NaNo 2 : The Writer Strikes Back!

Three days until February.

Rachel and I have come up with NaNo 2 to help us get that super boost we had during NaNo in November. Only the goal of NaNo 2 isn't spelled out with words but with hours. Instead of aiming to write 50k words in a month, the writer has to put in 75 hours of work on their one novel. Since most of it has already been written in November, those hours will mainly be spent on rewriting, editing, rereading, etc. Should the novel come to an end before the goal is reached, then the writer can hop into another novel for writing! :)
If you're curious to see how I'll fair next month, check out my progress bar on the left side of the blog!

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Speaking of progress bars, I have updated the The Dreams's section. It now contains progress bars for all of my projects there! I think it's a lot more fun to look at and you can get a good idea of what's going on at first glimpse!

And last but not least: for those of you who eagerly await news of Terra Fae, the novel is in editing (that's the novel I'm going to spend 75 hours on in February) and a lot of major operations have already changed its face. Although the bone structure remains mainly the same, the flesh and skin have been altered. Difficult decisions were made: I have set to keep the characters dear to my heart and exile the ones I had no real use for; I will move the settings and time a little closer to our era; I will de-passive Ulie, my main character; etc. A lot of work is still required to make this a viable novel. But I promise that, at the end of February, I will hold a version of it I am proud of and ready to present to beta-readers!! :)
To help you wait, here's a little excerpt of the new version of Terra Fae. (Sorry about the formatting; Blogger is terrible at it...) Anyway, have fun discovering a little piece of the morning routine at the Rendez-vous tavern! ^_^

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NOVEL EXCERPT

Finally, the sun managed to zigzag amongst the district’s high chimneys and hit the kitchen’s window with its warm golden rays. Six o’clock! It was time for Ulie’s next task…

Mandy and Molly Braser, the tavernkeepers, always stayed up late into the night, seeing their last drunken customer out of the door before tidying up the tavern a bit while Ulie, on the other hand, was in bed every night before ten. Whereas the Brasers sisters took on the evening watch, Ulie had the morning shift and one of her morning tasks was to wake up the owners of the place.

Ulie walked downstairs, an old-fashioned lantern in her hand. The basement of the Rendez-Vous tavern had been developed into three rooms: two cozy bedrooms for Molly and Mandy Braser, and in between, a big storage room for food and alcohol.

Ulie tiptoed into her mother’s room which always smelled clean and looked tidy. The chest of drawers, the chair, the carpet, the many floor pillows and cushions; all seemed brand-new even though Molly had bought most of them before Ulie was even born! The young woman bent over the brown head sticking out of the blankets and gently shook the shoulder below it.

"Mom? Morning is here," she said in her softest voice.

 A gentle snort welcomed the information. "Thanks, pup. I’ll be up in a minute. Go wake your aunt."

Obeying her mother’s superfluous demand, Ulie walked into the other bedroom. 

Mandy Braser was younger than her sister Molly and Ulie thought that this particular trait probably explained her lack of… well, everything! She was thoughtless, careless, hot-headed and messy. Her chest of drawers was always empty of clothes and filled with the most improbable objects while her many garments carpeted the floor. Whereas Molly’s floor pillows were nicely lined up against the wall, Mandy’s cushions always seemed like they were fighting against each other when no one was looking. On the bed, covers were in the utmost disarray with an arm and a leg sticking out of them. Ulie smiled. While others would have called Mandy irresponsible or too free-spirited, Ulie had nicknamed her aunt Tousle.

"Tousle?" she whispered at the doorstep, not wanting to set foot in the room. "Tousle? It’s Ulie!"

A grunt replied to the call. 

"It’s time to wake up, come on!" insisted the young woman.

To let her niece know she was awake, Mandy grabbed the nearest cushion she could reach and tossed it toward the doorway without opening her eyes. Ulie easily sidestepped the attack and let out a laugh. "Alright, then get up!" she added before heading up the stairs.

It might have seemed like an ungrateful life for many a soul, but for the Brasers, it was smooth sailing after exiting raging waters.  

Ongoing recalculation

A couple of days ago (or is it weeks?), my dear friend Rachel sent me a link that changed the face of my ongoing novel Terra Fae.

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FCD81A6FE4280AC

It leads to a series of lectures from one author Brandon Sanderson. He's the writer behind such hits as Elantris and Mistborn. (His website: http://brandonsanderson.com) You don't have to go through the whole thing but if you've got some time and would like to learn a bit more about that crazy world of writing, he has some pretty interesting insights. 

