You Know You’re a Writer When… #amwriting

Happy Friday!!!!!

This is a fun one for all my writer buddies out there. 🙂

I have to focus my attention elsewhere this morning
(today is my LAST DAY at the day job and I’m finishing
up the program for tonight’s From Helios to Hollywood podcast),
so I dont really have time to write up a long blog post.
I figured this would be a good filler post for the day. 🙂

You Know You’re a Writer When…..

I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for exactly this problem.
Do you know how many brilliant plot ideas I’ve lost because
I told myself I didn’t need to write them down???

A lot.

Along the same lines. I tend to jot notes while talking to people.
They dont like that. lol

I think just about any bookworm does, so this isn’t really writer-specific.

I wish my teachers from grade school could see this.

….and yet they seem to miss that I hate/suck at editing. lol

Yes, yes, and more yes. I think all writers dream of one day
having the big publishing contract and a Lambo in the driveway
(I’m lookin’ at you, Karen Marie Moning), but in all honesty, the thought
of having to do things like go on live tv and such……..no, thank you!
That’s horrifying. lol

LOL!!! I don’t do storyboards, but I do story mapping.
Once the map for the entire book is done, I get this great
(and totally misplaced) feeling of accomplishment like
I’m already done writing the book. Yeah, not so much. lol

The only title I didn’t experience this with was Speak of the Devil.
I love that story so much that someone could have told me it
was the equivalent of a steaming pile of elephant dung and
I wouldn’t believe them. lol I love the book/story too much on that one.

There is a reason I have 14 current WIP’s…..

Three years ago, I traded in my day-to-day handbags with a Swiss Army
laptop backpack. I call it Mobile Command. lol

Piles and piles and piles in my desk drawer. I actually go through
it whenever I hit writers block to see if it will help jumpstart things.

I once sat up until 3:30am writing a sex scene for a book I never had planned. I had gone to bed at about 10pm, woke up at about midnight, grabbed a pen/notebook, and started writing. That ended up turning into the Nick & Lexi project I’m working on.

Airports and malls are GREAT for people watching. A pen, notebook,
and a cup of coffee are all that’s needed for a productive day.

YES! The nick & Lexi project has literally been haunting me in my dreams
for the last two weeks, but since I made the choice to back-burner
everything until Dance With the Devil is complete, I’m not touching it,
no matter how many nightmares it causes.

That’s my girl Jimi Hayes, the main character in my Executioner series.
She’s sooooooooo much fun to write, and her first book,
Bad Wolf, is on deck. Once I’m finished with Dance, she’s next. 🙂

This is one that I don’t entirely agree with. I know a LOT of authors who
hate writing the blurb, but it’s never really bothered me. That being said, I
do know a lot of authors who don’t know the difference between a blurb
and a book report, so I get why they might hate it. Your blurb should be
a hook, not a summary, people.

Conversations with your imaginary friends? Research on the most vicious,
horrific ways to kill someone? A browsing history which may result
in the NSA showing up at your house with a caravan of black SUV’s?
Yeah, you’re a writer.

I get a LOT done with a pen and notepad.
For me, that’s the most efficient way to crank out dialog. 🙂

It’s allllllll IfList’s fault!

Does anyone else turn into a raging
bitch after getting stuck on a plot point?
I get CRAAAAANKY.
And the longer it goes on, the worse my mood gets.
The moment I figure it out is a HUGE relief.

Vegas???? Are you kidding?!?!?!?! He’s the “man” of my dreams!

Ew, no. Not Paris. No offense to the Parisians out there, but
I want my perfect writing room in my house in the desert. 🙂

I’m a freak for office supplies.

No, really. It’s an addiction, I think.

My desk looks like Staples threw up.

Violently.

Four times. Four. lol

I thought this was going to happen when I started my initial rewrite of
The Devil You Know. Dez was originally named Jade in the manuscript
I started back in 2006. When I picked it back up in 2011, Jade just felt all wrong.
Then one day, Dez (Deziree) just came to me. It was perfect. It is perfect.

HA!!!!!!!!

I wrote a scene in Speak of the Devil that reduced me to a SOBBING MESS.

It was slightly embarrassing, but felt surprisingly good.

At the day job I’m leaving, there used to be a chick who sat near me who
couldn’t speak correctly to save her ass. Enough so, that a co-worker
and I kept a running list of all the words she fucked up that drove us crazy:

pacifically
(translation: specifically)

benafisherary
(translation: beneficiary)
(pronounced: ben-a-fishy-airy)

speakin’
(translation: speaking)

fanshall
(translation: financial)

There were a lot more and now that I dont work there,
I can admit that it DROVE ME INSANE. lol

And regardless of what some may think, there is a big difference.

Twilight: The bored girl gets eaten by the werewolves
and Buffy stakes Edward. The end. lol

Oh yeah, the moment I hit send to my beta readers usually
results in Jena burying her anxieties in a bottle of wine.

I’m kind of lucky on this one. If my friends stop in unexpectedly,
and I’m writing, they have no problem with me talking through
the story with them so I can keep making progress. 🙂

OMG, YES! That’s the moment when I start to feel like I’m on the home stretch.

Again, 14 current WIP’s. lol

I literally have a folder in my favorites dedicated to webpages and
blog posts about the most beautiful words in the English
language and some in other languages, mostly Latin.

Writer’s Block Sucks.

That is all.

LMAO! You guys will meet him in Dance With the Devil,
but this is how I write all of Greger’s dialog. I love Greger.
Picture Michael Nyqvist. Voice and appearance. That’s Greger. 🙂

It’s not out of the ordinary to find me at a bar with a notebook. lol

Ummmm, Natalia. lol

I have not done this, but it’s actually kind of a good idea!

Suffering was completely and totally inspired
by the song Take Me Away by Seether.

Click here to listen.

Yeah, zip it, haters.

Greger’s entire first appearance was concocted in my shower…..out loud. lol

Mobile Command carries a journal for random ideas,
several legal pads, and a manilla folder for each WIP
(so if I write something, I can keep it organized).
Mobile Command goes with me EVERYWHERE.

I’m actually not terribly guilty of this.

I know what happens when you talk too
often about people no one else can see…..

*hides from the men in white coats*

Anything you say can and will be used in a novel…

#truth

Not going to lie…It’s kind of fun. lol

No future children here, but I have
enough names to cover my next 3,183,500,361 books.

No, but I have been known to behead a bitch in my stories….

I had to put myself on a strict Pinterest “diet.”
I’m only allowed to play on there for 20 minutes per day now.

Again, that’s why I bought the Note 3 and why I carry enough
notebook paper for an entire elementary school.

Oh yes. I have a great one about two girls
who go into the desert to find aliens. It’s quite entertaining. lol

I day dream about a weekly blog post.
The post would feature a writing prompt and my resulting short story. 🙂
But then I find other shit to do. lol

I wonder if there is a way to track all of my unnecessary saves…

And when I eat.

And when I watch TV and movies.

And when I wash and fold laundry.

And when I drive.

And when I’m talking to people.

And when I’m working.

lol It just never stops, really. lol

I’ve never thought about it but this is totally true.
Burning was written in about 20 minutes.
No one leaves Burning happy. lol
However, Speak of the Devil took a
LONG time to get the ending right.