New ebook, new colors, new stories, new chapter

You probably saw the new layout changes last week, but I wanted to let you know that there’s still some construction going on*. I went out and gathered a bunch of intel on different stories (guys, I’m not going to lie: this was not easy. It’s come to my attention that I write a lot) and put them on the fic page, which means that the most comprehensive list** of my stories you’re going to find on the internet is on this blog. I’ve sorted it by fandom, for the most part, first the series and then the alphabetical order.

I also went ahead and tossed Nobody Puts Dummy in the Corner onto the downloads page.*** I haven’t put anything new on that page for a while, so it felt strange.

In writing news, Camp Nano is going on and I’ve been sort of half-heartedly following along, which means writing a bit. I wrote a bunch of prompts on Tumblr this weekend from a myriad of different fandoms, including Arrow, The Avengers, Captain Marvel, Community and Fringe, Dresden Files, Middleman and New Girl, and Orphan Black. Actually, there were a lot of New Girl stories in there. Huh. My friend may have a fixation. I’ve got one more prompt sitting in my inbox that needs to be penned, and it’s fantastic (think classic comic book character + Sarah Walker).

Oh, also, I finished the eleventh chapter of That Which is Greater last night, so. Yeah. Not sure where I’m going to end that story, but it’s one step closer to removing one “WIP” status from my fic page.

Frea

* I still need to update the colors on the Fates Guide.
** but not exhaustive.
*** Links to the Fates Guide, the Downloads page, etc., are now in the sidebar on the right. Cheerio!

The Art of Finishing Up

Fezzywhig asked me something on Tumblr today, and I thought it might make a good writing entry on the blog, so I’m putting it over here, too. As with every piece of writing advice I give, please keep in mind that this may not necessarily apply to every writer. We’re all different, and those differences should be celebrated.

Fezzywhig asked: Apologies if this was asked before. As a prolific writer, have you ever been tempted to go back to a finished work and tweak or change it? Also a sideways question. Has anyone addressed you by one of your nom de plumes’s in person? If so how do you overcome the fanboy awkwardness?

Hey! I think somebody has asked me this before, but not in a public setting. And I definitely don’t mind getting asked a question multiple times, as long as that question isn’t, “IS THERE GOING TO BE A SEQUEL?” (while not commenting on the fic itself) or “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE SO AND SO?” when I’ve already said that that story is on hiatus. Also, a lot of it has to do with the tone of the question being asked. :)

To answer your first question: I’m tempted, a lot, to go back and change my work. Every time I reread it, I see something I could tweak or even rewrite. Just watch me reread That Which is Greater sometime. It will enlighten you as to how hard somebody can grit their teeth. There are entire chapters of that I would cut or rewrite in a heartbeat.

Now here’s where some authors are about to disagree with me because, even though I’m tempted to go back and rewrite things (like the first chapter of Fates, for example), I don’t, and I won’t. My philosophy is that once something is published, it gets minor cosmetic changes and nothing else (like, fixing a grammatical error, or using Angry Birds in 2002 on accident). I don’t believe in going back and rewriting my old fics because to me, those stories have been told. They’re done. Hopefully, I told them the best way I could, but it’s time to move on and to use the things I learned writing those fics to write newer and hopefully better tales.

2012: A Year in Review

I promised greater transparency, so here it is: I’m working on That Which is Greater. I’m not very far, but I have ideas. I’ll keep you posted as to when chapters are finished/will go up. I don’t know if I’m going to finish Greater: Winter Break. I don’t know if I’m going to write anything else in the Greaterverse. I’m not open to suggestions for more stories, either (I wasn’t for Fates or W11, if you’ll remember, and I don’t intend to start). If you want to know about Curtain Call, ask mxpw. If you want another unfinished story finished, please be patient and let me cross one hurdle at a time. Thank you.

Now on to the meat of the post: I didn’t make resolutions for 2013. Resolutions, I feel, should be between you and your conscience, so I was disgusted to have mine from 2011 thrown in my face by a total stranger. I’d love to see some great things happen this year to people I love and people I know, I’d love to watch some awesome movies, read some wonderful stories, and make fantastic memories. But that’s as far as I’ll go with resolutions.

