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After toying with the idea of taking up blogging again for a few months, I am now hereby putting action to my thoughts by officially resurrecting this blog ... if not with a "real" entry, then at least with a new layout. I tried out Tumblr recently, but immediately found my way back here. I'm very fond of Dreamwidth in general - and this blog in particular, because it was a present from

roguegambit.

This will no longer strictly be a writing blog; I should probably add this as a warning to all my writing buddies who have subscribed. I doubt that my writing will be much of a subject at all, in fact. At some point all the discussing and talking about my novel proved to be counterproductive. It scared off my muse for a long, long time and she made a reappearance only recently. I'm slowly, ever so slowly, starting to feel like a writer again and it's great. I can't risk scaring away my muse again. So I'll handle that little bugger with kid gloves and try to talk as little about writing as possible, if that's alright with you.

Actually, for today I'll stop talking altogether and go to bed instead. Good night, everyone!

For the past few days I’ve been grieving.

I’ve been mourning the loss of a character, who – I thought - needed to be axed from my story before I could even bring him into existence on paper. I’ve been grieving the loss of an entire plot line, too, which concerned this particular character and my beloved ~~Bre~~ M ;-).

Despite the fact that this plot line would have included some of my favourite moments of the story, I felt there wasn’t actually room for it, because it was likely to convolute things and the character itself would end up being a fifth feel to the story.

It annoyed me to no end, however, and I was beating myself up over it. Instead of writing, I was sulking. “If only I was a better writer, I could make it work. I’m sure anyone but me would be able to come up with an idea to integrate him into the story regardless. If only, if only, if only …”

But then, half an hour ago (whilst sitting in the office and writing a request for a donation receipt to Unicef, if you must know *grins*), I had a real lightbulb! moment … and now I’m grieving no more!!

I found a way to integrate both, the character and its plot, into the story. Yes, I had to make a few adjustments to both and “relocate” the character entirely, but I actually think all these changes are for the better. The solution was so easy, really, I don’t know why I haven’t seen it before.

I’m so absolutely delighted and motivated right now, it’s unbelievable. I wish I could continue writing right this second. I mean, seriously, working full time is nothing for an aspiring writer! *huffs* Then again, sometimes the monotony of an office job can really spur a writer’s imagination.

Apparently.

There is one character in my hopefully-one-day-finished-novel that I'm more fond of than others. He's the most well-defined of all of my "children" and really, truly alive in my head. He's my baby and I'm very proud of both his personality and his story-line, if I may say so myself. In fact, sometimes I feel like the whole project is worth hanging on to only because he has to see the light of day one day, you know? I feel like I owe it to him.

Funnily enough, he's also one of the few characters that already has a name ;-). But let's just call him M.

Anyway ... while I'll certainly be obliged to add the standard "Any similarities to real people are unintentional" disclaimer later on, I think for now I can safely admit that many of my characters are, visually at least, indeed inspired by real people. Delusional as it may be, I like to amuse myself by modeling my characters' looks after certain actors that I like, because I love imagining just who would play them in the movie adaptation ... that sort of thing. ;-)

M, however, isn't based on anyone. He is my own creation from start to finish. I know exactly what he looks like. I know the sound of his voice. I know the colour of his hair, his eyes, I know every mole on his body down to the little freckles on his nose. I know how tall he is, I know his weight ... hell, I can even *smell* him when I close my eyes. Yes, this little vampire really is my baby.

Then, last week I saw him! ( Read more... )

I don't know if authors find the task of naming their characters more or less daunting than parents naming their newborn children, but I, for one, do find it an extremely overwhelming task to name my characters. Maybe that's because, as a reader, I place a tremendous amount of importance on a character's name. Too much importance, as my sister tells me.

I get a real kick out of names that not only fit their bearers' personalities like a glove, but at the same time are unique and haven't been used much before. Maybe never. Bonus points if the name also has a special meaning, which complements a character's personality or their role in the plot.

And as much as I hate-love J.K. Rowling for being the one who came up with the name Draco Malfoy first *cough* instead of me *cough*, her talent in choosing such names for her characters in the Harry Potter series has been incredible! Surely, we wouldn't love the snarky potions master half as much as we do if his name was Albus Longbottom. Surely, I wouldn't love afore-mentioned Draco Malfoy as much as I do if his name was Arthur Granger. You get the idea.

Names are important. ( Read more... )

I own some webspace that I once used to run a personal weblog/photalbum, but that website has been on hiatus for years now. I have a livejournal account, which I use only to comment on friends' entries or to post reviews for artists I admire. This morning, I even opened an insanejournal account to the same effect. But actual blogging, that's something I haven't done in ages.

Weblogs are only ever fun when the owner posts regularly, but there's only so much repetition one can force down their readers' throats by telling them "Today I got up at 6:30, took the train at 7:30, started work at 8:30, left work at 5:30 and came home at 7:00. Then I grabbed something to eat and sat down in front of the computer to answer my e-mails and/or spent way too much time on Facebook and/or ordered way too many books on Amazon and/or attempted some creative writing" over and over and over again.

Lately my darling sister and my no less darling friends have started bugging me about said creative writing attempts ever more loudly, however. In other words, they've told me to "Finally sit down on your big arse and write that darned vampire novel that you've been talking about writing for the last ten years now ... or else!" ( Read more... )

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