Last Week’s Word Goal: 3,000
Actual Words Written: 3,180 (new word count: 5426)
What Went Wrong?: I get distracted way too easily. I also get discouraged even more easily.
What Went Right?: Remembering to write is a huge thing. Also, brainstorming went much better/easier this week. I can’t really say why. Maybe the three-chapter request put some pep in my step.
This Week’s Goal: I’m going to stick with 3,000 a bit longer until I’m reaching that more easily.

Is that…is that success? I think it is! Whoooooo!

As I let Britney dance it out for me, I’ll continue to ramble about this. I know that it’s easy to get to this much in just a day, and I’m usually someone that can do that. But lately, I’ve just been so blah about life, the universe and everything that writing regularly has been a chore. I enjoy writing when I do it, but get so distracted by everything else that I don’t enjoy that writing gets pushed to the wayside. I need to not do that anymore.

No word from the agent that requested my chapters, though it’s still really early for that. I’m just hoping my email wasn’t deleted. If I don’t hear back by this time next month, maybe I’ll poke her on twitter sheepishly and then go cry in a closet.

Alright, so it’s not nearly as much writing as young me could manage in a week, or as much as I did last week, or even NaNoWriMo-winning me, but it’s still more than I’ve done since finishing reset. (Speaking of–exciting news later!) I’m working my way up to my 3,000 goal but still haven’t managed to hit it.

Last Week’s Word Goal: 3,000
Actual Words Written: 936
What Went Wrong?: There were video games and I think I forgot where I was going.
What Went Right?: Opening Scrivener daily helped, I think.
This Week’s Goal: Still 3,000!

Speaking of reset, I was looking through my bookmarks for a link (PS, I really need to organize my bookmarks again) and saw my Pitch Wars alternate showcase page. On a whim, I decided to check it. No one could’ve put in a request though, right? Wrong! An agent requested the first three chapters!

It might not seem like much to people who are used to getting full requests all the time, but this is exciting for me. I’m not going to get too excited because I don’t want my hopes to be dashed to bits, but I do want to be optimistic about it. Hooray!

Last Week’s Word Goal: 3,000
Actual Words Written: 1,310, plus a bit more handwritten
What Went Wrong?: Not much, honestly. I was too busy plotting and taking notes to do any actual writing.
What Went Right?: I actually wrote! I have a plot outlined (mostly) and I know what it is that I’m doing with this story. Plus, it helps that I’m working with characters that I already know fairly intimately. Though, that makes me nervous because maybe I don’t want to share my baby with everyone.
This Week’s Goal: I’m going to go with 3,000 again. And will continue to do so until I actually make it there.

Pitch Wars’ agent round is over, and while I didn’t hear anything about my pitch, I suppose I’m glad that I just put myself out there and won a slot in the contest. That’s something, right? I think I’m going to shelve reset for now and focus on New Thing. I don’t want to exert all my energy on the one project; I’d like to have several offerings I can push. And so, Shaina finally gets her time in the sun.

Also there are demons. Yeeeep. The picture at the top is a tiny clue!

Everyone’s pitches went live yesterday, and holy COW, there’s some talent out there. The other alternate on Heather’s team, Ryan Hill, has an opening that is probably one of the best I read within the competition. But please, do check out everyone’s contributions! Especially mine. Ahem.

Okay, it’s totally that I don’t want to do things.

But that’s going to change! I want to get back to a place where I’m writing everyday. I think I got discouraged a lot more than I realized by getting so many rejections my first try with querying. This is totally normal, and I accept that it’s normal (I didn’t even cry!), but subconsciously, it pretty much crippled my writing productivity. Again. So now, I’m going to make myself get back into the swing of things, starting now.

A discussion with the fabulous Britney led to her suggesting we do something weekly to hold ourselves–and each other–accountable for actually putting in some writing effort every week. And ta da! That’s exactly what’s going to happen. We’re going to do this, dammit. Starting this week.

