MIA no more

I've been MIA because I was.

I've been writing and going to a writer's group, still. So I didn't stop writing. I only stopped blogging.

I've decided to start up again and right now I've decided to use I've a lot. How am I doing? Since my last blog I've come up with a lot of great ideas for Jeremiah Jericho. I wrote a good query for it and sent it to, I think, five agents. Four of them have sent back rejections. All of the rejections were expected. I wasn't disappointed in them not wanting it. I'm waiting for the final one, because that's the one I expect to say yes. It's not like one of those yes replies that I'm sure of. It's more of a hopeful yes. I hope she says yes. Or at least she says yes to reading a little more of my novel.

I've stopped writing movie reviews for a while, but I've not stopped writing I've. As one can see. Anyway, by not writing movie reviews I can see movies, complain about them in my head and write my novel. It works out for me.

Where am I at right now with Jeremiah Jericho? I'm fixing the formatting of the first book. Christopher and Jeffrey's dialogue. I'm also writing the second novel by the seat of my pants. I had a sketchy idea of where I wanted it to go, but based on how I've written it, it veered off course. A bad thing? I don't know. I think it's an okay thing (you should Google where OK started, it's pretty interesting...saw it in a movie).

Initially I wanted Jeremiah Jericho to be local. I didn't want him to venture off into the world. Mainly because I didn't want to have to dabble in research of places and such. But I allowed the story to control me and dictate where it wanted to go and I've ended up in places I've never visited. So I had to do a little research. It's not going to stop, either. It's become a world thing and it's annoying that's not what I wanted. I'm dealing with that realization. Sadly. It's not too bad, so that's good.

My friend created what Jeremiah Jericho would look like. I liked it, except for the long hair, but I got over that. It's pretty darn cool, I think.

I'm impressed, as I told him. I'm still in awe. It's just neat to see my character in drawn form. I've had other people draw him, but it's not as cool as having a friend do it.

That's where I'm at. It's late and I shouldn't have started this, but I thought I'd update it for fun. I don't know how many people read this, but if no one it's more like a writing diary of sorts.

Epiphany's Eureka

While I sit and wonder about the holes in my novel, I try to think of ways to fix them or great ways to just ignore them. The problem I've faced for a while is that Jeffrey is a back up Christopher and that's not what I wanted. I want Jeffrey to stand alone. As in he doesn't need to be a back up battery for Christopher or some sort of comedy relief. He needs to be a character that can be liked, understood and appreciated.

That's when I realized that the reason why Jeffrey seemed so distant is because he doesn't talk about his life. He speaks of nothing but what is going on at present. It will not alter too much if I go back and add some Jeffrey life stories to a few parts of my first novel. It will enhance it and probably make him less similar to Christopher who is just a computer with an attitude.

That was my Epiphany's Eureka. I was sitting at a Starbucks waiting to hand over wedding pictures I took for a person on the internet and I was reading over the notes I got back from my Wednesday night writing group. Something someone said snapped in my head and I thought that Jeffrey needs a past. He has one, I just never really allowed him to speak about it and I think that's muffled his existence. The person who sparked that wasn't even commenting on that. Others have and it's stuck in my mind for a while, so it's good I've come with this.

Sometimes when I sit and think about a story in a semi-quiet area, I come up with great ideas. I don't do it often because I don't like sitting in quite areas. I don't have a lot of sitting and doing nothing moments. I guess I need more of that to fix my problems in my writing. Probably in my life, too. Ha.

I'll try to do that from time to time. Sit down with my writing and just think of a problem I'm having and maybe the quiet (no music, no TV, no other phone or internet to distract me) will be enough for my characters to have the balls to say, "Ummm...I am not really myself. Care to allow me to be me? You know, by allowing me to speak about my past." And maybe, just maybe I'll have another Epiphany's Eureka and fix another problem I've been thinking about.

What problem is that? Well....I guess I'll tell you...Writing a query letter that's cliche and boring just because that's how it's done. I don't do boring. I took pictures for a wedding of a person I met on the internet and I bought them a card to congratulate them. I never met them before that day and I bought them a card and wrote a simple poem in it. Had I proceed in that instance with a cliche manner, I wouldn't have even agreed to do anything for someone online. I would certainly NOT have bought them a card. So it's difficult to do things like everyone else does them when it comes to writing. Which is why I'm on a hunt for an agent that isn't into being safe and cliche ridden. That's a difficult hunt. A hunt I have to make because my novel is so far off the beaten path that Holden Caulfield would want to see the film after reading the book because it would most likely be the only film (if done right) he'd ever enjoy.

That is my problem. I'll see if a moment of silence during the weekend can solve it. Here's to another Epiphany's Eureka.

Write your dreams. Dream your words. And may your soul inspire the ages.