  “You can go searching for your bungalow by yourself.  And for the record, Katie, I hate guacamole.”

A Letter To My Muse

Posted in Turning Point by

Dear Muse:

What is going on in that head of yours?  I fail to understand why Kiora should be with Kyle.  I could have sworn we had decided that it would be Kiora and Dustin, who is closer to her age than Kyle.  Yes, we never settled on how old Kyle is, but we did decide that he is older than Dustin.  And Kyle’s married with a 10-year-old daughter!  How exactly do you propose they get together, besides divorce?  Kyle doesn’t strike me as the get-a-divorce type of guy, unless something tragic happens to his wife.  And furthermore, how do you propose we fix Kiora’s thing with Dustin?  I most certainly do not want to kill him off, and I am really starting to like them together, even if they can’t date.  Well, not yet anyway.  I suppose they could, but I have no idea how they’d manage it. 

While you’re figuring all this out, O Wise One, could you figure out what’s going on with Sienna, Luna, and Holly?  Like what happened between her and that secret service agent?  And why did Luna end up in a psych ward?  Could you explain to me why Holly thinks Kiora would be a good addition to her little group and what she wanted Kiora to edit?  Because these things are very confusing, and I’d like an explanation if at all possible. 

I do commend you on staying away from that ever-so-frightening inner editor, because she’s very scary!  It takes someone very special to ignore her, and you have done a fantastic job ignoring her.  I’d appreciate it if you could keep that up, because she is your enemy.

Thanks!

Is There A Cliff I Can Jump Off?

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The whole time I read Stab My Back, I felt like jumping off a cliff.  I’ve never read something so funny in my life.  While I expected that it would be bad, I never expected it to be so hilariously bad.  I kid you not, I couldn’t stop laughing, especially for the 1st half of it.  I figured out what I wanted to do with it, and where I wanted it to go after about 25k.  I’m still not completely sure what it’s about, but what I’ve managed to figure out, it’s about this girl betrayed by her friends and family, and she has to lead the magical world to…something.  So here’s a sample of what I found:

  • adttingrer picking them up.  (and once you do that, Izzie, can put the pieces together after picking them up?) 
  • I would look fairly unrecognizable, rather unlike myself.  (that would be the point of disguising yourself, yes?)
  • So, I aslked for an paplicatrion (You asked for what?)
  • I hated not knowing things- and when I did know things, I only knew aprts of things, and not the whole thing, so the pieces of things I did know did not make sense uintil after theyt happened.  Unless I happened to know the whole thing, which was not very often (can I go jump off that cliff now?)
  • a pink and white swirl of light swirled around us.   (Swirling colors swirl?  You’re kidding me.)
  • This was all so confusing.  And I hated being confused, because being confused meant that things were confuising.  (Yes, I’d like to speak to the manager of the department of redundancy department manager.)

And believe me, there’s more where that came from.  I seriously felt the need to bang my head against the wall.  Because this is what happens when 1- you write 100,000 words in one month, especially for the 1st time, and 2- when you start a new novel a few days in, with no idea of what I’m writing about.  I may have to try it again sometime, just to see what would happen.

Sometimes, I Wonder What I Was Thinking

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Right now, I’m in this “I’m going to re-read all my NaNo novels” phase.  Which is fine with me, because usually I only read them once, at the beginning of December, and then I’m done with it.

I did re-read my 2006 novel a few months ago, and it was really interesting to compare it to Turning Point.  My writing has definitely improved over the last  years, and if I were to compare all of my novels (9 total!), especially in the order they were written, I’d definitely be able to see the change in my writing over time.  NaNo is the only time I write anything, although I’m *attempting* to change that this year.

Anyway, sometimes I look at what I’ve written, and there’s a lot I don’t remember writing.  A lot of times too, I wonder what I was thinking. 

I bring you Exhibit A, which is one of my NaNo’s from 2008 (titled Stab My Back).  As you might remember from my very first post, I started it a few days into November, with no plot.  It’s such a trainwreck, and pretty much the 1st 36 pages are based off of different songs.  It’s hilarious though.  So far, there haven’t been too many hilarious spelling errors or anything like that (mostly because of that darned inner editor), but even still, having no clue what I’m writing makes for hilarious writing.  I’ll definitely post anything funny on another day. 

But seriously, this novel has been one big…what on earth was I thinking moment.  It’s a wonder my grandma doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with me, because I’ve been trying hard to not  laugh.  The tv is on slightly louder than normal, and we’re in different rooms, so there’s a chance she didn’t hear me laughing hysterically.  While going in with no clue is interesting, it’s doubtful I’ll ever do it again.  I might, just to see what’ll happen. 

The one thing I love about NaNo is that it tests my ability to just write, and let everything go.  When you write 100,000 words in a month, you tend to let go, and just focus on the writing.  It’s more about quantity than it is about quality.  One of the things that’s popped into my head the last couple weeks is that I write 100k- but I never said anything about them about good words. 

