RSS Feed
Dec 25

About my writing again

Posted on Friday, December 25, 2015 in Writing

As I’ve mentioned before I’m trying really hard to finish all my works in progress and also a number of others that I want to start and finish before the end of January. I know it’s probably not a good idea to rush things, but at the same time I wouldn’t want to wait for years to write these stories, if you know what I mean.

Today I finished proofreading and editing the last book I finished (last night) and I was determined to start on the next one. Now I have. I mean, it’s nothing much, just a couple of thousand words, but I didn’t want to waste this day on doing nothing. Normally, I would have waited a few days at least, maybe weeks, to sort of ‘recharge my creative batteries’ but in this particular situation I can’t. The trouble is, I don’t seem to feel as much for this story as I did the others I recently finished. Also, I was far more enthusiastic about this idea a while back, say six months ago, than I am now. Now it’s almost boring me. That’s not a good start.

I have several others I could get to work on, but I thought I’d try a little harder with this one first. Maybe it will feel better tomorrow, once I get further into the story.

I have two other ideas, that may not be enough for two full length novels but at least novellas. (Actually more than that, but I’ll start with these.) The weird thing is, I feel very strongly about them, especially one of them, but I still wasn’t able to get the first couple of sentences written.

If I can’t do anything about the one I got started on, I might switch to one of the others.

Lately, I’ve been doing that a lot. Writing two or more at the same time. Weird. It’s the first time I’ve managed to do that. And it’s worked out quite well too, as far as I can tell.

It’s like this friend of my sister’s. He’s a computer programmer. When his place of work has an internet outage and he can’t get any actual work done, guess what he does? He brings out his iPad and programs for himself, just for fun.

So while I was taking a break from finishing one story I was already writing another. To be honest, life is so difficult right now, it’s great to be able to escape into my writing. I’d do it with reading too, if it weren’t for the fact that I read too fast and I tend to finish my books so soon I’d run out if I didn’t hold back a bit.

So, just wish me luck, ok? I really do have to finish these books before the end of January. Also, keep your fingers crossed that I can find the whole book I’ve been working on for over ten years on my old crashed computer, when my sister finally gets around to ‘performing surgery’ on it.

I think I can manage the other one on my own. When I had to stop there, I was doing so well. It was outside influences that forced me to leave off there, but I still know exactly what to do from there. As long as I get it back (from the crashed computer), I should be able to finish it pretty soon. All I need to do is find a new and better title for it, but that’s the least of my problems. I might want to change the title of the older work too, but I’ll see about that. Maybe I’ll add a poll or ask you guys to help out with that later on. If I get to finish it soon.

Oct 26

Thoughts about my writing

Posted on Monday, October 26, 2015 in Writing

I’ve been thinking about my writing, all types of writing. The thing is, writing is what keeps me going, and what works best for me, (“my best fix”) is a novel or at least a children’s book. If I write a blog post the ‘buzz’ disappears really soon, especially if no one reads it and that happens a lot. Secondly, if I write a short fan fic or original story it lasts a little longer. If I write a long fan fic or original story that I’m happy about it lasts longer and as I mentioned above, a novel or at least a whole book lasts even longer. Of course, if no one buys the book or reads my long story, the effect fades sooner, but even if I’m the only one who reads anything I have written (fiction, not blog posts) I usually enjoy it to some extent. Reading a really good book works about the same.

Sep 16

Ramblings about slash and male and female in writing

Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 in Writing

Slash was, apparently, though I had no idea at the time that that was what it was, a relatively early interest for me. I remember thinking up ‘slash’ stories (that were never written) when I was in my early teens. In fact, I had a dream (real night time dream) about two ‘brothers’ in a tv series and at the time, I didn’t even have any idea of what exactly those two had been up to, but it seemed very interesting to me. That continued for a while, until I learned more about gay relations etc. I didn’t know anyone who wrote either slash stories or for that matter fan fiction. Maybe it’s because I’m from a rather ‘provincial’ country or that I’m pretty old by now (I hope my readers are now saying no, you’re not!) but I remember people talking about gay relations as being somehow wrong or sick. Another example: I have a second cousin, who’s quite nice, but maybe a bit simple. Some pop stars came up in conversation (this guy loves pop music) and I mentioned that they were gay, and he said: no way, they seem so well behaved (as in well brought up or civilized, I guess). I didn’t get his meaning – well, in a way I did, but it seemed so totally irrelevant. So clearly in his family (not very surprising, because you really should know a few things about his mother), it’s the way they think about gay people.

