Still on a roll

I'll be publishing a short story collection. Yep. 10 short stories that can be found for free on the web. LOL. And I might write a new one.

I'm on a roll now

So I'm almost done with The Honeymoon. The script title for now is Love Letters.

I have two other script ideas. Titles are: The Times We Met & Musical Drama. Okay, Musical Drama isn't the title but there'll be a lot of music in this one. I was thinking of writing TTWM first but not sure any more.

I am going to try to self publish Wrong Foot First. Might have to change the title and the setting will be changed to USA.

I started my screenwriting class yesterday

Anyone who's visited this blog knows that time and time again I mention this whole writing thing. But in the end, I never actually go for it. My job has been kind enough to let me take a few days off a week to take this class and from my first class, I already knew this was something that I wanted to do. I really can imagine myself in the writer's room of a television show bouncing around ideas as we write an episode. I don't know if I will ever get there but I do know I will finish the script I am writing for the class. Wish me luck!

Thinking About Writing Fiction Again

This happens every few months, right? LOL. Well, I think I'm going to try to write a short story every month. I've just pooled my kdrama-related fiction on a blog and hope to update that with a short story each month starting in November. We'll see if I actually do it. LOL

Korean Drama Fanfiction

This also came about because there are so many things we all want to do with our lives but never do, aren't there? I'm trying to move from simply dreaming to doing.

It definitely helps that I've been writing on Couch Kimchi for a while. Even if they are only recaps, it does teach me how to collect my thoughts and keeps me writing.

New month's resolution

Write more! I've been way too unproductive. Pray for me. lol

I've been slacking for a while...

... but perhaps it's time for me to take this more seriously.

The writing world is abuzz about Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old self-published author who sold over 450,000 copies of her e-books in January alone, mostly priced between 99 cents and $2.99. She's now a millionaire. The writing world has been abuzz for a while about J.A. Konrath, who has very publicly blogged about the significant amount of money he has made selling inexpensive e-books.

Maybe e-books is where I should be.... but first, I've gatta come up with a sensational plot AND find an editor. But apparently this 450K-selling book was barely edited with "than" being used for "then" and other problems. But she's self published which means she's probably self edited and that alone leads one down a road of horrors (I know since I self edit). Perhaps that now she's making some $$, she can find a beta reader?

Damn, I'm freaking jealous.

Source

EDIT:

And it is really, really hard (or at least, it has been for me) to find an editor that can do all that. My books have all been edited - several times, by dozens of people with varying backgrounds - and people still find errors.

Oops... my bad, then.

Her blog 

EDIT2:
These people are writing about blood and paranormal romance... I don't have that kind of imagination or interest. Back to reality :(

After taking an unnecessarily long break...

... I think I am back to writing. We'll see :D

So I pledged to do something writing-related everyday...

Well, if surfing the net counts then yeah, I succeeded.

I am still updating my two stories weekly but I haven't done much editing.

I think I got scared because Femi's Diary is so much work.

Bleh.

I'll try to edit again tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

I am still thinking about nanowrimo. I came up with a YA novel called "Today." But shouldn't I at least work on editing my completed drafts and finishing my current stories before starting something new? :D

Possible writing projects for 2008

Poking around Absolute Write has really inspired me to take my writing seriously. I have far too many pieces lying around doing nothing. If I write so much, why not see if it can take me somewhere? I've been dragging my feet for too long.

So the plan is to do something writing-related everyday till the end of the year. This includes working on my two current Works In Project and editing my four finished pieces. I won't write anything new this year.

Projects I'm toying with for next year:

I'm the woman of the house. Or maybe it would be I'm the woMAN of the house or something like that. Basically, it'll be a Young Adult humorous story about a girl who's suddenly saddled with taking care of the home when her parents leave unexpectedly. Romance, light drama, humor. Obviously not a particularly original storyline but I hope to make it a fun read. Set in Lagos. EDIT: Okay, I need help. I only just thought of this storyline today and I've already started plotting it in my head. Things like NEPA... lol

Ogbanje. Wiki definitions for Ogbanje or Abiku. This will be a serious piece and the story I have in mind will sweep three novels. Lol. Do I have the energy for this? If I do write this, it will be last thing I work on.

Untitled. Romance/Humor/Cultural story. It'll be college-campus set and the heroine would be a girl who appears to love every culture but hers and the hero will be an American-born guy who's all into his parents' culture. I've been thinking about this storyline for about a year so I guess I might as well write it. Set in Yankee.

Edit Consequences and Honeymoon. Edit Femi 2 and WFF 2 if they aren't done yet.

Start sending queries and what not.

I've scrapped the idea of completing "Mission: Make Him Mine." Not that many people read my stuff normally but practically no one read that and maybe it's too gimmicky for me.

Novel lengths.

