The Ready Writer

I really think that in order to write productively you need to have your own space. Maybe your space is the couch or at a specific table at your favorite coffee shop, or locked in the bathroom while your kids are screaming on the other side of the door. That’s okay. You don’t need to have an office to write. This is my space: Sure the furniture is mismatched, and the view isn’t great, and it needs some better storage (and a good vacuuming and dusting) but it’s mine. I can go in there and close the door and write. I can make it smell however I want, I can organize the furniture however I want and I can put whatever I want on the walls. It. Is. Mine. And I hope to use it a lot more in 2018. I spent a ton of time in there during my grad school years doing work and writing papers, but I haven’t done a ton of creative work in there. My resolution is to change that. Words will be written in there. My words. Memento mori &;

Hello Readers! It is October, which as we know is Halloween Month!  This is any horror writers favorite time of the year for sure. I'm no exception.  But! October means a couple of other things: 1. Freaky Flash Fiction Fridays!  That's right! For the second year in a row I will be posting freaky (more like spooky, but that doesn't work with the alliteration) flash fiction stories on Fridays. This allows me to keep writing short things while I work on a novel, but it also allows you to get a taste of how I write (a little, admittedly the stories I post are unedited first drafts, but still). 2. October also means we are 31 days away from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  This year, I am participating in Preptober (#preptober).  Now, if you participate in NaNoWriMo and are a pantser, you can disregard this rest of this post.  However if you are a plotter, or a mix of the two (which is what I am...though I want to be more of a plotter) then kee...

Happy Eclipse day Y'all! In Southern Oregon where I am we got about 93% totality.  Got to watch it with my SO and then have a nice breakfast date before we both had to head to work. I know I've been absent for the last month, but I've been working really hard on my library career. The children's librarian position is open at the library I work at, and as someone with my MLIS in Youth Services, you can bet that I'm gonna apply! Though I am a published writer, it doesn't pay enough for me to quit my day job, so I have to make sure I have the day job of my dreams so I'm not too burnt out to write. But, in the meantime, that means that I'm spending so much time prepping for the interview (and for my first time doing story time tomorrow!) that I haven't been writing like I should.   I'm using prepping for the interview of my life as an excuse. But that can't last forever. I'll elaborate later.    Also, I'm not sure it'...

Hello! I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, just busy with 2.5 jobs and trying to get some writing in.  Actual writing trumps writing ABOUT writing.  But here is where I currently stand. I haven't touched my main project in months which has actually been a good thing for me. I've been reading, working on short stories, and generally just thinking about who I am as a writer and that has done me a lot of good. As I grow older, I find myself really trying to take the time to think introspectively and to think about who I am now, and who I want to grow to be.  This is especially good for me while I try to craft and create my writers "voice."   So, let me introduce myself: I am a horror writer. My influences come heavily from American Southern Gothic literature and American Spiritualism.   And knowing that now, my writing is taking shape. I'm finding my voice. All this time I didn't think I had a writing voice, but I do! I have ...

Hello everyone! Just a quick writing update before I head for vacation later this week.  There probably won't be an update next Monday, and the usual Weekly Writing Progress posts will resume in March (I'll do another quick update before then). As I've mentioned, I am in rewrites for my main project.  I finished the rewrite of chapter one (and it is somewhere just over 2,000 words). While my rewrite is going better than I anticipated (now that I know the direction that I want to go), I still find that writing long is difficult. I'm so used to writing short stories, that when I try to write something long, I know I tend to ramble. I am sure that is something that will get better the more the write and the more I practice but for right now its a fine line for me between writing not enough, and just sort of...rambling. I've never been one for what I like to call "fluffy" language. I don't like a lot of extra detail, but at the same time, this ha...

So I have to confess that I haven't been the best at writing so far this year.  And yes, I know that the year is still young.  I DID submit a short story in January, and that is exciting, but I haven't done much else. Here are my excuses: -New Years Party -Grandfather Passed Away -Water Heater Leaked -Been working lots of extra hours since my SO lost his job -Applied and interviewed for a job that I really wanted and then didn't get it (which put me in a bad place) -My Birthday Okay. Got that out of the way. But things are on the upswing. My SO starts his new job in March, I'll be back in town (I'm going out of town to visit family in a couple of weeks) and my hours at both jobs will be back to normal (ish). I know I already stated my writing goals in a previous post.  But I'm committing to it (again). Right now. I'm in the process of re-writing the ENTIRE first act of my novel so it works with the plan I have for the next 2 third...

It's a new year! While there were a lot of bad things about 2016, I made some pretty big strides in figuring out who I am as a writer and what I want to write about. I finally accepted the fact that I write horror, and while some people may not think that it is "real" literature, I do.  And that is all that matters. I finally accepted that I also like to write Junior and YA fiction, and they too are valid, and that they can handle scary stories too. So, with these revelations in mind, I made some 2017 writer goals: Finish my main project Draft 1 Write 6 short stories and have them polished to final draft quality. Revamp my website.  It is in MUCH need of a makeover. Keep working on my side project during the 3 Nanos throughout the year (November, April, and July).  I have been having a lot of fun with that project, and it is a nice break in between my bigger projects. I have A LOT to keep me busy this year.  What are some of your goals and resolut...

