Aftermath

So Friday was absolutely spectacular!  The only thing I am sad about is not having as much time to write on set as I expected.  That's not a bad thing of course, it meant I was actually ON set a great deal of the day which was one of the most incredible days of work I've ever had.  It's definitely something I think you've got to be interested in though, there are a lot of uncomfortable conditions in order to get the vision the director has done properly and there's long moments of just standing around waiting for one thing or other but I didn't mind any of that, I loved every second.  I really hope that I'll be able to make this a career while I'm writing because those two things work so well together.

Now, as for the writing, Saturday and Sunday?  Complete washes.  Why?  I don't always write well with other people around and my hubby was of course home all weekend!  I enjoyed spending time with him though and he lets me expound all my issues with writing in his direction and helps me smooth things out.  He's also giving me a lot of cheerleading with everything I write.  Today, (Monday, though I'm writing this late enough the post may seem like a Tuesday post) I had an incredibly hard time waking up.  I was tired and my body ached and I felt like I hadn't slept.  But the strangest thing happened when I finally got up, I sat down at my computer, played facebook games for awhile and then pulled out my writing and started transferring it to the computer.

Originally I'd wanted to write long-hand because it was helping me stay away from Facebook and all of its' wonderful games, as well as giving me a really organic feel that was helping with the creation.  Now that I've written on the computer again I realize I'm really a child of my generation.  I'm a total computer geek and instead of being as incredibly distracting as I thought working on my laptop would be I'm finding it incredibly freeing!  Yes, it's a little less organic in some ways but because my typing speed keeps up with my thoughts far, far better than my handwriting speed (at least if I want to be able to read it later) I'm finding the process flowing through my keyboard with a great deal more speed and ease than I expected.

If you're struggling with your writing I highly reccomend trying a few different ways to write, with the physicality of things as well as with the words themselves.  I suspect I'll keep using my notebook for ideas (since that's the really organic part of the writing process for me, I drew a castle map in there earlier to help ground my ideas of the place they're living), and then do the actual writing for each chapter on my computer.

I've also found doing a chapter by chapter synopsis really helpful.  It's good to clarify my ideas as well as give me a quick overview of what happened in that chapter so when I come back to it later I can pick it up without having to re-read the whole thing (as that usually ends up in massive rewrites and constant edits and I never get past the first chapter >.<).  I've also added onto the end of the synopsis all the questions I feel are raised in that chapter that will need to be answered eventually.  This is a question a book I was reading recently, The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing by the Writer's Digest, suggested was important for mystery novels (I think that was the section where I read it).  I thought it was just as applicable to fantasy and so far it seems that it's really helping me keep an awareness of where I'm going and what I'm writing into the chapter already.

Short and the long of it?  If you want to write comfortably, then find the physical area and the physical medium that works best with your thoughts.  If the computer isn't working for you try long hand.  If pen's not working try pencil, if that's not working try crayons, pencil crayons, paints, different types of paper, notebooks, even different computers or keyboards might work better for you!  And of course different physical things can work well for different processes of thinking.  (My preference for pen and paper with ideas and a computer for actually writing for example).  Also, make note of the questions you raise that will need answers as you write each section of your novel (or chapter, or scene, or whatever works best for you, just don't let too much go by before you do it or you'll forget).  This can really help later should you get stuck on a section, you can pop back to the outline and see what you've forgotten to answer or if you need to answer something to make something else work.

God's Gift to Me!

So today I'm feeling a little like it's my birthday.  I have been trying to figure out what to do while I'm writing so that I'm out of the house and not sitting here alone all the time but that wouldn't cost money (aka, sitting at a restaurant since I can never justify sitting there without steadily buying drinks and/or food v.v') but that won't leave me sitting alone all day in the house.  God's answered my prayer and with something I never expected to happen!

For some time now I've had to great loves, writing and film but I figured there was no way that I would be able to make them fit together.  Not unless I had something published and someone wanted to make one of my books into a movie or if I wrote a screenplay and managed to get on set.  However, I did send out an application to an extra agency.  Last year we (hubby and I) had joined one agency but they were so huge we never got any roles, never even a hint of it.  Part of that was lack of work (which I understand hasn't really changed) and part of it was I think how big the agency was and how inexperienced we were.  The agency I applied to more recently (after leaving the first) is much more specialized and takes a much smaller roster.  I figured I wouldn't get in but I did get a relatively positive response with my first application but then heard nothing.  When we got back from Europe I didn't think to email them back right away but hubby suggested I do so if I was still serious about it so I did.  A little while later I got a call asking me to send more information because they couldn't find my previous email that asked for it and yesterday I got a call asking if I was free today for a set call they thought I'd be perfect for!

So what do I get to do today?  I get to go hang around set, get paid for hanging around, work as an extra (no, can't tell you where or what show yet) and in the hanging around time, chat or *puts dramatic and triumphant music on* write!  God's given me a huge gift in that since I won't be home attached to my computer games that I've had so much trouble on and I'll be making money while I write and working in between!  This couldn't have worked out much better so pray it continues and I might just get this book done and get into film like I've always wanted in a way I never, ever expected.

God's so good!

New Name

So shortly after I posted the blog for today I realized that there's no point to keep everything a secret if I'm trying to blog about it.  Hence settling on the name Chronicling Reinora.

Reinora is the name of my world and since I'm writing about the process of writing the Chronicles (Dear Lord I hate that word, have you noticed it's an ugly word?  It's not so bad with S on the end, it's ugly with ING on it... yeah, weird I know, but there you go.)  I figured a blog's name should actually have something to do with what you're writing on so there it is, bright and shiny.  I changed the website address too so it's the same as the name.  Yay me!  I wrote some more after I posted last (eventually, fb got in the way first v.v, dang addicting games!) and I'm feeling pretty good about where it's going.  I'll post an excerpt when I've finished at least a chapter's worth.

I finally have the name worked out, it should show up properly on search sites.  Yay!