From about the same time I began to get my slash ideas, I tried to write (extremely bad) romantic stories about straight couples, but they tended to bore me in the end. Traditional couples don’t interest me. I always like something different, like f/m or the woman being older etc. Not that I even like ‘pure’ romances or will write them. It’s also extremely difficult to write a good straight pairing in fan fiction, because precious few female characters are any good, to be brutally honest. That leaves you to invent an original character, which isn’t very popular, but I have done it in the past (no Mary Sue, more like an anonymous, independent watcher from outside the group the writing is about) or to improve the female character so that I like her, which may not be very popular either, because everyone has a different view of what is a ‘good’ female character.

In original fiction, I’ve been told it’s not really popular to write about female characters (at least in children’s books) because apparently, girls can be expected to read all books, whereas boys can only be expected to read about other boys. Relatively recently (a year or two ago), I remember reading about how critics were lamenting the loss of the most popular children’s books series (due to age I suppose – the writers are no longer up to making up new stories), because they were more or less the last ones who write about boys. Now, I’m not that picky – I also never pay attention to what colour or ethnic background the main character has. All I care about is whether it’s a ‘good’ character (as in one I like).

In fact, I don’t really worry too much about the age of the main character (though I’m getting more than a little tired of what is in Swedish referred to as the ‘middle-aged male mystique’, meaning how you get to dwell in detail on how these men don’t brush their teeth, how they prefer to have a drink instead of eating a proper meal, how they don’t bother to shower, don’t obey their superiors and yet, despite all these drawbacks, are irresistible to significantly younger females.

Sep 13

Writing about mythology

Posted on Sunday, September 13, 2015 in Writing links

http://its-a-writer-thing.tumblr.com/post/128976481208/hi-im-writing-a-story-that-will-be-involving

Sep 3

Slash in ‘conventional’ book publishing

Posted on Thursday, September 3, 2015 in Writing

Speaking of adult stories as I did in my last blog post, it occurred to me that all these years of fan fiction/slash really has had a result on ‘conventional’ book publishing.

When I was a teenager, I found myself inventing slash stories, even though I didn’t know anyone else who did (or read anything like that). Where I lived, in a small town, gay issues weren’t discussed. I’m sure gay people suffered discrimination. I do know that being different, albeit straight, was tough here, but then I suspect this is one of the worst towns in the world. I’m not exaggerating. Anyway, for years I didn’t write my stories down, and if I discussed them with anyone, it was my sister who tends to feel about the same as I do about most things.

Then a little later (early 20’s and so on) I decided that I would write my stories. It was fun but a bit embarrassing, because I couldn’t let anyone read them except my sister. Of course, my first stories were awful (and so was my poetry). Still, I don’t regret doing all this writing, because eventually I did get better (at least I hope so).

One day in the late 1990’s I was chatting on the Star Trek chat room (on about.com – I think the site still exists, but the best before date has long since expired). Someone said ‘if you’re a writer, then you’ll be writing fan fiction too, right’? I was puzzled, because I’d never heard of fan fiction. It struck me as ridiculous and I couldn’t see why people would do it. Then, only a few weeks later, I remembered hey, those kinky stories I dreamed up when I was about 13, those were fan fiction (and slash even!) so why not? After that I spent more than ten years writing, writing, writing. Some original fiction, but mainly fan fiction. Even today, when things are extremely different, I sometimes look at one of my old stories and I’m amazed I wrote such good stories so long ago (sadly, I often encounter a different kind of story that I wiill occasionally delete).

What I was going to get to, eventually, by the time I’ve stopped cheering myself up by reminiscing about my good old fan fiction days, is that all those years when so many other people got used to reading and writing slash stories, eventually resulted in people writing such stories for publication.