Hello Readers! Just a quick update to let you all know that I am taking a hiatus for the rest of 2016.  Right now I am working on a short story and spending holiday time with loved whens during the times that I am not swamped with the extra hours I picked up at both of my jobs. I have some plans for the blog in 2017.  Writing updates and horror history will continue.  But what do you all think of some sort of book reviews? Not on any sort of regular schedule, just as I finish reading books? Just a thought. Anyway, have a Merry Holiday, a Happy New Year, and I'll see you in 2017!

Hello Readers! Sorry I have been away.  Last week was sort of...well...not great.  But I did get a little bit of work done. I am in the process of typing up Act I.  I have typed up chapter one so far.  As I type up Act I, I have some goals I want to hit: Delete all of the other POVs except for one of them.  I was attempting to do a multiple POV thing, and I didn't like it, and so I have decided to do it from a single POV.  I know this means that I am going to be deleting like, half of what I have hand written, but that's how writing goes sometimes.  And overall, I think it will help my book be better. Change one of my characters from a mystical/fantasy type character to more of a mortal psychic character.  My character needs to be "gifted" but she was feeling a little too deus ex machina for my taste, so I'm tweaking her a bit. This doesn't seem like a tremendous amount of work, but I'm not quite ready to do big edits yet.  I'm j...

So its the last day of NaNoWriMo and while I am nowhere close to 50,000 words, I am proud to have written close to 4,500. Why? Well, I started working on my main project in July,  and I finished the first Act in October at AROUND 8,000 words. I have written over half of what I wrote in 3 months, in just one. That's because I am working that writing muscle. It isn't a surprise that writing everyday is the best thing to do if you want to be a writer. But as someone with 2 jobs and somewhat of a social life, that can be hard. So I try to write as often as I can.  I used the fun frantic energy of NaNoWriMo to test myself, and to see if I could still squeeze writing in at any possible moment I could even if that meant just taking 5 minutes to write 50 words as opposed to sitting down for an hour and seeing how much I could write. And it helped! I find that I am getting better at getting focused faster, words come a little better, and my writing chunks are getting a litt...

So on Election Day (or the day after, rather), I expressed the thought that I may have to scrap my main project because of my villain. I have since decided against that. I think now more than ever, I need to write this story. I am going to make some pretty big changes to the story.  I'm taking out some of the fantastical, making it less traditional apocalyptic horror and more occult horror.  My villain will be less of a political ruler, and more of a religious one, that was able to take over the government, and instead of doing it from multiple points of view, I'm picking one character to tell the story from. However, I still think that this story will be an important one.  I'm separating it from my original idea, because honestly I don't know if I can write it.  It's not that I don't want to, or am too scared to create a political rift, but I just don't think I'm strong enough.  This election is a very emotional one for me, and I'm already har...

So I am still on hiatus from my main project, but that doesn't mean I'm not writing. In order to keep my horror writer brain sharp, I am doing the following: Working on my "affair" or "backburner" project .  This allows me to distance myself from my main project so that I can come back to it ready to edit critically (and next week I'll talk about what those edits will entail). Reading.   I'm a firm believer (but not the only one that believes it) that in order to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader (and by good, I mean participating in the act of those activities). So I am reading a lot of horror and seeing what the greats (as well as the newbies) are doing in the world of horror.  If you want to see what I'm reading, you can friend me on Goodreads.  You can find me under my full name: Brystan Strong. Research. This may fall into both the previous category and the next one, but I'm doing scholarly research on the genr...

So I finished Act I of my novel! Yay!  It's somewhere along 8,000 words.  My last 2 chapters are more notes than actual prose because I realized that I needed to make some shifts, so I didn't want to write chapters that would ultimately most likely just get thrown out.  So, now I'm taking a month off from that project (so I can distance myself a bit from it, and be able to edit a little more critically.) In the meantime, I am participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and working on my "affair project". Here's the thing.  I love NaNo. I have participated in it off and on since I was in high school, I was a municipal liaison once, and have made a lot of friends doing it, but I have NEVER made it to 50,000 words.  I've always burnt out.  And I won't make the wordcount again this year either.  But the issue I was having before was that I was using Nano as a means to finish a project. And I just don't work that way.  Not onl...

I don't have any numbers for you this time, I will next time though. I do have a pretty dramatic (okay, maybe not dramatic to you) update about my project.  When I was writing that short post about horror subgenres I mentioned that my current piece is mostly apocolyptic horror with a sprinkle of occult horror mixed in. Well, my biggest struggle with my project has been that I haven't thought that it was scary enough, or scary at all.  And I think that is because I was writing within a subgenre that I don't think is all that scary.  Apocolyptic horror doesn't really scare me.  Occult horror definitely does.  So, I have decided to make a tonal shift.  I am going to make my novel an occult horror with some themes of apocolyptic horror sprinkled in.  The world isn't going to end, but the world as my characters know it, will, and this will be at the hand of a cult like entity.  This also allows for the slight supernatural elements of my story to be...

