Short Stories

Currently reading:  Dubliners (Signet Classics)

Dear Reader,

I am still becoming accustomed to working on a sales floor all day.  Some days it feels like it is getting easier, other days it doesn't at all.  However I need to start working writing back into the routine if I ever want to get published.

A while ago I mentioned that writing a novel terrified me.  The length and amount of details needed for a novel is daunting.  I am reminded of my first attempts at writing on my first computer.  I struggled at size 20 font to fill more than two or three pages worth of story, wanting to drag out the story to make it longer.  I am always overwhelmed with the idea of filling a novel with a story.

At the same time, short stories aren't really for me either.  Many suggest that to be the best writer you should write what you prefer to read, and I much prefer novels to most short stories.  There are exceptions to any rule, but I prefer to be able to lose myself in a novel for hours on end than to read a short story that ends much too quickly.  I enjoy taking the time to get to know the character and the world, whether the pacing is leisurely or fast paced.  Many short stories just do not do it for me, I just get my bearings in the story when it's over.

So I suppose I should suck it up and brave the novel.  I might not get it right the first time.  It might revise down to a short story in length when done, but between setting out for the brevity of a short story, or facing the daunting task of a novel, I'd prefer tackling a novel.

Which do you prefer reading?

Until next time,
Rose

Work

Reader,

I apologize for the silence these last two weeks.  I was hired for a job, and started the day after my last post.  It isn't the most glamorous in the world, but it is money, and it is money now as opposed to holding out for a higher paying, more dignified position later on down the road.  This is the job I need, though I'll start looking for better once I build up job experience and clout.

It feels as if I've barely had time to breath, let alone write, in the blog or otherwise.  Technically I've had plenty of time to breath, but going from the mostly sedentary life of a student/writer to five and a half to 8 hour shifts of being on my feet all day long has required some adaptation.

In the meantime I'm becoming frustrated rather quickly, my blogs are going unread, my writing is as sedentary as my existence was pre-job, I have Thank You notes from two weeks ago still sitting next to the printer ready to be mailed, and my free time is devoted mostly to sleeping, eating, or relaxing.  I keep wondering if it will get any better, if I will become used to the job and gain more energy off work, or whether I should just push through the sloth and force myself to write and read in spite of the pain, exhaustion, and apathy towards writing.

Does working on your feet get easier?

How do you find time after work to do what you want?

Should I push through the bad feelings, or give myself the chance to become accustomed to the job?

Until next time (and I do hope it isn't two weeks out),
Rose

The Job I Need vs. the Career I Want

Reader,

This past weekend was a hectic one.  Between the death of my fiance's grandfather (may he rest in peace and forever enjoy the range up in the sky) and the plethora of graduates to celebrate one could hardly get a breather.  However it was also a fun weekend filled with family, friends, and loved ones. 

A wise woman said to the group of graduates at my party (bad paraphrasing aside), "Never forget the job you want just because you have the job you need."  I am not sure if she knows how important that is to an inspiring author.

You see, as a writer you participate in your dream career for years at a time without recognition, or pay.  You write, and you write, and write some more.  You write short stories, novels, whatever your heart and thoughts lead you to write.  All that while you need a job.  For me personally, I want a job that requires as little thought about it as possible when not on the clock.  I already have one off the clock job I don't need another.

Once you finish the writing, you begin the great revision process.  This alone could take months even years, as you polish your creation, your brain child, until it shines.  Still you are off the clock.  Still you need a day job.

Then your creation is finished, but are you?  Far from it.  Now you have to query agents in the case of a novel.  This baby that you've been working on for months, years, decades, you have to distill down to one page, 250 words.  Consider this your cover letter for your dream job (to barrow shamelessly from a comment over at Miss Snark's First Victim).  As you fish around with your query letter (probably five or six versions of the same letter tailor fit to each agent) you still need your day job to pay the bills.

The agent may ask for more pages, or even a full manuscript and you passed  the first hurdle, gaining representation.  You still need your day job.

The agent then works with you to find a publishing house that will buy the manuscript you slaved over off the clock.  You might even sell the novel, but chances are the advanced check won't be high enough to allow you to quite your job yet, you still need your day job.

So for me, and many other writers it's not a choice between the job we need or the job we want.  We are actively participating in both at the same time.  Sure our day job may shift, become better, or worse than what came before.  Some writers enjoy their jobs so much they might not quit it even if they were able to support themselves on just writing.  But those are few and far between.

Are you happy with the job you currently have?
Do you have the job you need, the job you want, or both?

Until next time,
Rose

Setting

Reader,

Literary agent Nathan Bransford has a great blog for those aspiring to be writers.  He posts 5 days a week, asking questions of his readers, critiquing work, writing articles, and reviewing the week in publishers.  Now that I've graduated his blog is one of the many 'classrooms' I frequent to continue my reading.  If you have yet to check him out, feel free to do so.

On Thursday he wrote an article on Setting which got me thinking about my work in progress.  I had already considered making the river in my current Work In Progress (WIP) a character in it's own right, however otherwise I wasn't planning on exploring the setting very much further. 

As I read Nathan's post though, I got to thinking more about the importance of setting.  Even now, years after reading The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, I remember different elements of Pern with fond memories.  Likewise who, having read even one Harry Potter novel, wouldn't want to visit Hogwarts at least once? 

So I've decided to develop my novel's world a bit more.  It has the potential for change underway, there are three distinct regions built into the setting, with the flow from hunter gatherer to farmland to growing bustling city.  I already planned to give it at least some of it's own character, but I'm wondering more and more if the river can't tie all three together in someway or another since it's already tied the first two together.

This focus on further world building might be exactly what I need to jump start this project from it's mostly stagnant status.  I might not be writing the actual novel for a while, true, but the more I know about the setting before hand, the more I can just let loose and write later.

Is setting important in what you read? 
What are a few of your favorite settings?

Until next time,
Rose