“I’m having a Me Party~ A party just by myself~ A Me Party~ I don’t need nobody else~ I’m having a Me Party~ I’m the first and last to show~” *sings along to Me Party from the Muppets 2011 Soundtrack* Can you tell I’m obsessing over the Muppets lately? Because I am. :D

But that’s Fangirlin’ leaking over. You all want the writing scoop for the week. *puts hands on waist, cocks hip and winks*

Room of Maggots

You’ve probably seen me mention this on Twitter, or saw it on DA. If not — I’m letting you know again! It’s the first short story I’ve posted in…a long time, and I’m pretty happy with it. To copy my description from the DeviantArt Page:

Room of Maggots by Grey Liliy. A Horror Short Story, Approx. 5000 words. Self-Edited.

Rosie goes to the cellar to retrieve a glass of wine for her husband’s dinner party, but finds herself trapped in the dark with a dead body when the door vanishes. With only a single light, and the smell of rotting flesh assaulting her senses–how is she to get out?
—
This is the product of forcing myself to write something in the first person.

I do not like the First Person point of view–in fact, I can rather say that I despise it. I barely tolerate reading it (though I will force myself if the subject appeals enough), and I can’t stand writing in it.

However, I wanted to challenge myself–so I sat down and forced myself to write something in first person. A year or so later, I finally forced myself to edit the work and make it presentable enough to share.

If you need a true example of my disgust for this particular point of view, consider this: I forced myself to write in first person, and what came of it is a room full of maggots.

So far the response has been good–for what I was going for. At least one person who read it said they were glad they hadn’t eaten beforehand. So, I guess that means goal accomplished. *thumbs up* Also, it confirmed that I probably needed the 16+ age warning. I don’t think it’s particularly bad myself (I’m seeing 13+), but best to play it safe with these things.

You can read Room of Maggots on Deviantart if you have an account, or over on Broken Pocket. :D

NaNoWriMo/Nonnative Ice

48k – only 2k to go and I’m done with this thing. How have I gotten the word count as high as it is? By rewriting scenes. My dislike of the story, and the total mess of the plot line, have made coming up with new material more difficult than I’d like to admit.  As such, I’ve been looking at stuff I’ve already written and tried to turn it into something at least bearable. It’s amazing how high your word count goes when you take a scene that was 200 words and expand it to 500-600 words–rinse and repeat. I was hitting 2k a day just from that. *thumbs up*

If you’re curious how that works, when I’m not sure/don’t like what I’m writing, my scenes end up bare-bones action and dialogue. So what was originally:

“How are you feeling?” Ida said.

Olivier shrugged, “Been better.”

will turn into:

     “How are you feeling?” Ida said, voice unsure of herself. She gripped the front of her skirt, tightly. Olivier hadn’t looked at her in over ten minutes. He just kept staring at the wallpaper print on the wall.

     Olivier shrugged, vaguely aware that Ida had been talking to him. She prodded his shoulder with a finger, letting the words finally sink into his skull. Olivier answered reluctantly, “Been better.”

If you’re curious, I went from 10 words to 69. This adds up really quickly. :D

The Candlemaker’s Merman

My beta reader, unnamed until I know it’s okay to say the name, is awesome. Beta’s already read the 6k or so words I had written, which means I have…nothing more to send. But Beta feedback is quite useful, so I have some guidance on what questions still need to be answered in the future. :D

Children of Hephaestus

I edited…three pages. :D Reading aloud takes forever. Though, I think it’s because I’m catching all the things I missed before and having to stop every sentence to make a mark or two–that tends to slow the process.

At this rate, I don’t think my editor is going to recognize the book–in a good way.

Author Tool

One Page Per Day This is actually what I used to write the first draft of Room of Maggots last year. I’ve given up on it since I got Scrivener (<3), but I still think it’s a nice tool. The basic premise is you can only write–get this–one page at a time. :D

You can write more than one a day, but you still have to manually add the next page. At the time I was using it, I made sure to write one page a day, as suggested, and it worked out pretty well. Try it out if you’ve got the time. :)