July 19, 2010

Creativity Workshop Post: Week 9/Week 10

I'm chugging along on the Creativity Workshop. I'm not following the rules, but sometimes you have to break the rules to get things done.   There are no rules, just guidlines. I'm working on Infinite Aless which I retitled Sex, Drugs, and Steampunk because it just sounds sexy and cool. Now I'm wondering if I can live up to that title. I've never written a sex scene and shared it with the world before. I'm hoping to make this a web serial, so I'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone by writing about things I'm not necessarily familiar with or have personal experience with. To be honest, sex scenes aren't exactly that hard to write for me, but I do rewrite them repeatedly to get the feelings and the characterization right. There is nothing worse than having a badly written sex scene. (and I don't mean a scene about bad sex, lol.)

I'm trying to make a strong female protagonist and writing Alessandra has been a delight. She's abrasive, tough, but she's not a boy with girl's clothing. She's not an anti-sue that is trying so hard to be tough that when it's time to act feminine, her reactions are melodramatic (*cough*Katsa*cough*). Right now in the first couple chapters, she meets a hot guy, has causal sex with hot guy, and gets her heart broken in more ways than one. And no she doesn't turn into a heaping mess of misery and fail like Bella nor is she completely insane and sex crazed like Hanna from Bleeding Violet. I'm trying to find a happy medium between being a girl and being a bad ass.(I do it all the time, I don't know why it's so hard to write lol). I want to read a story where it's just about a guy and a girl who like each other and occasionally have sex with each other and other people. Plus writing at least two sex scenes without fading to black is on my 101 in 1001, which is a specific way of writing outside my comfort zone.

Anyways... that was a lovely(awkward) little tangent.


As for steampunk... I guess this is more of an Urban fantasy/Steampunk. I pretty much have no idea what exactly entails a story to be steampunk. In my mind, it's a bit like Full Metal Alchemist and Kiki's Delivery got together and had a baby, then that baby grew up and got on crack and had a threesome with Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop. I'll probably be working on setting and world building  in the second draft. I'm hoping to finish this by the end of August for WeSeWriMo.

My biggest issue with this story is fighting the urge to edit. The only things I've truly overhauled so far are the issues leading up to the sex scene. I think things need to be a bit smoother. I'm currently on the hunt for a critique partner. I'm trying to move a bit slower when it comes to posting on the web, so I don't burn myself out.

The best thing I got out of the Creativity Workshop is that it has taught me to have the foresight to when an idea is going to run me into the wall so I catch it before it happens. Having this ability makes writing a bit easier. I've made some notes for the second draft, but I won't put them in until the second draft. I just want to crank this story out as soon as possible and when it's done, go back and revise and edit. I have never done this before, so I'm hoping it'll work with a story I'm a little less emotionally invested in and then hoping it'll work out for when I go to write the stories I want to get published traditionally.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good for you! And rules are just there to get you moving - if you've found a way to keep that creativity going, stick with it!

AuroraLee said...

sorry if you get a double post... Commented and realized as I closed the window that it popped up with a capcha after the fact :(

To recap - good luck on the WriMo enjoy your story! and hurrah for the Workshop :D

Najela said...

@Merrilee: Thanks for the encouragement. Like I said the workshop has really helped me think creatively and keep one step ahead of the story while still allowing myself to be surprised. This workshop has been awesome,yet it's going by so fast.

@AuroraLee: There's no double post, so I think it worked just fine. Thanks for the encouragement as well. And yes, YAY for the workshop. So Epic.

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