So every Sunday, I’m going to check in here and post how the week went, writing-wise. Kind of a snooze for y’all, I’m sure, but just humor me, ‘kay?

Last Week’s Word Goal: Didn’t have one. Hooray for starting new things!
Actual Words Written: Haaaaaaahahahahahahaha! None.
What Went Wrong?: Life. Life went wrong.
What Went Right?: Basically, nothing.
This Week’s Goal: 3,000 words. I CAN DO IT!

And so, that’s my first update. This week, I must get to 3k words. That seems so simple, as I can turn that out in like 40 minutes if uninterrupted. But I’m not in that groove anymore, and so who knows how this will go.

In other news, I’ve submitted my alternates pitch for Pitch Wars and I’m kind of excited about this whole venture. It’s very cool to be chosen as an alternate, especially given how blah I’ve been about my work. And Heather Marie is a nice lady who enjoys The Vampire Diaries, so this cannot possibly go wrong.

So, if you’re feeling less than productive, feel free to join in on our accountability updates. Solidarity, and whatnot.

For no real reason–maybe to make up for lack of posts/reviews?–here’s Jesse Williams smiling. You’re welcome.

This Week’s Topic is: What are your goals for the new year—for reading, writing, or other?

Perhaps goal #1 ought to be something about keeping up with this blog. Whoopsie? This seems to happen every fall/winter, though: I get too gloomy, then I go out of town, then I just plum forget to update again. Next year, I promise to do better. Next year, I plan on having made a name for myself, so my fans will nudge me into updating more. (Wishful thinking!)

This is a tough list to whip up most of the time for me, but for some reason, making goals has come fairly easy to me recently. Maybe I’m growing up. Maybe my brain’s calming down. Who knows. Anywho – list!

01) Get an agent. Or self-pub if getting an agent doesn’t work out.
02) Finish at least one manuscript – Either reset 2, AoA, new idea or some fourth thing.
03) Exercise more. (Not writing related, but I just kind of need to. Already conquered drinking more water and cutting down on sugar intake significantly.)
04) Attend a writing conference.
05) Make more connections with other writers even though it feels awkward to try.
06) Read at least one book a month. AT LEAST.
07) Learn a language. Hell, learn two.
08) Publish that anthology that I haven’t mentioned on the blog but will shortly.
09) Keep up with this blog more frequently.
10) Learn how to use Scrivener beyond the basics.
11) Take better care of my hair/skin. Already got a head start on this one!
12) Attempt to be less awkward.
13) Enjoy the year!

So what about you? Any goals for the new year?

This Week’s Topic is: Halloween! What’s your favorite scary book or movie?

Image via dbcovers.com

You know what’s funny? I don’t read too many scary books anymore. As a kid, I devoured them–R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike are huge parts of why I wanted to become a writer in the first place. Then, my reading became less for fun and more out of necessity thanks to school. It kicked off a lengthy period of time in which I really didn’t read very much. Now that I’m back to reading, the books I read just aren’t scary. However, there’s one book that I did manage to get through that unnerved me quite a bit–House of Leaves.

The internet already has more than enough to say about House of Leaves, so my droning on about it isn’t all that necessary. I enjoy the book thanks to its complexity and the amount of paranoia it inspires. Few books manage to get my heart racing the way this one did. And as a bonus, one of my favorite musicians created an entire album inspired by the book! Granted, it’s probably got a lot to do with the fact that Poe is Mark Z. Danielewski’s sister, but still! Excellent atmospheric music to go along with an amazingly moody book.

As far as movies go, I’ve got so much more I could say there. But ultimately, I think my favorite horror film has to be A Nightmare on Elm Street. Normally, I’d say Halloween, but I think that’s only for nostalgia reasons. Nightmare manages to actually, genuinely scare me, even so many viewings later. The idea that you can only escape a killer by staying awake? Horrifying. The sequels…yeah, let’s not talk about them. Or the “reboot,” for that matter. But the original is excellent.

