Melinda Jones ~ The Sweet Escape
…wouldn't that be sweet?

Tag Archives: fanfiction

Apr 1 2010

No, seriously.

by MJones

I know how to fix Same Time Next Week.

I need to back the story up.  I’ve solved my problem too early and I’ve run out of enough conflict to keep the story running. So, I need to add more ‘story’…. I always get into trouble when I get lazy and try to skip story… and bring both conflicts in the story to a more reasonable conclusion. And I need to bring my main characters back to a certain point, which will be significant to the story.

Amazing. Uhm. I have no idea when I am going to dig into it and fix it. But. Yes.

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Mar 14 2010

Another Chapter down the hatch!

by MJones

Chapter 41 is complete and up at the Archive. It was a pretty simple chapter to write, and some things actually surprised me by coming out while I was writing it.  Most importantly, I got something that I can build on for future chapters. Know what that’s called? PLOT! WOOP!

I’m having an issue with another story in that I am horribly stuck but I want to finish the story so badly. I’m unable to go back and figure out what’s not working, though. It’s just…boring and I can’t figure out how to extend it or rewrite it or… SIGH. It’s been sitting for quite some time. It’s actually my 2009 NaNo piece. I’d sure love to call that thing done before NaNo 2010 starts. :|

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Feb 16 2010

Why am I freaking out about this?

by MJones

I have great samples that can be polished/ rewritten and submitted, just for practice.

Gee.. I gotta make everything so hard.

I am thinking of revamping Calm Waves and Smooth Moon. Giving it a new title and a little more story and submitting it to a short story archive. Have to check to see if it has to have not appeared elsewhere first, since I put everything in my personal archive.

After that, I’ll get some prompts and get to writing something new as well as plan out the next chapter of All I Wanna Do… I also want to have something submitted to The Glimmer Train by the end of March. I could aim for the end of February but that’s not a lot of time to produce a quality piece.

Going to do it. HAVE to.

Pen in Hand,

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Feb 14 2010

Another chapter on the books…

by MJones

I remember back when I was trying to finish this story… last year…. and I said I didn’t even want to hit Chapter 30 because I thought that was ridiculous. Here I am at Chapter 40 and still going strong. In my mind, we have quite a bit more story left to tell. Who knows how many chapters, but we know how I hate to rush through these things.  I’m truly enjoying spinning this yarn. It’ll finish when it finishes.

What slows me down, sometimes, is resarch. Research is King and I like to do a lot of it. This chapter found our main characters driving through Tennessee, from Kingsport through Gatlinburg/ Pigeon Forge. Among other storylines, they take a trip to the Pigeon Forge Elvis Museum. And, wow. Just watching the video alone at elvismuseums.com gave me ideas for how to incorporate some fun into the story. Funny thing is that one of my reviews mentioned that they’d been to that very museum. I love when art imitates life… or whatever that saying is.

From there they drove on to New Orleans, destination French Quarter. I’ve never been to N.O. but I’m dying to go someday. If I do, I must stay at the Maison Dupuy Luxury Hotel, just based on the pictures. I love hotels! The most fun in writing this story has been picking out the destinations and trying to weave a description into the story line.

Hoping to get started on a new chapter this week… I don’t want to take a lot of down time and get out of rhythm. Have been doing a lot of blogging and reading of blogs, gathering inspirations here and there. I need some literary inspiration, though, so I’m hoping to get back to my lunch time reading habit this week.

Speaking of inspiration, I am going to be following along on WriteMeg’s Two Girls Read Shakespeare. I’m ashamed to say, as a writer, that I’ve never read much Shakespeare. Amazingly, it wasn’t required in my English classes, even the College Prep ones, and past Romeo and Juliet, I never read any. I studied Communication at University– had I stuck with English as a major I likely would have read my share. So, now I’ve got to make up for it and I’m looking forward to being analytical and discussing literature. Almost makes me want to go back to school.

Almost.

Pen in Hand,

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Feb 9 2010

Giddy with Glee~

by MJones

I wrote!

