Too many ideas. Not enough time.

I mentioned the other day that I have too many things I’m writing. I decided to let you in on some of it.
You know of the Vampire story I wrote and the sequel I’m working on.
Various side stories regarding my vampires.
You know of the paranormal mystery
I’m writing, what started as a short story about a girl learning to be a witch, I’m thinking maybe it might be a good serial series. I just wrote another small episode.
I’m working on another short story, to submit to the magazine.
Various short stories that come to me when I’m least expecting it.  One of them being the tree Facelikeafryingpan posted about, scroll down a bit.
The werewolf story I’m doing for NaNo.

Six different writing projects. My desk is a mess, my computer’s desk top is a mess. Sigh, the cost of creativity.

Too many ideas; not enough time.
Do you have this problem?

Evolution of my writing

My writing has evolved through the years. Sometimes its fun to stop and look back. Would you care to join me?

As a teenager I wrote poetry. Tragic, heartfelt poetry. It made some cry, the adults in my life (at that time) would roll their eyes. A few encouraged me to keep writing… my mom, my grandma, and Mrs. Lucas ( one my English teachers). I burned all of that poetry as it was just a creative out let.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I started writing again. They were very short stories or poems mostly about animals and rhymed. They weren’t very good. They were also burned.

Last year I started writing again. The first was a short ghost story. Then came a short romance story. I enjoyed writing the two so I decided to follow the idea of a haunted house. I started at the beginning and hand wrote 3 pages when I understood that I wasn’t meant to write that story. (At least not then, 😉 it stays in my idea folder.) The vampire story came to me after I sat the haunted house story aside. I’m calling it Awakened By Death. (Giving a novel a name is in my opinion as hard as naming a child.)

Since that first novel, I began it’s sequel. Another story started playing in my mind and I started writing it too, (Haylee’s story- Secrets of Sathan). This story I think will be a mystery, but I’m leaning towards thriller or suspense. I have to wait and see what Haylee wants it to be.

While writing these two novels I have written a few more short stories ranging from 750 words to 2300 words. I have began outlining a werewolf story too. I think I like the paranormal/supernatural genre.

Now that being said, here’s the evolution part.

I wrote a short story with a particular magazine in mind. This magazine has themes for every month and so I had to write about the topic of their choice. I really enjoyed it! I was really worried for a while, but as soon as I started writing, it just flowed. I wrote another story for them, it was the same, as soon as I relaxed it poured out. I’m now working on yet another story for the following month, again their choice of topic. I am really enjoying it.

It’s fun and really nice knowing I can write other s

So I guess I’m not a genre writer after all 😀

Secrets of Sathan

Here is a piece of Haylee’s story. The mystery story. I think I’m going to call it

Secrets of Sathan

Ashley followed Haylee as she slowly moved through the dark house. Occasionally she would turn. Ashley was able to see Haylee’s eyes were closed. She whispered as she wandered through the house stopping at each window, drawing some imaginary symbol on the curtains. She stopped at each door, bent down and ran her hand across the bottom, from left to right, of the door frame. Then would stand back up and draw something on the door. She stopped at each interior door, wiped her hand across the bottom, and drew invisible symbols on the door.

Ashley didn’t understand the strange words Haylee chanted. She stepped out the back door and bent down at the right corner for a few moments then moved to the left corner. She stood up and moved towards the back corner of the backyard. Ashley bent down and inspected the corners of the door frame. A small symbol no bigger than an inch was drawn on the cement with black marker. I’ve never seen anything like that. A few shapes intertwined in an oval, what looked like an eye lay in the center. The same symbol was drawn at the other side.

What do you think?

How I write

I’d like to share the way I write with you.

First, I get an idea, and I toy with it for a few hours. I practice the Five W’s:
Who is the story about, who are the other people?
When is this story taking place? When in a time frame of past, present, or future; but also when in the characters live.
What is happening to the protagonist? What’s happening to the other characters?
Why did she do that, why is that happening. In addition, how does she react to these actions/ problems?
Then last, Where, I finally decide where on a map. All of this happens mentally.

Sometimes, I become friends with the Protagonist way before I get the full five W’s answered. She becomes so real to me I hear her talking to me. She tells me her story as if a friend would share hers over a cup of coffee. Soon some of the other characters share their stories or the “why” they do what they do. I listen; at times, I ask questions, so I understand the story better. I get to be inside of their heads, I begin to know them. It gets weird sometimes. Music inspires me, if you read my post How I started writing you’ll know that my Muse usually has music playing in the background. A funny thing happens too, I’ll hear a song, and I’m like “That’s so Emily. It’s exactly what she’s feeling right now.” My family has gotten use to it, but when I first started, I think they considered having me admitted.

I may make notes, but I usually I only do the notes if I want to save that story idea for later (I’m outlining a ghost story, also the werewolf story). I start writing once I know a lot of the story. I don’t write at the beginning and move to the middle and end at the end. I start at what the character tells me. The vampire story for example- Emily is the protagonist; she started talking to me at what is now chapter 5. We moved along the story jumping from scenes by days. I’m currently writing the second part of her novel. She has me writing different scenes still. I’m also writing a paranormal mystery. Haylee’s story, she tells me what to write the same way. We are moving around the story by day’s even weeks. I have close to 40 documents in each folder. I check weekly to see if I can add any scenes into one chapter.

I’ve given you names of the protagonist of these two stories, but names usually take a very long time to figure out. I usually use a number/letter in place of a name until I’m given a name and I have to check meanings and spelling before I agree with a name -though the character is always right (so far).

When you decide you want to write, you also have to decide if you want to write in the first person or third person Point of View. With Emily’s story, I decided to use the third person POV, because there would be missing from her husband. Haylee’s story I also decided on the third POV because of the mystery aspect. If I wrote from her head, the mystery would be given away quickly. The werewolf story and the ghost story I think will be first POV.

When I write short stories, I pretty much follow this same procedure. It’s so much faster when I write short stories though.

If you write, check out Chelsea Brown19’s post, Seven steps to writing a book
How do you write?

Edited to fix links.