Anyway, it was while I was watching this man's lectures that I was struck by an epiphany: Terra Fae is a fantasy novel. Why the heck am I writing fantasy when I don't even read fantasy?! I don't know the first damn thing about it!

THAT's what's been going wrong with my novel the whole time: I wrote something that was not for / from me!!!

OK, I've tried my hand at fantasy with my first series ever. But let's face it: I was a noob. Had no idea what I was doing and I simply wrote down what came to mind. I had read Eragon back then (well, the first novel) and I was tired of epic stories with male protagonists. So I created a female "dragoneer" as some kinda rebuttal :P

But that's it! 

I never touched fantasy ever again! EV-E-RY story I've EVER written in my life (before and after my first series) were drawn from the genre I've always read and loved, the genre we call in French "le fantastique". I honestly don't know if there's a counterpart for it in English (if so, please, enlighten me!) but in French, the "fantastique" genre encompasses anything that has its roots in reality but slides into the unbelievable as it goes. Horror, paranormal, a lot of adventure novels, etc. All of those are included in the "fantastique". I'm a reader of "fantastique"! I absolutely love Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. I've also read countless of times The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney. THAT's who I am, THAT's what I know and love!

They say to write convincing stories, you first have to know yourself, your tastes, your limits and your interests. 

So here we go, my name is Valérie and I:

• am a sucker for fairy tales and mythologies;
• hate to do research;
• love the romantic idea of past History from Antiquity to Renaissance;
• like to imagine a whole life to people I walk by in the street;
• love to try and imagine what it might have been like at some turning point in History;
• shelter a fairly bit intense feeling about the Titanic and the Bermuda triangle;
• am terrified of oceans... or lakes... or outer space...;
• am fascinated by oceans... and lakes... and outer space;
• own (and have read) many books about creatures in the world's culture and folklore;
• can't get dates in History or any science's teachings right;
• am talented with languages;
• root for most villains in Disney movies;
• can extract good from almost anything;
• am a realistic dreamer although a lot of people see me as pessimistic;
• have an overactive imagination;
• believe in ghosts;
• can remember my dreams and command them;
• love the night (darkness, dreams and nightmares included);
• have a good sense of humor; 
• hate the unnecessary gore;
• can't stand Jackass-type of humor or what my boyfriend calls "stoner movies" (i.e. Pineapple Express);
• fell asleep reading the first thirty pages of The Lord Of The Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) and never made it to the end of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (J. Verne) because of endless descriptions;
• hated most of my college's literature program's "forced" reads except two: Huis Clos (J.-P. Sartre) and Moby Dick (H. Melville);
• have little to no confidence in myself or what I can produce...

My favorite:

• writer of all time is Edgar Allan Poe;
• poem is Dream-land by E.A. Poe;
• short story is The Masque of the Red Death by E.A. Poe;
• manga / comic is Death Note by T. Ohba and T. Obata;
• MG "fantastique" story is Alice In Wonderland by L. Carroll;
• YA "fantastique" novel is The Spook's Apprentice by J. Delaney;
• YA science-fiction / dystopian novel is Life As We Knew It by S. B. Pfeffer;
• adult horror novel is The Shining by S. King;
• adult fantasy novel is The Princess Bride by W. Goldman;
• adult romance novel is Dracula by B. Stoker;
• fairy tales are Peau d'Âne, Cendrillon, La Barbe Bleue -- all three by C. Perrault -- and The Little Mermaid by H.C. Andersen;
• tale is King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table;
• love story is Robin Hood and Lady Marian;
• villain is Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII);
• male protagonist / good-guy character is Ryuzaki / L (Death Note);
• female protagonist / good-girl character is Aeris Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII);
• ambiguous characters are Sebastian (Black Butler) and Xerxes Break (Pandora Hearts);
• place to visit in the whole wide world is The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World, Orlando!

There! 

That may seem to you like a narcissistic outburst (and maybe that's what it is) but I don't care: I know myself and what I like. With that in mind, I oughta be able to write something good, right? But first, I gotta do some major chopping in my Terra Fae novel and redo a whole lot of outlining.

Phew! Gonna be a lot of work............

Wish me luck! :)

The Writer's Bane

Ok, that may be too strong a word but I thought it'd make for a nice title... ^_^

But what I really meant to talk about in this blog post is something that has been bothering me some, lately: the modern writer's duty.

Back in the old days, if you wanted to become a writer, all you needed was an ironclad will, stubbornness, the means to write, enough imagination to create stories and the capacity to ignore "down-bringers" and the complaints of your own hungry belly. Back then, what it meant to be a writer was that you had a dream and were just crazy enough to follow said dream. 

But now...