Which is so much fun. In the past, especially in older books that I’d had handed down to me, anything gay was almost never mentioned, and if anything was, it was usually as an example of something related to mental illness. That’s why it’s so great to find all kinds of different books, not only romance stories that deal with gay (male) couples.

On the other hand, when gay gets more accepted, you tend to lose the plot device that deals with ‘the shameful secret’. I kind of miss that, even if real life is different and I think it’s great that people no longer have to hide.

Jun 6

Me and YA literature

Posted on Monday, June 6, 2011 in Literature

I read this and wanted to write a blog post about the same topic. Unfortunately, the post started me thinking along so many lines I ended up not having one single relevant idea to post about, which makes me feel stupid, but I hope it’s just emotional overload.

Anyway, YA literature has always meant a lot to me, even back when I was far from an adult, young or otherwise. I’ve been reading books for older kids/young adults since I was about four when it always used to puzzle me that the heroines of my books were up to ten years older than me.

Lately, it’s occurred to me that most ‘adult’ books I read are light-hearted, fun, cheerful stories (often with a dark undertone, but still), whereas the YA books I read are much darker and more serious. I’m not suggesting that less skill goes into writing the books for grown readers, but somehow, I think these writers have different goals, and I think I can understand why.

When we’re young we don’t shy away from serious topics, but when we grow up, life usually takes a turn for the worse and ends up far more menacing than it once was. In (entertainment) literature we (I) seek out distractions from everyday life.

Still, I can’t give up on the YA books either, so I still end up burying myself in serious, dark stories even now. At least the difference between YA and ‘real’ literature is that most YA books have happy endings, just like we’d like our lives to have. (Happy, at least, not endings.)

Mar 15

Torchwood fics again

Posted on Monday, March 15, 2010 in Fandom, Whining

In case anyone missed them the last time, here are my Torchwood fics.

Oct 6

I’ll have to do some translations again

Posted on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 in Fandom, Writing

That’s it. I will have to translate my Wallander fics into English. When I read the result of an online translation, I realized that this couldn’t go on. You have no idea how stupid it looks. I certainly hope no one thinks I write that badly in reality. Translating is such a bore. I’d been hoping to be able to wait a while longer, but since there’s a demand, I’ll just have to do it. Actually, it might be a good thing for another reason too. At least I try to tell myself that. If I get to work on something, I might be able to get back to writing again, and if so I just might be able to finish my novel, at long last. I hope so anyway.

Jan 20

What’s historic – really?

Posted on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 in Writing

Since I write historic stories, I began to wonder where you draw the line. What is a historic story? When it comes to fan fiction, I suppose it depends on in what era the fandom is set, but the question remains. What point in time, can be referred to as historic?

I guess there are different ways of looking at it. It probably depends on how old you are. An example: some years ago the tv series American Dreams, set in the 1960’s, was on here in Sweden. I tried to persuade my mother to watch it too. She said no. But, I insisted, it’s historic. No, it isn’t, she said.

In my own writing I’ve decided to treat a story set in the 1980’s as historic, whereas one set in the 1990’s isn’t. Some years from now, that might change, but at the moment, that’s my division. I have memories from the 1980’s, but I still say that’s historic. It’s so long ago.

Do you agree? What is your definition of a historic story (tv series, movie etc)?

Dec 19

Dreams as inspiration

Posted on Friday, December 19, 2008 in Writing

This is nothing new, I know, but I think it’s quite interesting that dreams can be inspiration for fiction.

In my case, it’s happened a couple of times already. Once, it was a horrible nightmare (which might not sound quite as horrible if I recounted it), that turned into a short horror story (which is extremely rare for me – normally, I neither read nor write horror).

In fact, thinking back, I think most of my ideas based on dreams, have been horror or at least scary. One reason might be that those dreams stand out, which makes me remember them.

On the other hand, I once had what was (at least when I woke up) nothing more than a scene, but that one scene turned into a fantasy story. I can still remember how it felt to be ‘there’ – where I witnessed the scene. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to work all that into the story, but I was quite happy about it anyway.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers: