Combating blank screen anxiety

**Attempt #4 at getting this posted; bloody Internet issues**

Having participated in NaNoWriMo for 11 years running, I've gotten fairly good at jumping head first into first drafts without knowing much of anything.  However, the blank screen still taunts me with its blinking curser, telling me I don't know what I'm doing, and that this draft is going to suck.

But you know what?  That's okay.  First drafts are allowed to suck, because the biggest point to that very first sentence is to write it.  It doesn't matter what you write, just write.  Whether you start off with a page worth of ranting about how this is going to be the worst thing ever written, or start with a perfectly coined sentence; the important part is that you're writing.  You're putting pen to paper, or keystroke to screen, and you are telling that niggling voice of doubt that it can stuff it.

First drafts are just what they sound like, beginnings.  Once you've given your story something to work with you can go back and fix everything you omitted, or forgot.  But get that first, sucky draft done.  Bite your thumb at the voice of doubt, and pound out the vision in your head.

And once you've finished that draft, treat yourself to a drink; because even a really shoddy rough draft is quite a step down the path of writing a fully functional story.

<3 Lacie J

Current projects:

Two Darkest Mercy stories, and something winter holiday themed :3

Prompt #2 - use the song you're currently listening to

Now for your reading pleasure, or displeasure, I give you another unedited free write, this one brought to you via the way back machine...

Use the song you're currently listening to - 'Dancing With Myself' by Billy Idol

Dancing With Myself circa 2003

Slumping into his arms I nuzzle at his throat. Got to be careful not to leave any marks. She’d wonder if he showed up with the mark of my teeth on his skin. Especially since I’m not supposed to be around anymore.

Fingers trailing through my hair he smiles. Lifting my chin I wrinkle my nose at him.

Brushing his mouth against mine he slides hands under my clothes. Latching onto his lips I wrap my arms around his shoulders.

Tugging at his lip with my teeth I arch as he kneads fingers into my rear. Tongue moving in to taste his mouth. Fight for dominance. Grind my hips forward in slow circles. Shudder in my grip.

Release his lips and move down to attack the smooth skin of his throat. Fingers tugging irritating clothing out of the way. Shiver as nails scratch down my spine.

Tumble down together, rustle of sheets beneath us.

Hands roving over heated skin. Mouth’s locked in breathless kisses.

Prod of fingers. Arch off the bed as they slide in. Stars flash behind my eyes.

Give in to his insistent kisses. Fingers leaving me empty for a moment.

Muscles scream as he pushes in.

Rock with his rhythm. Caress of his palm on me.

Voice crack as I find my release. He follows seconds later.

Snuggle together in the haze.

She doesn’t need to know about this fall.  

*******

I'm going to go hide in a corner now. XD

Prompt #1 - what was stolen from the children

This was written in response to the first of hopefully many prompts with my writing group.  I have not edited this brief drabble in any way, so I guess it can kind stand as an illustration for what my initial, rough, rough drafts tend to look like.  ^^;  The group is on a temporary summer hiatus currently; however, I'm thinking of setting aside 15-30 minutes every Thursday to write to a prompt, to help clear my mind and stretch my creative muscles.  We'll try it out for a few weeks, and see how it works, but I'm hoping it might be a fun idea that I can drag other authors into joining.

Prompt: What was stolen from the children?

Chatter a wild thing around her, the girl-child stands motionless in the middle of the mall, ignored by everyone. Wide, silver eyes blink slowly, her hands beginning to jitter by her sides, as though trying to wake herself from some nightmare. Right hand rising with a tremble she draws a deep breath before letting out a shrill scream. People continuing to bustle around her without regard she screams again, rainbow painted nails digging into her cheek.

Jerking into motion she wends through the blind crowd, words beginning to form from the senseless panic. Toe of her purple sneaker catching on a step, sending her to her hands and knees, she lets out a cry of pain. Bloody scratches on her face she gasps as no one even slows to ask if she's alright.

“W-what's ha-happening? Why i-isn't anyone p-paying attention t-to me?”

Making her way back to her feet with a slight whimper she turns around in place, watching the people go about their business as though she weren't even there. Mouth pinched she darts directly into the path of a portly man staring at his phone, desperate to get a reaction. Rush of people slowing, shifting ever so slightly out of place, she stumbles as everything resumes its pace, the man having somehow missed her.

Experiment repeated a half dozen times, each time with the same weird herky-jerky response she sinks to the ground with a low moan. Tears in her eyes she watches the endless, unseeing flow of people pass her by.

“It's no use ducky, nothing you do will make them see you.”

Balance lost as she twists wildly, elbows connecting sharply with the tile, she stares up at the teen who just spoke. “Y-you can see me?”

Snap of gum louder than it should be as the world gives another one of its strange skips, the teen nods. “Course I can ducky; now come on, up off that floor before you catch a chill.”

“But-”

“No buts, up we go, places to go, witches to see.”

Frowning the girl glances away from the teen to take in the crowd, suddenly not wanting to leave the familiar stretch of mall, even if no one could see her. Hand to her mouth she stares, going cold, as a woman – Mother – strides by holding hands with a girl almost her identical twin. Warped mirror image giving her a shark toothed grin it wiggles rainbow painted nails in farewell.

Reaching out, grasping for the teen's arm, she cries, “What is that thing doing with my mother?”

Another loud snap of gum, the almost-twin vanishing amidst the crowds. Expression kind the teen guides the girl in the opposite direction. “Stealing her, and your life; now come, as I said we've got places to go and witches to see if you mean to survive the theft.”

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

The Next Big Thing

So a couple of weeks ago I was tagged by the wonderful and amazing Eddie Louise in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, and yes, it did take me that long to get this written, I'm a busy girl, so sue me. :P  Anyway, The Next Big Thing is a rather long running, world wide blog hop that takes people to a variety of author's, self-pub, unpublished, and published, blogs, and asks each author to answer a series of 10 easy questions. 

And these are my responses to said questions:

What is the working title of your next book?

Message in a Bottle was the initial working title, but recently I’ve taken to calling it Connect; of course, I’m also writing a short fairytale called The Prince's Flower at the same time. You know, to make sure I don't get bored. XD

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I’m what's commonly known as a pantser in the writing world. What this means is, I don't often have anything beyond a name, or the very foggiest of ideas when I start writing: that being said, Connect came into being when I tried to think of a different twist to the whole message in a bottle trope.

The Prince's Flower? That one was inspired by too much alcohol and a Grimm fairytale.

What genre does your book fall under?

The biggest genre any of my current writing falls under would be m/m fiction.  For the unitiated who have stumbled across my blog via this hop, or a lurker who hasn't figured it out yet; m/m essentially means what it looks like, it's a story that is about two men, and generally speaking, has a romantic twist to it.

 I write stories in a lot subgenres, fantasy, paranormal, contemporary, but they inevitably focus on the LGBT side of things; because, come on, everyone deserves their happy ending, don't they?

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I think I might be a freak of nature among authors because I very rarely find myself hunting down pictures of real people to play my characters.  That being said, I've got no clue who I would chose to play the part of anyone in a movie rendition.  Sorry *shrugs* just not my thing.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Connect:  17 year old Elijah struggles to come to terms with being gay, and being true to his faith, while living in a small Midwestern town.

The Prince's Flower:  Cursed by a witch for his callous behavior, Calliopsis laments ever finding someone worth the struggle of breaking his curse.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Both will hopefully be represented, if not by my current publisher LT3, by another of the LGBT friendly publishers out there.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

30 days; NaNoWriMo 2012 to be precise, for Connect; 2 days for The Prince's Flower, give or take.  

Now editing that first, initial draft?  So much longer. XD

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

With Connect, I'm not sure, I've yet to come across another that is attempting to go about it the way I am.  I don't mean that I'm all uber unique and special, but I really haven't seen anything quite like it in the m/m spectrum yet.  In more mainstream teen, and adult fiction, yes, but m/m?  Haven't found it.

As for The Prince's Flower, LT3 has a line called Fairy Tales Slashed which takes well known, and not so well known, fairy tales and kind of twists them around.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

One of my cousins and my two youngest siblings actually. My cousin is gay, and recently took his relationship with his boyfriend to the next level as much as he could in current politics. And my siblings, I wanted to write something that would show that you could be gay and Christian, and still whole heartedly believe in God, even when the world around you believed you were going to Hell.