I wrote!

The heavens parted and words came forth! I wrote!

Praise be to William Shakespeare and Strunk & White, I wrote! Lol.

Have to make a big deal of it, because it’s been so long since words flowed. Crossing my fingers that I can keep up the momentum through the end of the chapter.

Yesterday on my personal blog I was reminded of a weekly story that used to post on Redbook.com I think, every Friday. It was called the Story of V, and I was completely addicted to it. It was more soap opera than literary offering, but I was into it. I’ve come to think of my epic fiction piece as like that story, just a weekly installment of decadent fantasy. And I’d like to be able to offer an update that regularly– not perfect but good enough to read, just to get it out of me. Not worrying about making it sound like a novel, just write and have fun. Fix it in post, lol.

We’ll see. Still working toward short stories, drabbles, writing exercises. TIME! I need more of it. There is a new prompt at Promptedtowrite. We’ll see if I can focus on something long enough to get something out.

Guh. Gonna be late for work. Shower is runninnnnnnnnnng.

Pen in hand,

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Nov 16 2009

The NaNo Report, Week Two

by MJones

Sorry I am a little late updating, this week. I’m. so. tired. I spent last week uhm…. writing. My brain is a fog and my fingers are burning. I decided to take a couple of days off from NaNo’ing so yesterday and today I am just chillin’.

Over the weekend I crossed over the 50,000 word mark., First, YAY. Second, Okay, but I still have a ginourmous amount of desert to cross because my story isn’t finished. And Im getting tired. And my writing is getting lazy and uninteresting and I am burning out.

Hence, a break for a few days. Not too long, or I won’t go back to it. I do want to finish it.

And then never look at it again, HAHAHAHA. I’m so not kidding.

Actually I am, but GAH. I see why people think NaNoWriMo is so hard.

I think the plot is coming along, okay. Now that I have a good chunk of it in, I need to make sure I am keeping copious notes on what I say and how I explain things. Little details keep contradicting themselves and later I think ‘Oh NO, back in Ch 3 I said the shoes were GREEN and then in CH 10 I referenced BLUE shoes, CRAP!’.

Guh. Well. Month half over. Gotta finish gotta finish gotta finish. Back at it tomorrah.

Ciao, good friends. Anyone else on the NaNo Train?

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Nov 6 2009

NaNoWriMo Day 5

by MJones

I’ve been avoiding doing a daily post, mostly because I don’t want to talk too much about my “novel” (I feel weird calling it that. It’s really just a long story, lol), because I don’t want to give away too much of it. Suffice it to say, however, that I’m very excited about what’s come out of the effort, so far. I am just under 1/3 of the way to the minimum word requirement, though if I know myself, I’m going to exceed 50,000 words.

I’m still working through the major story lines— I like to just dive in and let the details set themselves up and work themselves out. Every few chapters or 5,000 words or so, I do some fact checking and make sure certain details stay true, then plan out a little further, then write some more and plan out a little further. It’s going well, so far. I feel like when I plan out the entire thing, I lose my zest for the story and I feel like I’ve written it already. That’s no fun.

So far? World building and story writing and writing something new in  a big damn hurry is a lot of fun. Everyday I post my word count over at the Nanowrimo site and I feel really proud of myself, and I’m so in love with the story. It’s been such a nice break from the story I’ve been writing for uhmmmmmm almost a year. Wow. Need that one to end, and soon.

But now, Mama is tired, and have already put away the piece for the night. I’m off to sleep, perchance to dream, while visions of plotlines and realistic, believable dialogue and story arcs and stylebooks and well rounded characters dance in my head!

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Jun 21 2009

I’ve got to get a move on… and yet here I sit.

by MJones

busy-lady

I mean, I don’t have to go anywhere. But I have ‘things’ to do:

1. I am two lessons behind on my Advanced Fiction Writing. Don’t want to let Mr Alcorn, my professor, down. Now that he knows where my blog is, I’ll just assume he’s reading it. :\ I’m also in the class with Becky and I sure can’t fall behind her. We’re in this together!