Now, a look at the year 2012 in writing and other stuff, as best my memory goes:

A Change to the Blog

Hey all,

 Previously I had the entirety of Curtain Call and Romeo and Juliet But Without Teenagers or Death...Well, Okay Some Death posted under the fanfiction tab, but that was messy. Instead, you’ll find links to those in the fanfiction chart. I have added Previous and Next links to each chapter in the blog to enable easy navigation. Of course, it’s probably easiest to just download, you know, the ebooks from the page.

In addition, I have completed the Ultimate Fates Guide with color coded table cells, listed by date. That is located underneath the fanfiction tab.

And if you’re curious about how I’m doing with Nanowrimo, the answer is completely ambivalent and about 5k behind, so good times all around!

Happy Monday!

Frea

Stuff and Updates and Other Stuff!

So the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (or possibly that’s just science/experimentation, but what do I know?) and here we are, about 8 days into November, and I’m stressed and headache-y, and thinking, “I get this way every November. Why do I do this to myself?” And then October rolls around again and I’m like, “Hey, I finished Fates and that was 400k long. A little thing like November is NO BIG DEAL.”

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Currently, I’m on track (as of yesterday). I’ve completed two chapters and am halfway through the third. It only just occurred to me last night I’ve signed up for an entire month of writing climaxes and endings, two things that require a lot of thought, second-guessing, and mental fortitude. Evidently, I like challenges to remind myself every once in a while that sleep is a luxury, not a right.

You’ve likely seen some of the fruits of my labor by now, too. Max and I posted the fourth chapter of The Bank Job. The first two chapters were co-written; the last two were written by me (yes, even the hand-job line) because I lost a bet. You can read it here on ff-net and here on AO3 and I’ll try to get the ebook posted for everybody’s downloading pleasure soon.

I’m finishing up The Abbey, so my Downton fans can rejoice in that much, at least. The seventh chapter is done. I’m letting it percolate while I finish the eighth because they’re so deeply intertwined, so people will be able to rejoice to see quick successive updates on that. My next project was supposed to be That Which is Greater, but I’m struggling so much with The Abbey that I’m going to give myself a break and work on something Avengers-related because that’s where my passion is at the moment. I signed up for a fandom winter exchange, which will be released upon the world in a little over a month, so you’ll get to see something very different from me in December.

Speaking of things that are very different, have you guys heard of this new writer Alexandria Dunn? She hasn’t done much with her website yet, so I don’t want to link you to it, but she’s (begrudgingly) signed up for Facebook and she has a Twitter, and if you like my writing, you might like her. It’s weird that she and I have the same real name and we look exactly alike and our writing style is, like, completely identical, plus she also feels the same way about all of my favorite shows and…okay, have I dropped enough hints yet? Not much there yet, but it’s a start.

:)

Frea

 PS – if you want more consistent updates about what I’m doing, it’s much easier to check my livejournal.

Nanowrimo Survival Guide, Part II

This edition of the guide has some handy links for you, and not too much else at the moment. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Write or Die

Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences.

You know that lab experiment where you have to keep doing something or you get zapped? WOD is like the Word Processor version of that. There’s downloadable apps, it’s online if you want to use it there, too. You can customize how long you want to write and how “gentle” you want it to be when you stop writing. Kamikaze mode, just FYI, is insane, and if you do that one, you must be a glutton for punishment.

Written Kitten

Written Kitten was created by Skud, Emily and contributors. We like positive reinforcement, so we decided to make something a bit like writeordie but cuter and fuzzier. Images are randomly selected from Flickr's “most interesting” photos matching the tags “kitten” and “cute”. Enjoy!

WK is like WOD’s much nicer maiden aunt who gives you cookies and kittens instead of beating you mercilessly about the head. If you’re convinced your writing is lacking small, fuzzy creatures, it’s the perfect solution.

Scrivener

Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.

Scrivener, to me, is like Evernote and MS Word had a baby and it grew up to be Captain Awesome. It’s a great program. It’s a word processor, but it lets you store a bunch of different things in the same place—word documents, research, outlines, images, notes, etc. It’s great if you’re not organized (like me!), and it’s powerful and easy to use. Plus, the company offers an extended trial period during Nanowrimo.

They Fight Crime!

He's a Nobel prize-winning moralistic ex-con with a mysterious suitcase handcuffed to his arm. She's a high-kicking nymphomaniac mermaid on the trail of a serial killer. They fight crime!