And with the focus on quantity (not quality) it’s no wonder that when I go back and read anything I’ve done during NaNo, I wonder what I was thinking.

Look After You

Posted in Look After You by

I read part of Look After You, one of my 2009 novels.  If you want to get technical, I read the attempted continuation that I did last May, but who cares about technicalities?  I thought I’d share some of the gems that I found.

  • That your independent and that your identity is dependent on me.” (this makes no sense- lindsay is independent, yet her identity depends on josh?)
  • I’m cute most of the time except for the times when I’m annoying.” (there’s nothing weird about this sentence, but I thought it was pretty funny)
  • “No one is offended the menu!” I exclaimed.  (my inner editor must hate me because of the wods words I tend to leave out; Updated 1/23, even with blog entries, my inner editor must hate me.  Leaving letters out can be just as funny/weird as leaving words out)
  • But it was the best food ever.  I kid you not.  Best fruit ever (*facepalm*)

Granted, that group isn’t that bad, because really, it could be worse.  A lot worse.  But considering I just…stopped after a week, it’s not a big surprise that it’s not nearly as funny as it could have been.  I couldn’t help but giggle, though, because there were parts that were just too cheezy.  It’s no wonder my inner editor hates me, and always wants me attention, with a lot of the stuff that just spews from my finger. 

I would also like to point out that a whole chapter was devoted to Lindsay hoping that her wedding would be a disaster.  And she talked about it while at her wedding.  She was pretty disappointed that she didn’t spill on herself, and that she only tripped once.  And I do believe there was something about needing to get drunk so something entertaining would happen.  Clearly, I wanted to have things wrong with Lindsay.  At least, I think I wanted something to be wrong with her, I really can’t remember now. 

I think I’m slowly re-reading everything, so who knows what I’ll find?

Fear of Death

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Today’s Prompt: Are you afraid of death?

Yes and no.  The actual thought of dying doesn’t scare me, because death is inevitable.  Unless a way to live forever comes along.  But how I die…that is what scares me.  I hope it’s not painful, and I don’t suffer.  I want it to be quick and painless.  With my luck, it’ll be painful and drawn out.  Or something stupid.  Although I have to say, I’d take stupid over painful and drawn out anyday. 

I don’t how accurate my answer really is, because I’ve never had any near-death experiences or anything (thankfully), although there was the one time when I had food poisoning and thought I was going to die.  Which was me being dramatic, but it was not a pleasant experience.  Anyway, I’m right in the middle, but my answer could change over time.

And Another Writing Prompt: What do you think about ghosts?

I definitely believe in ghosts.  I think it would be cool to see a ghost or have some other encounter with a ghost.  So a couple years ago, I went to the Whaley House in Old Town San Diego, and I have to say, it was pretty cool.  And there are some places you know have to have a lot of ghosts, like the Tower of London.  And you know the White House has to have a few ghosts running around.  I do like ghost stories.  And anything paranormal is interesting.  Perhaps I have another plot bunny on my hands.

The Colors of Happiness

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Writing Prompt: What colour makes you think of happiness?

It’s a toss-up between yellow and blue.

I know yellow is such a cliche, but it’s such a happy color.  It makes me think of summer and rollerblading up and down the street, and hanging upside on the bar that we had in the backyard. 

As for blue…let’s see.  It’s definitely a very calming color, and when I’m calm, I’m pretty happy.  Plus, blue makes me think of the sky, and the beach.  Not that I really go to the beach, because I’m way too self-conscious to actually wear a bathing suit, and wearing a t-shirt and shorts at the beach is just silly.  Plus, I’m too lazy to drive to the beach. 

Anyway, blue.  And yellow.  Together, they make me think of sunny days, and sunny days make me happy.  Seriously.  I feel a lot more depressed when it’s raining and cloudy.

There isn’t anything else to report as far as writing or reading goes.

Random Stuff!

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I have a general idea of when I want to work on everything- Monday/Wednesday/Friday for already written novels, Tuesday/Thursday for planning/writing prompts and Saturday/Sunday, I’ll either take a break or work on whatever I feel like working on.  I need some kind of structure, and I figure it’ll be easier to focus my attention on each project if I have specific days to work on everything.  It really makes me glad I have my binder, because it’ll be a great way to keep everything organized. 

My writing “schedule” isn’t etched in stone or anything, so I’ll change it when I feel like I need to but I definitely need to get working on everything because I feel weird not working on my NaNo novels and my long-forgotten fanfics. 

Part of it is definitely my inner editor.  It’s like there’s this voice telling me that my projects aren’t worth working on (even though they are!) because they’re crap.  I’ve never finished anything I’ve started, but I am determined this time, because I like some of what I’m written, and I really want to see these projects to the end of the 1st draft.

I do have another fanfic idea.  It’s really more of an inkling, than an actual idea, so I might work on it, I might not.  At the rate I’m racking up these plot bunnies, I might have to do my own version of NaNo in some other month.  Or…I could use script frenzy as my way of getting started on these ideas.  But instead of doing a script, I could write a novel or two.