Music Monday - A Writing Sample

The following is an excerpt from a lyric war I did based on the following:

"I'm in love with my own sins." (The American Suitehearts – Fall Out Boy)

***

When I do it, I know it’s wrong. But I love it.

I love it. I hate it. But sometimes, I think a bigger part of me loves it.

My hand, wrapped around the knife, clenches tighter. I’ve been told all my life it’s a sin to hurt myself. My body is supposed to be “a temple.” I’m not supposed to mutilate it. Slice it. Cut it.

But I do it anyway.

The door is locked. I lean against it, knees curled up to my chest. My arm trembles. It’s not the first time I’ll do it, and it won’t be the last. This should feel normal by now. I should be able to just do it. Don’t think. Just do. Think later.

I tell myself I’ll stop when I want to. Every day that passes is deemed the day I’ll finally not do it. But there’s no other way to take away the pain. As the world destroys me, I need to destroy something. And the only thing I can actually destroy is myself.

My eyes close. Metal against flesh. Just a little less space and they’ll meet. And since I’ve done this so many times before, this time, I won’t feel a thing.

The blade sinks into my arm.

I was wrong.

I still feel something.

***

I took this piece of writing and modified it to put it into my novel in verse, Indelible. As an example of what can be inspired, changed, or modified from a lyric war, I've put a sample below.

Fun Friday: Wheel of Emotions

Human emotions are complicated. We're not limited to just happiness or sadness, because there are also different aspects of emotion within the main branches we have. Unfortunately, I don't know where exactly this chart is from, but I take no credit for it. However, I do think it's cool and wanted to share it.

Truth Thursday: A Break from Hashtags (Writing Sequels)

Writing is much harder than it sounds. An infinite number of problems can find ways to present themselves in a manuscript. After hours of working on deleting typos and editing out words that occur too frequently, a second or third glance will still reveal problems that were previously overlooked. To produce a good piece of writing takes patience, time, and a lot of red pens that end up thrown away not because they get lost, but because they run out of ink.

A few weeks ago, I got bored in class, so I wrote out a scene I planned for a sequel to a novel I started and finished three years ago. The scene continued and developed into a chapter, which spawned another chapter, which in turn spawned even more chapters. (They multiply like rabbits, I swear.) Now I have more than 10 chapters of a new novel staring at me. On one hand, I'm excited because it's fun figuring out where my characters have gone in their time away from me, what they're up to, and seeing how they've developed differently. However, I can't seem to turn off the editor in my brain that complains that I'm not watching out for repeated words, that the character development feels unnatural at times, and that new characters that I've added are shallow and not fleshed out even though I've already written twenty thousand words of the novel. In fact, I'm afraid that I've been wasting words instead of making sure each of them is precious.

This is not a unique problem. Many writers are afraid of writing sequels because they fear it won't be as good as the original. (We hear people talk about how movie sequels aren't as good as their originals sometimes, and we fear the same thing for our precious babies, our novels.) In fact, I don't know if I'll ever publish this sequel that I'm writing. When it's complete, I'll have to evaluate it and see if it detracts from the story it's a sequel to, if the quality measures up. To do that, however, I have to actually finish writing the novel, which will be the hard part.

See, being a writer is tough. But being a writer is immensely rewarding as well. So wherever it takes me and whatever I do with it, this is what I'll do for now. I'll let the words flow out of me, and when the reservoir runs dry because the novel is done, I'll put it aside for a time. Then I'll pull it back out and make my decision then.

It'll be months before this happens, so don't expect to hear about my decision soon. But once again, writing requires patience, time, and many red pens. And I'm ready to supply all three.

Wacky Wednesday: Literary Rambles

Looking for agents, or looking to publish? Do you wonder where you can find information on various agents, what they represent, and if they are currently open to accepting queries? Well, if that's you, then hop on over to Literary Rambles!