2. Chapter 19 is a hurking two parter to “All I Wanna Do” the longest story in the history of stories. Not really. It’s just long. I need to edit part one and post it for the “grabbyhands” at the Fiction Archive to read and enjoy and tell me how much they love me and adore my writing. *shrug* A girl can dream.

3. I already wrote my review for The Chosen One. I finished it last night, and didn’t want to take weeks to review it like I did with Dark Places. By the time I reviewed it I almost had to read it again. I couldn’t remember important things like NAMES. So that’s done. Score one for ME!

4. I have to write more of The Nanny, my ode to the Lifetime Movie. Hopefully will get to that later today.

5. Woven between my literary achievements will be the conquer of Mt St Laundry. Because, OMG. Okay it’s not bad, just… I hate laundry.

I think five is a good round number of tasks. And considering I only average finishing about 3 of 5 tasks, that’s a good place to stop.

On with the day!

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Categories: Random, Writers Read, Writers Write | 1 Comment »
Jun 14 2009

On Editing

by MJones

Transcript for #writechat 061409

I missed today’s  #writechat because I’ve been staying up until 1 or 2am writing and it finally just came crashing down on me this afternoon. Slept for hours and hours. And now I’ll be awake for hours and hours. Yikes. This happens every Sunday, and tomorrow I will be sleepy and cranky because I can’t sleep tonight.

I would have loved to participate, because it was on editing, something that is the bane of my existence but it so necessary. My process is almost obsessive, but, reading through the chat, I find I’m not the only one. Lately, I’ve been trying to just write, write, write, but if I have to stop, for any reason– to go to the restroom, eat dinner, go to work, any reason– I can’t just pick up where I left off. I have to go back and edit, and write what I meant to say, and put those missing words in, and fix that comma, and ‘does that dialogue seem right?’, and do some research and do more editing until it’s “right”. Only then can I move on.

And then I do another chunk until I can’t write anymore, and then I go back and edit the same way, BUT FROM THE BEGINNING. Yes, people. I am… yeah. The further a person gets away from the material, the more objective a person can be. At least that is the theory, because when I move on to a new chunk, I’ve separated myself from the first piece and my mind is elsewhere. When I read from the beginning again, I’m kind of reading with new eyes and I see things I should have said better, in a different way. Not only that but reading back from the beginning helps me make sure the chunks fit together like a puzzle piece.

One of the last comments on today’s chat was from @KarlBimshas, who asked: When looking back at your old writing (years) what percent impresses you and what percent horrifies you?

Read the rest of this entry »

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May 18 2009

Oh, Holy Hell (You Bastard)

by MJones


Now, I’ve gone and done it.

One of my friends, the gifted and talented Andrea is running a Lifetime movie challenge community called stori_telling (because every GOOD Lifetime Movie stars Tori Spelling!), in which we supplied the plots of our most favoritest, dramatic, ridiculous Lifetime Movies, the plots were compiled and laid out and made available for choosing.

What’ll I do with it? I’ll write a story, based on it.

OMG.
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May 12 2009

Update+Website+NaNoWriMo?

by MJones

First, I’ve posted a new chapter to All I Wanna Do. I swear I never meant for this story to be an epic, but I also don’t want to truncate the story. Decisions, decisions. I’m starting to long for it to end, though. Do something new. I can’t even imagine how novelists keep writing the same damn story for hundreds of pages.
I’ve been reading a lot on tips and pointers, things to do and not to do, and trying to apply them to whatever I’m working on. Recently I’m trying to get rid of anything ending in -ly (i.e. he looked at the burger hungrily. *rolleyes* I don’t think I was doing a lot of that but I’ve caught a few, usually weak chapters where I really just wanted it to be over). I’m also targeting -ing words (‘She sat on the bench, watching him feed the birds’, or even worse ‘picking up the mug, he took a long swallow of beer’). Very slowly, I am working toward not sounding like an amateur.

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