Need a plot? Look no farther!

Try a Character Sheet

You can use this one here or try Googling a few. Fill them out about your character, or if you really want to get creative, AS your character. Get to know the people you’ll be spending November with while you can.

The Nanowrimo Survival Guide, Part I

I can’t actually give definitive rules for Nanowrimo because, let’s face it, I’ve always been of the opinion that no two writers are exactly alike. It’s like telling all artists to paint with only one brand of paint, or on one type of canvas, or even one category of subject. You just don’t do that.

That said, I’ve done Nanowrimo a few times, and I’ve only “lost” once (I moved cross-country in mid-November, so I kind of think I had an excuse, but you may proceed to mock me now), so I could probably give some advice. Which I will proceed to do after this fascinating introductory segment coming up right now.

So for the uninitiated, Nanowrimo stands from National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November of every year, and has for the past several years. It was founded by an insane man named Chris Baty, who gathered a few of his close friends near and said, “Hey, why don’t we write a novel? In a month? Doesn’t that sound like a great way to cut through the excuses that get in the way of writing novels?”

And so it began. And the next year, more came to study at the feet of Chris Baty, and the next year, they brought their friends, and it grew into such an event that we regularly crash the Nanowrimo homepage. Hundreds of thousands of writers flock to this website every year with one goal: 50,000 words in 30 days.

Monday Updates #2

It’s Monday!

...that should probably never be said with excitement, huh? Well, even so, it is Monday, which means if you’re reading this, you’ve survived the weekend, or you’ve got really good wi-fi in whatever part of heaven or hell you ended up in. I guess if you’ve got eternity, that might be a good time to read my blog.

Talkin' About My Book and Nanowrimo

So for those of you who don’t follow on Tumblr/Twitter/all of the other insane places I hang out, Harper Collins is doing this thing where they’re accepting unagented manuscripts for two weeks for science fiction, urban fantasy, fantasy, and other genre type stories. You can read more about it here, but the gist of it is that they’re looking to expand their online catalogue by printing some exclusive ebook titles.

I have a few completed books under my belt that aren’t fanfiction, but only one that I felt would meet the criteria.  My idea was to not sleep for the past three weeks (when my friend brought this to my attention) and revamp my book with my 2012 writing style, a better villain, and a more ambiguous central relationship. Unfortunately, real life has a way of laughing hysterically at me and, having gotten only three chapters redone, I decided to hand in my 2008 version instead. I think I’m being pragmatic rather than pessimistic when I say there’s really not a chance in hell they’ll want to publish this book, but it was nice to finally sit down and write a query letter and a synopsis for it (though I’m sure I drove my friends nuts last night).

If they decide not to publish it, here’s the deal: I’m going to publish it myself. I’ve got some experience making ebooks, thanks to you lovely people, and the best beta reader on the planet. I don’t want to jinx myself with a definite release date, but I am hard at work on the revisions for it.

Here’s some details:

• It’s a full-length novel, clocking in at about 80,000 words.
• It’s in first person. Pretty much everything I’ve written that everybody has seen from me has been in third person, so here’s the hilarious part: I’m most comfortable writing in first person. 
• It’s sci-fi/fantasy.
• The main character is a smart-ass.
• There’s romance, there’s action, there are people falling off of buildings, and other people that can fly.
• The name is really long.
• It’s the first in a trilogy.
• Max already ships two characters that aren’t a canon ship and has promised to write the first fanfic.
• You’ll see where I got Gwen’s name in Fates.

Hopefully in the coming weeks, I’ll be able to point you to this great new author you’ll have never heard of who’s somehow releasing snippets of a book that fit exactly everything I just listed, which’ll be weird because her name isn’t Frea O’Scanlin but it’ll be crazy how much she sounds like me, you know? ;)

In other news, it’s October, which means the panic for November begins now. Is anybody doing Nanowrimo? Is anybody interested in doing Nanowrimo, but is terrified about what it is, what it entails, and needs a pep talk? If you’re in St. Louis, I’ll be bopping along to all of the events because the ML is a friend of mine, and I’ve done Nanowrimo so many times, I can offer tips, advice, and support.

Anyway, that’s the news for today!

Frea