Writer’s Block + Short Stories

You know what I’m talking about, the very reason why I haven’t made a post in ages!

I think I need to calm my mind and only focus on one thing, although it’s very difficult for me since I have so many other things to think about.

I’ve been writing short stories lately, and I’ve found that they are difficult – at least to me – to write. Not because writing is by any means hard, but because I have only a limited number of pages to write! I like expanding my characters, my places, my world. Short stories are so … short … that by the time your character is starting to grow, you have reached the end!

I know people can summarize short stories quite well, and I’ve gotten the hang of it now too, but still … it all feels too brief to me, like a single passing moment, and in that passing moment I must understand this character and feel for him/her.

Perhaps I just don’t like short stories and never will. I tried reading one of those “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books once, but I really didn’t like all the character switching. I like my stories to be developed and long.

What about you guys? Short stories … or lengthy novels?

Rambling about movies, current trends, Jane Eyre, & The Hunger Games

Hey everyone! I’m still typing away at my sequel, eager to get it written and edited before my three months deadline arrives. (I made up the deadline on my own)

I also put up a new cover for another book of mine here: Upcoming Book. You can find a bigger screenshot at my facebook page.

So that’s what I’ve been working on! What’s I’ve been reading as of late is Jane Eyre (yes, I know I may have said that last week or the week before, but it’s coming along VERY slowly!) Reading Jane Eyre made me want to watch the latest movie out based on the book, so I watched it just now. Great movie. But I am a sucker for those kinds of films (i.e. Pride and Prejudice)

Speaking of films, the Hunger Games will soon be out. Yes, I know you’ve heard all you want to hear about it and possibly more, but I’m not one of those hard-core fans, I swear! I haven’t even read the book yet, though I picked it up on a whim, claiming to read it before the movie. Whether or not I’ll succeed in that endeavor, is still quite uncertain.

I’m not entirely sure that I like the idea of a society in which teens are forced to kill one another while the rest of the world watches. Seems kind of ridiculous, to be honest. But the trailer looked all right and everyone is apparently crazy about the books, so I guess I’ll have to give it a try too.

Who knows, maybe the line “it’s similar to Twilight” just kind of threw me off from the series. Perhaps that’s it, and it’s all Twilight’s fault.

I’m sorry. I must rant about the whole vampire and werewolf thing going out of control at least five times a week. But it does seem to be fading a bit, being replaced by “fallen angels”. Not of those things are particularly entertaining to me.

I want to find a great fantasy series!! I miss fantasy. I loved the Shadowmarch series by Tad Williams, but then it ended, and now it’s over, and so my fun is over. Sigh.

Yes, I know Game of Thrones is out there. But I’d rather not read/watch something filled with nudity/sex scenes, and disgusting blood-filled violence. I really do wish there was none of that in the series, because then I’d want to read/watch it (the plot is apparently very good).

So does anyone have any good fantasy novels they’d like to share? I really can’t find any!

forever writing,

~ Sandra

I invented Nothing New …

I invented nothing new.

I simply assembled the discoveries of other

Men behind whom were centuries of work.

Had I worked fifty or ten or even five years

Before, I would have failed.

 

So it is with every new thing.

Progress happens when all the

Factors that make for it are ready,

And then it is inevitable.