Conquering Blank Page Intimidation

It’s a hard thing, staring down a blank page…starting a new story from nothing but ideas.

I’ve often heard other writers comment on the difficulty of starting a brand new storyline. It’s rare that I fall into this category, mostly because I get so little time to write, that by the time I sit down, the ideas are already there and just waiting to go onto the page.

But recently, I fell victim to the blank page. After reviewing some online magazine submission guidelines, I opened a new document in Word and proceded to stare at the white screen for 10 minutes. But then I remembered…

Writer’s Life . org

Another reason I don’t usually suffer from blank page intimidation, is because I have a process for beginning a story. I’m not sure if it’ll be helpful to anyone, but I think I’ll share it just in case.

For me, when I sit down to start any new story, whether it be a piece of microfiction, a short story, or a novel(la), I run with the first decent sentence that pops into my head.

The opening sentence I came up with the other day when starting another scifi short story was this: Broad Street is a long road.

For me this was a great starting point because it sets up my story in my hometown of Richmond–where most of my stories take place–therefore establishing a setting I’m familiar with. This sentence also works because I have a specific location: Broad Street. I walked and worked on Broad Street during my 20’s when I went to college in the heart of Richmond.

With a satisfactory starting point, I just let my imagination explore the MC’s perspective…

I’ve walked it many times. Most humans don’t give me a second look. Some people just stare.

This works too, because the MC is an alien. And I think by addressing the fact that he refers to others as humans and not people, I establish that he is somehow different.

I’ve been hiking this road, looking for him; the man who confiscated my vessel. Mr. Tobes. He quarantined my landing site, calling it Area 53.

I like this because I now have an objective for my alien.

I’m looking for Area 52. It’s here. On Broad Street. But Broad Street’s a long road.

Okay, that’s the opening for my new short story. It sets up setting, gives minor intro to MC, and establishes an objective. It’s not perfect, but it gives just enough lose ends for my brain to really get running with the story. I have to think about why my alien wants to find Area 52. New characters come to mind. New technology creeps into my imagination. We’re good to go.

Now, more likely than not, this opening will be completely reworked once I’m done with the first draft. There’s a very good chance that none of it will be relevent once I actually know what the story is. And that’s okay–maybe annoying sometimes–but okay.

So, what’s your writing process? How do you start something new? Do you ever experience blank page intimidation? Please leave a comment or word of advice. We’re all in this writing thing together.

 

First Line Friday

To commemorate this week’s installment of Refining Sylver, I’m posting the first sentence of chapter 5!

“Blood pounds through my head, making my eyes pulsate as my mother kisses Kanis Grey’s whiskered cheek.”

I hope you’ll swing by Channillo and check out all the great writing. Below, I’ve included links to a few of the stories that I’ve found particularly interesting.

The Let Downs, by Jared Lemus

The White Wolf, by Jennifer Laird

Soliptical, by Jenifer Higgins

 

Have a nice weekend everyone!

 

Please leave a comment! I’d love to chat!

It’s Live! The Second Chapter of Refining Sylver!

Good morning everyone! The second chapter of Refining Sylver is live and ready to be read! Please follow the link. Don’t forget to check out a sample of chapter 1 for free! (On my series page, click the Table of Contents tab at the top left.)

Remember, a membership with Channillo gives you access to tons of stories written by great authors! Your support of the site supports the writers (every subscriber I get earns me a couple of pennies).

I hope you swing by and check things out! And if you join Channillo, drop a line!

Sylver is a werewolf who’s more into tweeting than howling, but when she’s framed for her sister’s murder, she can no longer ignore her legendary heritage. Armed with social media, Sylver builds a new wolf-pack. But it’s hardly reliable. She struggles to keep her Anti-Wolves (werewolves, like Sylver, who prefer not to transform) inline.

When a chance encounter reveals another werewolf has been hunting Sylver’s family for years, killing first her father, and now her sister, Sylver takes action.  

At the next full moon, she attacks the rival pack. But there are more than just werewolves in the woods surrounding her home, and if Sylver isn’t careful, it may be her pelt that’s left out to dry.

 

Please leave a comment! I’d love to chat!

It’s Up! Chapter 1, Refining Sylver

Alright, everyone! The first chapter of Refining Syver is live and ready to be read. Turns out, the first chapter was too long and has been separated into three segments, but you should still be able to read the first two segments for free.

Please pop over to Channillo and check out the first installment of my werewolf series by clicking the link below! Once you’re on the series page, click the table of contents button at the top ofthe page and it’ll take you to a list of the chapters.

Thank you!

Refining Sylver

Sylver is a werewolf who’s more into tweeting than howling, but when she’s framed for her sister’s murder, she can no longer ignore her legendary heritage. Armed with social media, Sylver builds a new wolf-pack. But it’s hardly reliable. She struggles to keep her Anti-Wolves (werewolves, like Sylver, who prefer not to transform) inline.

When a chance encounter reveals another werewolf has been hunting Sylver’s family for years, killing first her father, and now her sister, Sylver takes action.  

At the next full moon, she attacks the rival pack. But there are more than just werewolves in the woods surrounding her home, and if Sylver isn’t careful, it may be her pelt that’s left out to dry.

 

Please leave a comment! I’d love to chat!