These days, the modern writer may have all the imagination and writing skills in the world, it's not enough anymore... Writers are so numerous, stories so incredibly huge in amount that the modern writer needs to be more than "just a writer". Because nowadays, talent means naught. What count is how often you can put your face (and guts) out there! The modern artist is not a simple creator anymore. No. The modern artist has to sacrifice most of his creation time to being a part of the "community". The modern artist needs be present and clash his work against that of many other artists on the world wide web's virtual platforms. 

As a writer, I have to have a website, a blog (or two, in my case), a Wattpad account, Facebook pages and an account, a Twitter, a Pinterest, a Tumblr, etc. I have to read, comment, like, poke, wink, follow, pin and share for many hours every day leaving me very little time for my own stuff. Why do I put up with all that, you ask? Because if I don't, I simply do not exist as an artist (or a person, for that matter, but that's a society problem for another blog post, another day maybe...) 

And now that I juggle all these accounts, I find that I have less and less time to create... But what's worse is that, on all those various means of reaching out to the outside world, I only came to realize that I am one in a million. 

Not in a "you're special" way. No. 

I am now literally one in a million other aspiring authors...  

It's draining, really.

Although, as a "wise" man once said in a movie I love*: "Never give up. Never surrender." Somehow, I have to believe that all my efforts will pay off, that it will all come together in the end. 

But, to borrow Rachel's words in F.R.I.E.N.D.S: "What if it doesn't...?"

(N.B.: That blog post is about writers but really, that goes for ALL the artists out there! Be it painters, playwrights, scriptwriters, dancers, singers, actors, etc. It's all the same, now.)

*Galaxy Quest

Just give me a reason...

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've recently gone back to work... only to realize that I didn't like my story anymore. I look at my outline and I find it weak, amateur, unbelievable... like a puppet claiming to be a real person although everyone can clearly see the strings! I feel like a fraud... I've got six published novels under my belt. Shouldn't I have learned to hide the strings by now? Shouldn't I have become a somewhat good puppeteer?

No need to panic, this had happened to me before -- in fact, every time I've ever finished writing a novel -- but I really had hoped things would be different this time since this novel is kinda special to me (first one in English, first real "3D characters", first "fun" scenes, etc.). Well, turns out things are not different at all. And now I have to face the fact that this mood drop will always find me.

As I've heard it, many women experience postpartum depression after giving birth (commonly referred to as "baby blues"). Maybe that's what I'm experiencing...? Although what I'm left with now is not my own cute, chubby little baby whom I will love no matter what... No. What I'm left with is my work, the result of my talent and skills, my own reflection in the words written down on white sheets of paper! They spell a cold, harsh truth. And I can't help but think "I can do better" but the fact of the matter is that I'm a lazy person. Veeeeery lazy. (Got a couple hundreds readers waiting and asking about the fourth volume of my first series for almost three years now! That's how lazy I am!) And when I look at the work that needs to be done on that latest novel, I just wanna throw it away and start anew, somehow thinking that anything demanding that amount of work is not worth wasting my time on.

But I'll do it anyway.

Do you know why?

Because I've found reasons to do it. (OK, sounds stupidly obvious when it's said like that but humor me. :P) All I needed was a strong enough reason to do it and pin it somewhere I will always see it so I don't loose sight of why I'm doing it! Wanna know what my reasons are?

1. I'm not good at doing stuff for myself (heck, if I was, I would have lost all that overweight that's been crippling me for years!) but I'm good at doing things for others. And since a few friends have asked to read this novel, I'll do it for them. :)
2. Yes, I'm a quitter. BUT I'm also a stubborn person who's made wishes for this new year. I've promised myself to shake off that quitter label. And I've promised myself to keep all the promises I make to myself this year so when you think about it, I don't really have a choice there! :P
3. And last but not least, to borrow Martin Luther King's famous quote (even though it might sound cheesy to some): "I have a dream." And mine is to have my books cross the border and be published in the United States. To see my books on the shelves of a Barnes & Noble! ^_^

What I mean to say is, if like me, you suffer from the writer's baby blues, don't give up yet! Just give yourself a good reason to do it. :)

As a good friend said to me: "The difference between the writers who make it and those who don't is perseverance." 

So persevere!!

Back to work

Today is "back to normal" for most everybody here; children and teenager head back to school, adults go back to work, and writers all around the country (and other countries) sit behind their computer again, their minds ablaze with a million new ideas... or, in my case, completely blank and drained from the Holidays season! 

I'm gonna need some form of warm-up before I hop into writing, that's for sure...