Hello everyone! So I didnt track how many words I wrote each day, but I did write a total of 764 words last week which brings my total project wordcount to 8,218 words. I do have some goals for the month of October.  I want to finish Act 1 by the end of the month, I'm just finishing Chapter 4 right now and according to my outline, Act 1 should carry me through the first 8 chapters.  This means some intense writing days, but I think I'm ready for it.  Right now I'm a little disappointed with my small word count, but I'm halfway through act 1 now and am a little over 8000 words, so I'm gonna shoot for Act 1 being twice that.  And if each Act is 16,000 words, I'll hit right around the 50,000 word first draft I was originally shooting for, so I'm gonna try not to stress too much. The reason for the Halloween deadline is because... ...I want to participate in NaNoWriMo.  I miss the frantic off the cuff writing.  No outlines, no rules, just crazy writing....

Can I just post a picture of a lemon for this week?  That's how I feel this week went. Anyway, here are the numbers: Monday: No words Tuesday: +180 word Wednesday: No Words Thursday: No words Friday: No Words Saturday: +145 words Sunday +427 words Total words written this week: 752 Total project word count: 7454 So why no writing?  CARPAL TUNNEL. I honestly didn't write on Monday or Wednesday due to just not making time, but I woke up Thursday morning and I couldn't move, or put any weight on, or hold anything with my right hand.  It was feeling better on Saturday and Sunday, but I think I overworked it.  Today, typing this, I am in some pretty terrible pain. I am not going to make any goals for the week.  If my wrist is up to the task of writing, I'll write.  But I think I'll make the goal for the week to catch up on some much needed reading.  I'm a firm believer that if you want to write a lot, you need to rea...

This week was another good week! Here are the stats: Monday: +104 words (started Chapter 3) Tuesday: +138 words Wednesday: +171 words Thursday: No Writing Friday: +125 words Saturday: +131 words Sunday: +317 words Total Words Written This Week: 986 words Total Project Wordcount: 6070 This was a good week!  I got through chapter 2 which is kind of sluggish, which is something that future Brystan has to worry about. I started Chapter 3, which is gonna be a good one, but one that will push my writing skills.  I am NOT a speech writer, however, one of my characters has to give a very powerful speech.  I wrote the speech, but looking back, it is pretty sparse.  It's just the skeleton of what I want it to be.  But, once Act I is done (which according to my outline is the first 8 chapters) then I start edits, so I am looking forward to fleshing that out and adding the meat to the bones. Anyway.  New goals for t...

Sorry for the late stats post this week.  I'm battling a cold and we had a big remodel in our apartment on Monday.  But here it is! Monday: +135 words Tuesday: +137 words Wednesday: +138 words Thursday: No Writing Friday: +128 words Saturday: +121 words Sunday: +222 words AND I finished Chapter 2! Total Words Written This Week: 881 Total Project Word Count: 5,084 Yay! Hit 5k! Also I accomplished ALL of the goals I set for the week. You know the old saying "If it aint broke, don't fix it."?  Well, I'm going by that this week.  Goals are the same: 6 days a week, 100 words each session.

It is amazing that I got ANY writing in this week, but here are the stats: Monday: +118 words Tuesday: +93 words Wednesday: No Writing Thursday: +148 words Friday: +112 words Saturday: +148 words Sunday: No Writing Total Words Written This Week: 619 words Total Project Word Count: 4,203 words I'm pretty upset that I didn't hit ANY of my goals this week.  I didn't write at least 6 days, I didn't write 1200 words, and I didn't hit 100 words per writing session. Also, I didn't finish chapter 2 (but I'm REALLY CLOSE) This was a pretty bad writing week.  But, similar to last week, it was an AWESOME friends week full of spontaneous road trips, the beach, fun centers, late night pie excursions, church picnics, and movie nights.  This is what summer is supposed to be made of.  I also had a job interview (update: didn't get the job) and did some work on our patio, and lots of working out. Do I need to learn to be more assertive with...

A pretty successful week this week! Monday: +241 words  Tuesday: +118 words Wednesday: +114 words Thursday: No Writing Friday: +179 words AND I finished Chapter 1 Saturday: +319 words Sunday: +232 words Current Status: Chapter 1 is done at 2091 word and chapter 2 is started Total word count: 2642 Words written this week:1203 Camp NaNoWriMo update: At this rate you'll finish August 17 (better than September!) I accomplished my goal of writing 6 days this week, and for each of those writing times to be over 100 words.   I'm making strides and getting words down.  No new goals for this coming week.  I wrote 1203 words this last week. Working for 1220 this week.  We'll see what happens!