Literary Rambles is extremely helpful for filtering (for example, you can choose to filter agents by genre) and for checking that agents represent your genre before you query them. For example, if an agent is only interested in paranormal and fantasy novels, my realistic fiction, character-driven novel would receive an immediate pass 99.9% of the time. (There are rare cases when companies or agents will be interested in a project they normally don't represent, but this is rare, and I would advise against it. No need to build a bad rep in the publishing world before you even start publishing.)

With this site, I advise that if it's been a while since an agent has updated whether he or she is accepting queries that you do some research before querying. It will make you look much more professional, and that means you're more likely to get your manuscript looked at and possibly a publishing deal.

Happy agent hunting, and I hope this site is as useful for you as it has been for me!

Toolbox Tuesday: Writing About Dogs

Three years ago, I adopted my dear dog, Waffles, from an animal shelter. Life has never quite been the same since.

I didn't realize what it's like to own a dog and the joys of being around one until I got one myself. Now, this cutie pie has me inserting dogs into my own writing so my characters can have the joy of being a dog owner as well.

There are so many important details when it comes to writing about dogs, but I'll try to touch on the points that are most important.

• Any dog owner should know that if your dog happens to get off its leash and is running away from you that running towards your dog is the worst thing you can do. If your dog is normal, it will think you are chasing it and continue running. This would be especially unfortunate if there is an incoming car. The right thing to do is to yell your dog's name and run in the opposite direction. Dogs in their loyalty will bolt after you, which is how you catch a runaway dog. (I mention this because I read a story once where a girl ran after her dog and facepalmed because I know this fact about them. For example, I wouldn't try to write about cats without talking to someone who owns one, so it's best to research an animal before writing about it and its behavior.)
• When dogs meet each other, they can become fast friends and play with each other, hate each other on the spot, or take a few meetings to warm up to each other. This depends on each dog's personality, how they feel about other dogs, and general friendliness. For example, Waffles loves humans, but he'll bark at any other dog he sees in the park when I walk him (hence why I often take really weird routes to avoid them). However, he has managed to make friends with a select few dogs. Most likely, dogs will either growl at each other and act like they're going to tear each other's faces off, or they'll play with each other. As long as neither reaction is constantly written, dogs meeting each other should come off realistically.
• Dogs will come greet you at the door unless they're really sick, they're extremely tired, or had surgery. They generally also respond to the word "walk" once they learn it (although I've heard of a dog who hated walks and would hide when the leash came out), the doorbell, knocking noises, and can be taught to go to certain family members or look for people they haven't seen in a long time. My family likes to ask Waffles where I am (since I'm in college), which often results in him sneaking into my room or sitting in front of my door.
• Opposite of what you might think, smaller dogs (like mine) are more likely to bark at other dogs than big dogs are. Small dogs tend to think they're bigger than they are, and may also feel threatened by the presence of other dogs. 
• If they want to be petted, dogs can be very persistent. Half the time when I sit down to write, Waffles will nudge my hand (my right hand, too!) to ask me to pet him.
• Dogs like to have their own space sometimes. Waffles likes to crawl under my bed, there's a green rug in my room that he likes to lay on, and a corner in the living room blocked off by couches and a table that he often crawls into. Dogs do like to be around humans, but they also like to have their alone time.
• Dogs are incredibly smart. They can sense when someone has been physically injured, when someone is sad, and when you are about to leave the house and lock him in his crate for the whole day. They will be sensitive to injured people (for example, not jumping into your arms if your arms are hurt), look at you with their huge eyes when they're sad, and when you let your dog outside to do his business before you leave, if he knows you're going to be gone for a long time, he may hide or refuse to come in.
• Some people keep their dogs outside (usually large dogs only), some lock their dogs in a cage-like box (we call it the crate) when they have to leave the house, some people have certain restrictions for where their dogs are allowed to go (may be limited to downstairs, tile only, etc.), and some people really don't care and let their dogs sleep in their beds. Waffles' privileges got extended, but he hasn't gotten the right to sleep on my bed yet. (I'm working on it though.)

Hope this has been helpful and insightful. Do your characters have pets? Share about your writing below!