Here's a preview of what awaits on my worktable this year:

• Correction and rewriting of the first book of Terra Fae (a lot of work and moving around needs to be done so some uniformity raises from the novel) and eventually planning and writing the second and third volumes;
• Planning, outlining and writing of my serials The Drifters and publishing it on Wattpad starting this month...;
• And I have also promised to write the fourth (and last) volume of my first French series Nellie (the readers have been waiting for it for almost three years now!).

That's all I've put on my shoulders for now. Writing-wise, anyway!

But I've got some more stuff to do in order to keep this year's "wishes" afloat. (Remember, I wrote them in my previous post?)

One of them is that I wish to be braver...
With that idea in mind, I did something I wanted to do for a little while now but was kind of afraid to do it: I applied on my first freelance job EVER!

OK, it might not seem like much, but I'm really proud of myself for doing it, for going over and beyond my fear. (Still haven't gotten any reply but hey, at least, I applied! ^_^) Next on my list of scary things to do: find an agent.
I'll let you know how that one turns out...

In the meantime, I've been painting during this year's Holidays and here are the pictures of three new paintings I've made (the last two are inspired from a Japanese artist but I can't seem to find his name or artwork anywhere anymore... Sorry.) 

A little baby tiger for my sister who loves this animal. :)

First try at palette knife! :)

Second try at palette knife and without any model; all came from my head! ^_^

So there we go! :)
Back to work everyone! (And I'm so glad I don't have to go outside cause there was an icestorm yesterday... It's pretty icy and slippery out there with a nice, freezing -25C!! Brrrrrrrrrr!)

Hello 2015!

So, well, big news: the New Year has arrived! (Did you notice? :P)

2015...
"That's a good number, right?" said my aunt yesterday.

Well, I guess we'll see uh? Cannot really tell in advance! Although, I can almost predict that, come December 31st 2015, most everyone will let out a sigh of relief when 2016 kicks in... 'Cause no matter how much we wish things were different, more often than not they stay the same.
At least that's how *I* used to think...

But I don't anymore.
Because now I know that "things" don't change unless *we* do...

For the first time in my life, I'm neither happy nor sad that the old year is out. 2014 has been real nice to me and I wanna take a second to thank it for all it's brought into my life. Most of all, I wanna thank it for making me realize important things and turning me into a different, better person. I've learned to be more patient and to let go of negative stuff that was holding me back. I'm still a long way from being completely free from it, but at least, I took my first steps on the right path!

I've also come to fully understand the meaning of "you only live once". It's more than just a fab, more than just four letters that somehow always struck me as a soft drink brand. All of you who wears and bears YOLO on everything you own, do you fully get the meaning of it? Illness and death can strike you anytime. Tomorrow, you might be diagnosed with cancer or multiple sclerosis. Can you grasp the concept of how important yet fragile your life is?
Moreover, do you understand that your life is yours and no one else's? That whatever you dream of, you dream of it for a reason? Perhaps you were "given" those dreams as a strong enough fuel to propel yourself where you need to be! Maybe people will call you silly, stupid, careless or too carefree... Maybe people will tell you to stop dreaming, get a job and work like everybody else does... But maybe you need to listen to yourself first.
Because one day, your life, my life, OUR lives will be over. And I'm telling you, regrets hurt more than anything else...

You were lucky enough to be born in a world where everything and anything is possible. You're lucky enough to live in a society that provides Internet services and you have learned to read! You got a head start in life. Use it!

For most of us, the arrival of a new year is filled with promises of a better life and all that jazz. Well, I've come to learn that nothing good is ever going to just "happen" to us; we have to make efforts towards it! Be it love, friendship, better job, better health, etc. For most of us, it just takes efforts and that's it!
I'm not saying it's easy; I'm just saying it is simple.
So, act!

*******************

A dear friend of mine decided that, this year, she would not take on resolutions. I agree with her; they hold a lot of pressure and most of the time, they feel like work. Instead, just like she suggested, what if we just made "wishes", some kind of goals we want to work towards?
Here are my "wishes" for 2015:

• I wish to take better care of myself because no matter how many people love me and stand by me, in the end, my body is the only one that makes the entire journey with me;
• I wish to be less shy, scared and ashamed, I wish to have more confidence in myself and what I can accomplish;
• I want to shake off that "quitter" label on my forehead, this year is the year of keeping it up;
• I will keep the promises I've made to myself. All of them.

And that's it!
This year, I will move forward. I will take giant leap! I'm in my thirties and I've decided that this was when my real life would start. My thirties will be the most awesome years of my life and a prelude to a wonderful future made of my forties, fifties and up!

So, after all that long speech, all I really wanna say is: I truly wish you all the best and the epiphany of how wonderful the simple gift of life is!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!! xxxx