Jan 27, 2010: Posted my first one-shot of the year: In the Event of a Divorce. Lots more of these coming, I've got tons and tons of ideas for these I recently realized. Anyway, 270Days may or may not be updated. To be honest, I'm thinking of scratching it and starting over on it. I have this whole timeline worked out for it and everything and I love the first chapter. But I'm having a REALLY hard time writing the second. Mostly because I'm having a tough time introducing characters without actually introducing them. So right now, I'm doing some free-writing--just whatever pops into my head-- plus some reading on "how to write" essentially. I'll let you know if its status changes.

July 25, 2009: So it's summer and I'm working instead of writing. Bills are the worst thing on Earth, I've determined, because they constantly interrupt your dreams with reality. But anyway, the reason for this post is to inform you of a site called www.authonomy.com. It's run by HarpersCollins, it's free, a plagiarists-free zone, and the most popular stories are read by real HarperCollins editors every month. If you've already heard of it, I hope you're considering joining it and if you haven't, look it up. They have a FAQ that's pretty clear at answering most questions. But the best thing is, if you'd still rather just read instead of write, you can do that too. In fact, they have this neat tracker that notes how many books that you've favorite-ed, end up on others' favorites list as well. The higher your status, the more consideration the editors give to the books on your online-bookshelf. So check it out!

Er...Let's see.

I'm 20. I love reading; I couldn't imagine my life without books, don't really want to either. I'm a picky reader; if something doesn't interest me from the get-go, I'll drop it (although sometimes I push through and discover some really good stuff but I tend to get interested in almost anything I spend ten minutes concentrating on), especially if there are gramatical mistakes.

I'm a romantic so you'll see that a lot of my favorite stories are filed under the Romance section. I love cliches so long as they're well-written cliches.

I'm a stickler for details in a story and I can't stand it when authors are contradictory about their characters, especially if they are leading characters because it doesn't make sense to write a story about a character whose traits, personality quirks, and favorites you can't remember. And this is just a pet-peeve but it bugs me so much when an author goes on and on about eyes. Yes, they're important and can add to a story but not when they're mentioned in every chapter and described with ridiculous similes and metaphors. Last thing that bothers me: when voice is overlooked. Specifically, when the dialogue doesn't fit the age of the characters. For example: "It’s an idle thought to ask oneself if I fell in love with you in that moment." Voice is an important part of writing; it gives credibility and strength to characters as well as their various problems, dreams, needs. Giving the words of a person who lived in the 1900s to a sixteen-year-old is bad writing. And it doesn't make the story better if you add some flowery words that no one really says but you just wished they did or if you think it'll sound more romantic.

Ok...rant over.

STORIES:

I'm working on a couple of different romances. Mostly I just daydream about them when I'm bored. However, if I ever have them fleshed-out enough to write down, I'll start putting them up. Currently:

The Ugly Curse: I actually wrote for my high school's literary magazine. It's got kind of a hasty ending (due to a suddenly, "It's due today?!"-kind of deadline) but I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think about it.

How to be a Mother in 270 Days: I really like this story. I do. In fact I love it. And I have a sequel and trequel planned already (characters I just can't let go of). But I'm having a tough time with it. So currently On Hiatus until I figure out character introductions.

In the Event of a Divorce: A one-shot I wrote at 12:00AM and took about an hour, maybe 70 minutes.

That's about it. Have a nice day =)

summers-end

P.S. There are lots of stories I can't recommend through my Community because they aren't cited under the Romance Category although everything I read would be included in the genre. Please feel free to peruse my favorites to find gems that I can't otherwise bring to your attention. Examples would be "Family Lies" by Ms. Silverquill (I love Viola and Duke!!) and Wonderland's Void: The Return Call (which is the best example of fantasy writing I've read in a while simply because the writing is an extension of the world in which the story takes place) by LetoSai. Happy reading!