itsladywritesalot-blog

[itsladywritesalot-blog]

[itsladywritesalot-blog]

We are writers, my love. We don’t cry, We bleed on paper.

a.y. (via inksomniac)

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*cowering behind pillow* plz don’t kill me, Writeblrs….

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Reader: “Oh my God! I can’t wait to see what happens next!”

Me, the author, who has been winging this plot since chapter one:

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Do Writers Have to be on Crack?

I’ve been debating this entry for like an hour while eating a weird chili I made last night in my family-sized crockpot. I’m only feeding myself but go big or go home, right? I’m exposing myself, but I think this will be entertaining. The idea of writers, or artists in general, being on some sort of drug while they are doing their craft is quite common. Professors will joke that certain famous authors must have been on acid or something while writing and actually many well-known authors of today did have a drug addiction. Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll from the Victorian Age and Stephen King in our present day. The novel IT was written on cocaine. As suggested by my professor, I started watching the Netflix series “You”. One of the main characters, Beck, is a young struggling writer who I can identify with very easily. I see myself there in approximately two years. She is in an MFA program focused on creative writing and often battles choosing between social interaction and her writing. I often have a hard time sitting down and opening my laptop to begin writing. It’s like this huge daunting thing to actually start that process, but once I’m writing and the creative juices are flowing- it’s great and I love it. I often regret when I have to go to bed and put my laptop away. Beck goes through her own complications and hesitancy to sit down and focus on her writing as well.

There is an episode where one of her rich friends sets her up with an agent to review her writing. I’ve been researching some of the logistics to publishing and getting an agent is key if you want to make it into a somewhat reputable publishing house. I’m trying not to get swept up in the dilemma of self-publishing or signing a contract right now, it’s WAY too early. The agent makes mention of the greatest literary minds being on drugs and if I remember correctly offers Beck some illicit powder in a stereotypical miniature ziplock. I won’t spoil what happens in that episode but I really started thinking about writers doing drugs to open their creative minds. Now, I will never partake in any type of substance like acid or heroin because I quite like how my brain cells are alive. But… I am currently guilty of trying something else.

I’m not fluent in alcohol in any way, but my roommate and I have casual movie nights with a glass of wine sometimes. Girls nights. I decided to try something new and got a bottle of pineapple schnapps which I mix with lemonade. I’m pretty much an expert bartender. Not. I decided that I would have a lot of that and try some writing. My experiment didn’t get too far because I wasn’t fond of the overpowering alcohol taste when I added a lot of the pineapple stuff. Wimp. I later did some research on drunk writing and it doesn’t seem so hot. My writing has been good all this time without an extra influence, so I think I’ll keep it that way.

I’d love to hear what you guys think of the show “You” or any other comments you’re thinking of! Even if you think I’m a loser for drinking schnapps… let me know.

Love,

ItsLadyWritesALot

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Gilbert Gottfried & da 1st Draft Meeting

So the first prompt was to write a scene in which a barrier is crossed. Professor Holt asked for examples and I raised my hand and offered the answer ‘emotional’. She laughed a little and sarcastically said “Thanks Jimmy”, anyone else- something more casual? People chimed in with examples like a doorway and other things but my mind was already racing on the struggles I could put my character through. I knew just the thing. The assignment was due on Friday and I didn’t start it until then. Unbeknownst to me, it was 12 o’clock noon- not midnight. So yeah, that assignment was late. Oops. My writing borrows similar character personas from a series I love dearly. I add a lot of my own content, so the characters are very different, but they were born as the main three characters from this show. Anyone reading my writing wouldn’t know that unless I told them. But hey, gotta start somewhere. I was disturbed to learn that 50 Shades of Grey is Twilight fanfiction. Never read the first one, and I don’t plan to. Twilight was okay- team Edward in case anyone was wondering.

I chose a controversial scenario which unfolds near the very beginning of the writing. My main character Nye (yes like Bill Nye- but no he’s not a science guy *eye roll*) was a victim of gang rape. Which I didn’t go into detail, I conveniently had him black about before anything got serious. He’d been attacked after his night class with a baseball bat and dragged into a janitors closet. Oh yeah, he’s a college student. It may sound stereotypical but its an elite FBI-like academy for the best of the best. Rape is a very touchy subject in general, but from the male side of things- exponentially more touchy. I have been sexually assaulted before so this setup for my character Nye is somewhat personal. I actually got kind of upset after I finished writing that excerpt ending with the rape (innocence boundary being crossed) that I posted something to my Facebook about feeling personally connected to fictional characters going through hardships.