I just went to Harlequin's website just to poke around. I think I'm still too chicken to send anything but we'll see. LOL

But anyway, so I've been stressing about the length of my work and feeling that they aren't long enough. I just randomly click on stories from Project Gutenberg and other e-books and do word counts because I want to get an idea of how long a full length novel should be.

Of course, I'm generally disheartened because most often, the stories are over 100K words and some are like 300K+ words. Now, that's a joke if I've ever heard one. I can't imagine writing so many words.

Anyway, most of my O.C. multi-chapter fanfics were about 30-35K words which makes them novellas. The Sam Soon story is about 40K but the 4 'novels' I've completed have been 54-83K words. WFF will probably get about 3-4K more words when I edit, the two Femi's Diary stories will probably get 5-10K words after they've been edited. This will still leave my range about 58-83K words in length.

Consequences is currently at 73K words but will probably get 15-25K more words by the time I'm done. Honeymoon is at 20K and will probably end up at the 60-70K mark.

What's the point if this post? I've been stressing about the lack of length and I think I've actually dragged Consequences quite a bit just for this reason. Only to get to the site and see that their preferences are 50-75K in general. Oh well... not that I'm sending anything to them but it's good to see that shorter novels are also desirable. I guess this means that instead of stressing about length, I should just write the story and it'll be as long as the story deserves to be instead of needlessly dragging it.

I think Consequences has two chapters that I want to expunge but it's only because I waited so long till I got to them. I could probably eliminate 10K words without really changing the story. I am quite dissatisfied with that story.

I'm back writing again...

... updated a story on Saturday and should update the other tomorrow.

I cut my stupid finger on a Diet Coke can today.

What else? I love how my 100th post is complete crap. YIPPIE!

In respect to writing, my goals for the rest of the year:
Finish Consequences
Finish Honeymoon
Edit Femi's Diary (parts 1 & 2)
Edit Wrong Foot First (parts 1 & 2)
I think these are all doable.

Starting October 1st I am going to do something writing-related everyday.

Plan for 2008:
Start sending stuff out and brace myself for rejection.

On the writing front... (again)

All has been well for like the last few days. I'm just lazy and have been procrastinating for a while now. I should write something tomorrow (fingers crossed).

In my quest to rediscover my love for writing...

... I've been reading through posts at http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/.

I signed up in July but never really checked it out and even though the site is really not pretty, there appears to be a wealth of information on it.

Maybe this will do the trick. *fingers crossed.*

On my current hate-hate relationship with writing...

... for starters, this happened quite a bit while writing Femi's Diary. I think at one point I didn't update for like 6 or more weeks after my previously weekly updates. So I guess it's nothing major or even new. But I think the difference is that back then, the issue was that I wasn't really in the mood to write. Now, I think I kinda detest writing. Why?

1)It's tedious.
2)Right now, there's no pay off in any way, shape or form.
3)I could spend my time doing more productive things.
4)My ability/skills/creativity/whatever are average at best. I honestly can't tell if my writing is good or not. If I go by the content of feedback I receive, it's not bad. If I go by the amount of feedback I get, it's awful. I honestly don't think my writing is as bad as the amount of feedback I receive suggests so I guess I'll say I'm a little less than average? Personally, from reading my work, since I'm so close to it, I really can't be objective about it.
5)Whatever.

Maybe if I somehow found this rewarding, it would be different. But now, it just isn't. And the more I write, the more I hate it... and I think the worse I become. I feel like I need to just stop.

Bleh.

I keep flip-flopping...

Now I feel like I can't bring myself to write. Maybe I should just leave an announcement for my readers?

I'm feeling okay about writing again...

...Phew! I think I'm actually able to write right now but I've decide to hold off till Saturday. I'll try to write two chapters of Consequences and one of Honeymoon over the long weekend. Saturday will be two weeks since I updated Consequences so I'm sure my readers will be wondering what's up since I normally update frequently. But I don't feel like bumping my thread so I'm not making any announcements. I guess I'll just add an apology to the update on Saturday.

I guess by Saturday I'll have a fresh mind and clear head. I still don't love my stories or characters but I can tolerate them long enough to finish the soompi stories. Then no more writing for a while... although I'm thinking of finishing the Mission story. We'll see.

Out of boredom, I went through my old entries and apparently, this has happened before. LOL... I guess it's just a matter of losing my love for writing for a little while. But all's well that ends well, aye?

I've sent over some short stories to be added to an anthology that's getting published (a friend hooked me up). I'm lazy - I should have edited them but since a professional will be doing that, I decided to just send as is. I'm so bad! But anyhoo, I'll see how this goes.

But how can one tell if their story is good? During the writing process, I have absolutely no idea and in all honesty, I think it sucks but years later, when I read a story I no longer feel any connection to (and have forgotten), I generally have a more objective view of it. For example, during my cut and paste, I read some chapters of Femi's Diary and it's pretty funny. hehehe... I can't believe some of the stuff I wrote. For example, the character, Femi, attended a concert and this is one of the comments she made afterwards:

Beyonce is a ho. Camel toe. Enough said.

lol... and the level of swearing is really high. Geez. But damn, that shit needs to be edited. Too many typos and it's quite dialogue-heavy (mainly phone convos).