Happy Halloween everyone!

This Week’s Topic is: It isn’t surprising that this month’s Bookmobile selection, Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, has sold film rights; the darkly magical world of the Shadow Fold begs for an on-screen translation*! But that got us wondering. We’d like to know, in your opinion, what is it that makes some books seem ideal for a film translation?

Sometimes, you read something and you just know it should be set in motion. In some cases, you almost feel more like you’re reading a novelization to a film than a book. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I rather prefer it when I read a novel and can see everything in my head fairly clearly; it makes the words more accessible, as it were.

Simplicity can help with a book being more adaptation-friendly, but obviously, content is the main thing that drives some books to be good fodder for adaptation. A book doesn’t need to be the next Pride and Prejudice to be deemed worth of a film version. For instance, while I didn’t particularly care that much for Shatter Me, I think a film version would likely be more enjoyable.

On the flip side, I adored The Hunger Games but didn’t even really consider a film version, and I started the series just before I heard news of the adaptation. Sometimes it feels a bit like a crapshoot as to what will work and what won’t. It’s hard to pin it down, exactly, but as readers, we often know it when we see it.

Er. Read it.

My obsession with Asian horror started in college. My friend Candyce and I decided to rent some Asian horror one night from the weird video store in town. After getting the wits scared out of us, I decided that I needed more. I found things in Asian horror that I don’t really get from horror stateside anymore.

Asian horror often has more mood elements and genuine scares than what Hollywood’s offering up as horror in recent years. Given that I’m not big on the whole slasher thing, or the torture porn thing, actual ghost stories were right up my alley.

That’s not to say all Asian horror is the same. It’s a pretty broad stroke to paint with, and it’s rather inaccurate–especially since a lot of more recent Asian horror has started to mirror American horror with regards to jump scares and more flimsy plots. But what I love overall about Asian horror is delving into the culture and seeing what scares people of different backgrounds. (Hint: It’s not all creepy long-haired girl ghosts, but they do pop up a lot.)

I, personally, really really like Korean horror the most. But I will try not to focus on that!

A Tale of Two Sisters (Korea)

It’s impossible for me to write about Asian horror and not talk about this movie. I’m completely in love with it. If you don’t love it, I will punch you in the nose. First off, it’s inspired by a Korean folk tale called Janghwa Hongreyon jeon, which is about…well…two sisters. Second–look at it. The set design is gorgeous. The colors! The house! The EVERYTHING IS PRETTY OMG.

Ahem. Sorry.

This is more psychological than boo-gotcha horror, but it does have a few classic-ish scares. However, those pale in comparison to the rest of the movie. The trailer doesn’t do it justice, by any means. Please just watch it so that we can discuss.

Reincarnation (Japan)

Once upon a time, After Dark Films presented a film festival known as Horrorfest – 8 Films To Die For. The festival didn’t seem to do so well, though, as they scaled back considerably, and now I think only a handful of cities even bother. Alas, it was fun for a brief time. In any case, during the first year, I had the privilege to see this gem of a movie. (The other movies kind of sucked but oh well.) For once, I actually felt rather scared in a movie theatre rather than just being bemused.

It’s directed by Takashi Shimizu, of Ju-On and The Grudge fame. In the vaguest way possible, Reincarnation involves a film crew and a mass murder, and, uh, reincarnation. And then there’s the creepy doll that always follows you so there’s that.

Shutter (Thailand)

I will readily admit that 40% of my love for this movie stems from the fact that Ananda Everingham is foine. But ignoring those feelings–Shutter achieves what it sets out for fairly well, and that’s to creep people right the hell out. Tun, a professional photographer, starts seeing weird anomalies in his photos. Before long, his entire life gets consumed by a ghost that he’d really rather put behind him.

Ghost photography has been an interest of mine since I was a wee one. The notion that the dead can be captured on film is intriguing and terrifying for me. So this movie basically should have just called itself This Is For Ticara.