This is all regarding Connect, The Prince's Flower was honestly spawned via a drunken Twitter conversation with LT3's CEO...nothing special or moving about that, just alcohol induced stupidity and her love for fairytales.

What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Connect is definitely more of a coming of age teen-ish story, and I think it might be an easier drift from mainstream than some of my other work.  Kind of a m/m light story. ^^;;

Meanwhile, The Prince's Flower is a mostly lighthearted romp out in fairytale land where everyone is guaranteed to live happily ever after.

*

I'm tagging Talya Andor, Sandra Bard, May Ridge, and Alessandra Ebulu.  Was going to tag Shayla Mist, but someone got to her first, but go check out her response to the 10 questions anyway. :3

Happy blog hopping!

**ps - check out Thomas Cardin's reply to the 10 questions too!

Short cuz Lacie's tired :P

Accomplished so far; editing run thru of story#4, created grocery list in planner, cuddled tonks, stabbed at blurb, wrote 1.2K for Halloween story#1, and putzed around the interwebz reading inane things...success?

*crawls into bed*

Time Travel story verdict

Time Travel story verdict is in with a 'thank you for your submission, but it's not what we're looking for' 
*sighs* 
So, my first attempt this year is negative, but I've got several more to go, and I plan on tweaking the rejected story and putting together something myself *shrugs*

Some progress

Not quite ready to give up, but damn if writing this story isn't like trying to have a conversation with someone who has no understanding of your native language. :P Should hopefully be able to complete it tomorrow though.

So until that time, happy daylight savings crap!

Let the nervous babbling begin

I know, it has been a while since I visited.  What can I say?  I'm working on my Master's degree in procrastination, minoring in gibberish and underwater basket weaving. :)  Save updating done via my phone, I am notoriously bad about maintaining regular updates, a fact I'm trying to change this year.

So, after much nitpicking, nervous procrastination, title switching, and query letter writing, I have sent out the time travel short story. <3  Now we get to sit around and wait to hear back from the publisher.  Knowing myself, and my ability to fret, I've decided that rather than do nothing while I wait for the verdict on 'Unexpected Gifts' I am going to give myself more deadlines.  XD

I swear, more deadlines are good for me.  They force me to ignore that degree in procrastination and do productive things.

Like write more.  Two more stories are in progress, with the first due by April 15.

Or read more. :P  Just finished

I will very readily admit to being a Melissa Marr fangirl, and this collection of short stories she's presented have only strengthened my fangirl status.  Revisiting her Wicked Lovely world with glimpses into some known character's lives, and some new characters for you to love, she also introduces us to a few of her other worlds in a series of tasty stories.  I already own this in ebook form, because I couldn't wait for my hard copy to arrive. XD

I'm currently working on my 31st book of the year already, a reread of 

Say what you will about Mr. King, but I do enjoy a good percent of his books.

Anywho, I just figured I should post something of an update after indulging in my procrastinating ways for half of this month.

Next up on my to-do list today: eating something.

Time Travel

So, I've just started working on a short story I'm planning on submitting to Dreamspinner press for one of their calls for submission, and I figure, since this blog is theoretically going to end up being about books and writing, I might as well chronicle my quest toward publication in it.  *nods*  It's probably going to be pretty dull for a while, since I'm talking to myself, but at least I can point other curious writerly people towards the steps I went through when/if I finally succeed in that mythical publication goal.

Step one toward achieving publication: get an idea and write it ^^ <- I am current here in the process

Step two: find someone stupid enough *coughs* I mean willing to read over your writing to take a second look at it. <- Have successfully located my first guinea pig in my nifty dreampumpkin <3

Step three: edit, edit, edit
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Here's the story prompt:

Time Is Eternity

2012 Daily Dose - A Story a Day in the Month of June

Edited by Lynn West

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”

-Henry Van Dyke

Millennia, centuries, decades, years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds... if it’s a love for the ages, then past, present, or future has no meaning. In these stories, time travel--forward or backward, for an instant or for a lifetime--is the way to fulfilling romance.