I have lost the desire to write

I hate my characters.
I hate my plots.
I hate my writing style.
I hate my stories.
I hate the process of writing.
I hate everything I've ever written.
I have half a mind to delete every single thing I've ever written and just call it a day.
I have decided to just take a break and not think about it.
I hope this goes away soon.

Fanfic and feedback

I just got a review for a story I wrote over 3 years ago and for some reason, I am so tickled.

The review was positive although the rewiewer did also provide some constructive criticsm. I guess I am tickled because, of course, she was correct but it was one of my earliest works when I was still trying to figure out how fanfiction worked so I wrote it like it was original fiction. The great thing about fanfiction is you don't have to establish backgrounds and relationships and the lazy part of me really misses that.

2004 was very productive for me in terms of writing. That was the year I discovered fanfiction and pretty much the same year I abandoned it. Not because I got sick of writing, but because I got sick of the show The O.C. and had no interest in writing fanfiction about the characters.

That got me thinking about the impact fanfiction has had on my writing and I must say that a large percentage of what I learned about writing was through fanfiction. Not just the experience of writing a story but also the discussions I had with other fanfic writers on TWoP. Gosh, I really miss being part of the fandom. On a side not, whenever I see TWoP, my mind reads it as PWP. Gosh, I'm so dirty minded.

It's always funny when I get a review for one of those stories because even though it was only three years ago, it feels much longer and it's funny to realize that there are people still reading that stuff. And how do they manage to do so considering all my stories are based on the first season and so much has happened since then? But it might be related to the fact that I wrote about non-canon relationships often starring minor characters in the show.

Which brings me to my My Name Is Kim Sam Soon fanfic that was completed in July 2006. It was simply written out of my love for the show and to give it a more complete ending. At the time, I didn't realize that k-fanfics were mainly about singers (RPF)and when I couldn't find a KSS fanfic to read, I wrote one. I am almost certain I've blogged about this before.

Anyhoo, I do wish there were more kdrama fanfics but most dramas do have endings that can't be stretched much further.

I wish I knew where I was going with this post but I guess it's time to go home, aye?

Although I constantly...

... have mixed feelings about posting on Soompi, I think that one great thing that has come out of it is discovering that I love writing YA fiction.

I've always loved High School movies and all that great stuff but when I think back to all I've written, even though I've pretty much liked all I've come up with, I think I've probably loved the YA stuff a tad more.

Or maybe not loved it more but found them easier to write? So I wonder if this is about laziness or about enjoying it more. I don't know.

But when I think of my multi-chap The O.C. fics, The Search for Seth Cohen was probably the most fun to write. And it was the only YA one.

When I think of the stories I wrote for NE, A Christmas At Home was the most fun to write.

And as per the Soompi stuff, I don't know... lol, they were all fun to write. So yeah, maybe YA is where it's at for me. So with this new self-discovery, hopefully, I'll find it in me to start working on my new story. I already anticipate having a lot of fun writing it, but the fun begins in the middle where the story really takes off. I guess I'm being a bit lazy about writing the intro.

That's probably what I miss most about writing fanfiction because with original fiction, you have to come up with a background and all that great stuff. I love to just jump in and write all the good stuff.

Bleh. I am so lazy.

I'm having a shitty day!

I was just reading some of my old stuff and got so disappointed in myself. I used to write good, interesting, meaningful things. Why am I now just writing CRAP? FLUFF? SHIT?

Why do I suddenly want to write YA Romance? Femi's Diary is chicklit but it does have depth. Why am I not taking my writing seriously? Am I scared of failure? At least, if I don't try hard I don't get disappointed when nothing comes out of it. Is that what the problem is?

I am wondering why I spend my time writing things at soompi that I know nothing will ever come out of. I know it's good to keep writing so that I get better at it but shouldn't I write something that could have a future? Plus soompi really isn't really the right place for me.

Going back to YA Romance, I just read some stuff and I think I can easily do it. Plus these stories are like 40k+ words which I can easily come up with. I wonder if I'm considering this because I think it's easy. Anyhoo, I'm thinking of really editing WFF and sending it to Simon & Schuster. I'll have to de-Koreanize the characters but is it even publishable in its current state? How can someone who isn't Korean and has never been to Korea write about Koreans in Korea? Oh well. I think getting rejections is better than not trying at all.

I think it's about time I stopped just writing and sitting on my ass without seeing if I could actually do something with it. And even though NE is kinda doing it, it's online. I guess I have to see if I can get anything published. Time to dust off my old stories and edit. Time to come up with new short stories. Time to start working on a novel instead of just thinking up stories I never write. But is it time to stop writing at soompi?