I am currently a college student and taking an Intro to Lit class as the last humanities requirement before I graduate with my AA this fall. I met a cute little dual-enrolled student named Hannah who also is on the path to an English major. I let her read the excerpt and she asked me if I felt weird submitting this kind of work to my professor. This made me rethink my topic and feel slightly awkward but was later reassured by my professor everything was fine.

Which brings us to the first draft review meeting I had with my professor. This is an extra thing I’ve decided to do outside of class and plan to continue as I write more of my novel. This class is focused on fiction, non-fiction, and poetry but I’ll be enlisting her help throughout this semester for my future-book. I’ve already told her that I plan on dedicating it to her, she’s been a major influence on my career choice and writing life.

We went over the draft which I had added to since I had submitted it and she made her little notes along the text. We discussed the future storyline which included Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a case for a confusing serial killer and Nye’s character development. I debated whether or not I would reveal the main twist which was that the main characters find out that the serial killer is someone they know. Which is ironic since they are at an elite detective, crime scene investigating, security guard academy. I sat in silence for a few seconds before blurting out who the killer was like I couldn’t hold it inside anymore. Professor Holt was momentarily disappointed at knowing such a critical plot point in the story but was able to give me advice on how to continue writing. I told her I wanted some parts of the story to be told from the point of view of the serial killer and acknowledged I’d have to do more research on DID and schizophrenia to be factually correct in portraying these aspects. I’m still not sure if I will move forward with the schizophrenia aspect in a certain character. She suggested I watch a series on Netflix called “You” which is narrated by a creepy stalker/psycho and Hannibal. Another interesting thing she brought up is a videogame called Hellblade where the main character has schizophrenic-like voices in her head. These voices will yell, have conversations or arguments while some voices tell her conflicting things. I have made a mental note to watch some YouTuber play that game, surely someone has posted about it.

The session ended well. Oh, we also watched this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkLqAlIETkA) which was funny and disturbing. 50 Shades of Grey read aloud by Gilbert Gottfried for an audiobook. It’s a short video that’s quite funny, but as you can tell inappropriate if you have small children around. This came up after I brought up my shock at how 50 Shades was fanfiction. Gilbert Gottfried if you don’t know him, is the voice of Jafar’s bird in the Disney movie Aladdin. So yes, enjoy that video if you haven’t already clicked the link. Just don’t play it out loud if people are around. Fair warning.

Let me know what you think of the video or what your inspiration is for starting a novel if you’re planning on it! I’d love to hear about it!

Love,

ItsLadyWritesALot

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The beginning

So… this English thing started a while ago. I’ve always loved to write fiction and over the summers when I was younger I’d randomly type in Word documents. I remember asking my Dad to open a Word document for me since I didn’t know how and eventually, he showed me how to do it. I’d write on and off. I was also a very avid reader but when I started high school, I didn’t have time anymore. I was a very conscientious student who took AP classes and was strict on not taking random elective classes on a 4.0 scale which would bring down my GPA. Flash forward to my Senior year of high school and I decided to dual enroll at a local community college. Dual enrollment meant that my high school paid for all my classes and I got a voucher for free brand-new textbooks. Man, those were the days. In my second semester before I graduated, I decided to take an elective class for fun, Intro to Fiction. A creative writing class for me to enjoy.

The professor Ms. Holt was a character. A skinny woman with a slightly emo style and long black hair. She dressed nice and had gauges which originally scared me. She has always kept these little Moleskine notebooks which had our activities in them. I knew after the first week that I loved her and the class which quickly became my favorite. There were complications with a crush in that class that ended up dating a classmate I was extremely jealous of. She was a super skinny thing with an outie belly button who wore crop tops. I sat behind the couple and finally had to move away when I couldn’t stand the handsy romance during class. Enough about that though. I looked forward to that class every week.

Professor Holt would come up with a different writing prompt every week where we wrote original content and participated in workshops every week. I loved the feedback and all the responses were positive with constructive criticism. I gained confidence in my writing quickly and looked forward to the new prompts. My final portfolio piece was started with the prompt “Write an excerpt including a small object that sparks a change”. These open-ended prompts always excited me and I’d brainstorm many different ideas. I like to write about controversial topics and my portfolio piece detailed a transgender woman forced into hiding and portraying a very masculine face. I had great plans for this writing and wanted to turn it into a novel. I told myself I’d continue to write it after the class ended.

I transferred to a medical college for a whole year and never wrote an extra word in that file which I had named Switch. And no, that is not a sexual connotation. After an epiphany and God’s guidance, I realized my true passion was English and transferred back to Valencia. I got a seat in another of Prof. Holt’s classes and now I am inspired to write my first novel. This is the beginning of my journey.