Archive for the Category »Coney Island Psychic «
So here I am thinking that I’m having issues with the voice even after I got all that good advice from my AW peeps that I sit down to start to write the hack that I have from a different point of view (POV). I look at the typed words, look at the blank piece of paper and my pen, and I pick up the 6 pages to read it again. You know what? Wasn’t that bad. I don’t need a different POV. Maybe I’m leaving something out. How about I just start rewriting what I have? Maybe I just need to expand. So I start rewriting long-hand.
If I hadn’t said it before (damn memory), all of my work starts off in long-hand and then gets transferred to a Word document. Why? Because I find it easier for the ideas to flow if I write manually. My brain equates a Word document to death and it freezes and refuses to work (my brain). Really, even if something’s in the document, in order to edit I need to print it out. What can I say? My gray matter hasn’t evolutionized to acclimate to Word. Sue me.
This is the pirate wench I speak of. Well, she’s not really a pirate, nor a wench but she’s driving me up a freakin‘ wall, that’s for sure. This is Layla, the main character (MC) from my Coney Island story. See? I wasn’t lying in my aside when I said I couldn’t draw to save my life. Well, it’s not atrocious but it’s certainly not a masterpiece. And yes, I speak of her as if she were a real person. If you’re a writer, you understand me completely. If you’re not then you probably see me as slightly (or wholly) psychotic. Oh well. When you write, your characters become real, take on lives (voices, actions, whatever) of their own and do things that go against every miraculous idea you have floating around in your head for what you want them to do. Big, giant bitches.
This is the prototype of Layla. It’s certainly not an exact transfer of what I have in my head for her. In fact, this is more of a caricature but it’s a ‘you get my drift’ piece. Actually, if you want a closer concoction to her, just combine Marisa Tomei, Jami Gertz and Maggie Wheeler (no, she doesn’t sound like she has corks stuffed up her nose) and you’ve pretty much got this chick bagged. Anyway, she’s been giving me some issues, hence the stalled word count for my work in progress (WIP). You see, I can’t stand her fucking voice. I’ve always been taught that if you use a specific dialect, a person from a specific region, a real city, you want to be as authentic to that person and/or place as you can possibly get because it’ll make your story seem more real. Well, I’ve certainly got the dago girl from Brooklyn down but so help me god I want to slap her. Note to self: Brooklyn voice ok in My Cousin Vinny. Brooklyn voice DOES NOT transfer to the written word.
Just because the word count ain’t moving doesn’t mean I’m not working on the book. The research isn’t going to do itself, you know. I’m a touch masochistic so I like to bombard myself with as much stuff as humanly possible and see just how far I can stretch my brain before I say fuck it, I’m playing Treasures of the Deep for six hours. It’s like Brick but awesomer and just as addictive as Tetris. Damn it all.
Originally posted on November 25th, 2007 at Finding Boddie.
I have officially started writing the Coney Island novel. I have no idea what it’s going to be called, how long it’s going to be or, really, any other particular relating to the novel itself. I have ideas for chapters and while I’m aiming for linear writing, I doubt that’s going to happen. But we all need to start somewhere and that somewhere is at the beginning for me. Not all that shocking for a starting point but it’s pretty hard to write from the end back and all. Maybe there’s someone that can do it but not me.
Another shocker, for me at least, is that I started directly to Word. With that new-fangled contraption you wouldn’t think it’s surprising but I’m a pen to paper type of gal. Everything I’ve ever written has been manual first, type later. With the daunting task of typing in hundreds of pages and tens of thousands of words later on, I thought on it for a millisecond and started typing. I have my lovely book ‘o notes that I jot things down in and then I type. Eh, something new for me. What I need is one of those pens that when you write, it transfers directly to the computer. Holy crap, the time that would save! Now if only I can catch one of the commercials and actually remember what the hell the thing is called.
I’m still tossing around the idea of creating a separate blog for the book but keeping up with this one is a pain in the ass as it is and I’m just way too lazy to add another ass pain to my ranks. I still don’t know, though. I might, I might not. Eh.
So I have this plot that I’m working on, derived from a character that I had written in, of all places, a piece of fanfiction. Yeah, I said it. Fanfiction. No, I won’t tell you for what, where it’s posted or any other incriminating information regarding what many consider a loser’s masturbatory fantasy. Just for the record, I’d like to think I’m not a loser nor do I masturbate to my own writing. That would be just awkward . . . and rather messy.
So I have this chapter (in the fic) where I briefly introduce a character, a psychic, that owns a shop on Coney Island. She makes mention that she’s come across a slew of vampires and other dark creatures because, well, she’s psychic and picks up on those tidbits pretty quickly. This comes up because the two characters I have her encounter are vampires but don’t wear that fact on their sleeves. So, ever since I brewed that very small piece of information, the idea has been spiraling.