Free First Chapter

It’s only three days until the first segment of Refining Sylver goes live! And amazing news, it’s free to read! When you visit Channillo, you can read the first chapter of any series without purchasing a membership or subscribing.

Once my chapter goes live, I’ll post a link here for easy access.

I hope you’ll swing by Channillo and check out Refining Sylver, along with a lot of other great stories.

Sylver is a werewolf who’s more into tweeting than howling, but when she’s framed for her sister’s murder, she can no longer ignore her legendary heritage. Armed with social media, Sylver builds a new wolf-pack. But it’s hardly reliable. She struggles to keep her Anti-Wolves (werewolves, like Sylver, who prefer not to transform) inline.

When a chance encounter reveals another werewolf has been hunting Sylver’s family for years, killing first her father, and now her sister, Sylver takes action.  

At the next full moon, she attacks the rival pack. But there are more than just werewolves in the woods surrounding her home, and if Sylver isn’t careful, it may be her pelt that’s left out to dry.

 

Please leave a comment! I’d love to chat!

Excerpt from Refining Sylver

In celebration of the release of my fantasy series on Channillo, Sept. 2, here’s an excerpt:

Having Dire in my home is less distracting than I expected. While he snores away on the couch, I slump over my tablet while sitting on the bed. My twitter inbox is full and it takes me a while to answer and delete. Managing social media properly really is a job.
               There’s a group of local werewolves that I’ve exchanged comments with in the past, and I take a moment to browse their personal pages. Most of them link back to the same bar on East Main; a little odd, but if that’s the hangout…I glance at the clock. It’s 10 pm; time to party. I slip into a pair of tight jeans and a slutty tank. My hair is already in a ponytail—why mess with a good thing.   
            “Dire.” I walk into the living room and shake his foot. “I’m going out.”
            “Where to?” He yawns, rubs his eyes.
            “A bar called Relics.”
            “I thought you lived on a budget.” He sits up.
            “This is business.” I open the front door and step onto the porch. He’s at my hip in a blink. “Are you…coming?” I lean around him to lock the door.
            “I don’t know why you bother locking up. That bolt won’t keep anyone out.” He lobs down the stairs, a shadow in the moonlight. Once again, he’s straddling his motorcycle.  
            “I was going to ride my bike.” I nod towards the yellow Schwinn chained to the fence.
            Dire actually laughs. The sudden eruption of mirth catches me off-guard.
            “They’ll never let you in if you ride up on a bicycle. They’ve got standards, and hipsters don’t cut it.”
            I grin, because there’s no way I’m a hipster…

 

Sylver is a werewolf who’s more into tweeting than howling, but when she’s framed for her sister’s murder, she can no longer ignore her legendary heritage. Armed with social media, Sylver builds a new wolf-pack. But it’s hardly reliable. She struggles to keep her Anti-Wolves (werewolves, like Sylver, who prefer not to transform) inline.

When a chance encounter reveals another werewolf has been hunting Sylver’s family for years, killing first her father, and now her sister, Sylver takes action.  

At the next full moon, she attacks the rival pack. But there are more than just werewolves in the woods surrounding her home, and if Sylver isn’t careful, it may be her pelt that’s left out to dry. 

Please leave a comment. I’d love to chat with you.

 

 

Things I Learned While Writing My Second Novel

So I’ve been working on my speculative fiction novel Soulless for 6 months–off and on–and there are some things I’ve come to realize.

First: Scrap it if it sucks. When I originally started I made it 14 pages in before I realized my concept was awful. After doing a bit more research and plotting an outline, I started again. This process got me to 50,000 words.

Second: Beef it up. As 50,000 words is neither a novella nor a novel, I had to decide which category I wanted. I wanted a novel. Therefore, even though I loved the 50,000 words I already had, I went back to the beginning and started looking at what could be improved. I also posted chapters on Writer’s Carnival and Querytracker and received feedback that aided in my rewriting. This led to a massive improvement in the overall story. I’ve added more depth to the beginning and fleshed out a few of the flat characters. I’ve rearranged chapters and deleted obvious and out of place segments.

Third: Keep everything! Now that I’m rolling on the fourth draft of Soulless, I’ve realized that scenes cut from previous versions are actually helpful. I’m so glad I opened a new doc and saved all that stuff–30 pages worth–because now I’m finding that some of those scenes still have a home. It’s easy to go back, do a search, and find the perfect addition to draft 4. Sometimes the scenes need to be altered, but it’s their ideas that are important, and those ideas haven’t been lost.

Fourth: Tack on the sequel. As someone who generally creates short story lines, if I go ahead and think of what I want the sequel to be, then tack that on to the end of my “standalone” novel, I find I have something of normal length. I did this with my science fiction novel (getting ready to query that one!!) and have now done it with Soulless. My 4th draft isn’t finished, but I’ve been able to add 7,000 more words and I’m only a quarter of the way in.

Fifth: Persevere. Yeah, I’m going to finish off this post with a little cheese. I’ve learned to keep pushin’ on and to believe in my overall concept. I’ve learned more about writing–about grammar and tenses and active sentence structure–which causes me to pout as I go forward, knowing the past is rife with mistakes. I’ve learned that I really do love my characters and what they’re going through, enough to put myself through the agony of rewriting over and over again. And I guess–most importantly–I’ve learned I can do this. There’s a process to writing, and I’m learning mine.