Strange Circus (Japan)

I will be perfectly honest with you–this movie is confusing as hell. It’s violent, it’s gory, it’s weirdly beautiful. Strange Circus is from Sion Sono, the director of Suicide Circle, so that should tell you already that there’s going to be plenty of strangeness ahead. and like Suicide Circle, there’s an odd shift in tone, only this time you don’t get a rather catchy song from what I can only describe as a Japanese Brian Slade.

This movie is difficult to explain, and even more difficult to watch. It might be too over-the-top in some of the subject matter. But it’s truly brilliant in its strangeness. This one isn’t a haunting type horror but rather a psychological one.

Wishing Stairs (Korea)

The Whispering Corridors trilogy* is not one of my favorites. The films feel uneven, and I, personally, don’t like Memento Mori or Whispering Corridors all that much. (Yes, I know they aren’t really a trilogy in the American sense; by uneven I mean plotwise.) I will commend them for really prominently dealing with lesbian romantic plots, but I was just kind of bored by both. The third film, though–Wishing Stairs–holds my heart. It’s the right amount of creepy and kind of silly.

Things at a ballet school are super competitive, and one girl wishes to get an edge in the competition. She decides to try going to the wishing stairs to get her wish granted. It totally works! Except you know how those things always turn out. One thing that irks is the fact that Haeju, one of the other girls, falls into the typical roll of goofy fat girl. C’mon, Korea, fat girls aren’t all weird and awkward. Stop doing that.

*Yeaaah it’s not a trilogy anymore. They’re up to 5, I think.

Honorable mentions
I said I wouldn’t make an entire list of Korean horror, and I didn’t. But that meant leaving out a lot of the movies I love dearly, and I just can’t let that stand. So hey, here’s a longer list of Asian horror that I love, mostly Korean ones.

Phone (Korea) – This is one of the more polished, Americanized horror flicks, but I still love it. It’ll change your view on Moonlight Sonata, for sure.

The Wig (Korea) – This movie is also known as Scary Hair. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to say much anything else about it.

The Red Shoes (Korea) – Yes, the shoes are pink. No, it doesn’t detract from the plot.

Hansel and Gretel (Korea) – Remember what I said up there about color? That applies here.

Noroi: The Curse (Japan) – A documentary-style horror that’s pretty creepy. It’s also the source of one of the best words ever–kagutaba. I was using that online for a while until Kat stole it because she sucks.

Premonition (Japan) – Life is horrible. That is all.

PS – The more Americanized Asian horror? Often times done by Disney. Yep.

This Week’s Topic is: Are you doing NaNoWriMo, or have you ever? Does having a deadline inspire you?

Every October for the last 5 years or so, I start to panic. It’s an odd feeling, considering I’m also super excited during October because YAY HALLOWEEN! But October also means that NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and I (typically) have nothing in my head ready. Sometimes I get a flit of an idea, but nothing really solid, and other times, I have absolutely nothing at all and I wind up flailing for weeks and questioning both my sanity and my talent until I suddenly start rambling about any old thing on November 1st.

This year, though, I’m ready.

I’ve got an idea that I’ve been thinking on for about two months now. I’ve wrapped up my (hopefully) final edit for my novel in preparation for querying. My brain is fully committed to NaNo this year. I will win. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably? Okay, so I’m still a bit nervous about NaNo, but at the very least, I’ve got a solid-ish foundation, I sorta know my characters and I have half a plot. That counts, right?

On the upside, I’ve won NaNo the past two years in a row, so I have high hopes that I can do it again. Having a deadline and a little graph showing my word count go up definitely helps me. Maybe I should figure out how to get one o’ those year-round.

[A quick note: I've never participated in these Road Trip Wednesdays before. I've seen Adrianne post them all the time, but never much thought of doing my own. I want to try and keep up posting here more often, and this week's topic is something I was going to write about anyway, so there ya go! Hold me accountable for keeping up with these, y'all.]