Lucas Everett and...Aeryn Taylor :O

What am I talking about? Well, I've been dying to try writing a book where the characters (at least the main characters) from my other books interact, become friends, enemies, and form friendships. Or even become an item, as my title suggests. It would be pretty interesting to write about Aeryn from TS lusting after Lucas from STA. I wonder what our poor Avery would do. And what would the best friends do? I can totally imagine Jane and Aeryn going at it like the two crazy people they are :P

And it would be so interesting to see what the characters think of each other. If I ever wrote something like this, I'm thinking I'd pick one character and write the story from her point of view (writing from a guy's point of view is a challenge I'm still afraid to take on. He'd probably end up so feminine that people would accuse him of being secretly gay).

I've only read one series of books like that and did like it. Anyone ever thought of writing a series like that? Anyone ever read a series like that? Was it good or bad?

Slimming Down

I just finished writing an overly long chapter (took me weeks to finish it) but I know I need to either a) cut it in half (there are two scenes, so it would be easy to do that) or b) slim that chapter down. If I go with option a) I feel as if both of those chapters would be pretty incomplete. They're two scenes, not two chapters, and they just wouldn't work well as chapters.

But if I go with option b) I'd be cutting a lot of things out. Things that I really need to include. Or at least I feel like I should include them (but you know what they say about the author being too biased to always see clearly). Things that really develop the minor characters and strengthen their relationship with the MC.

So the problem here is that the chapter is too long.

Has it ever happened to any of you before? Any wise and must-follow advice that your brains cannot wait to share with me?

I'm Hopeless

Ever had an entire afternoon (or day) with nothing to do and you think, "Perfect afternoon/day to sit down and probably get a whole chapter done"? And then you end up doing everything except writing.

Happened to me today. I had an assignment to finish but I finished it early, so I had about 8 hours to write. I got all excited about it since the last time that happened, it must have been months ago. I was even feeling inspired! (it's been happening less and less lately, so you can only imagine how excited that got me :P). Anyway, I got home, finished my assignment for school, and then decided to go take a quick nap. And then I decided to just put in a few chapters of reading since I haven't read a book in a while with all the homework I've had. After I got sick of reading, I decided to go make myself a sandwich (I'm not even a fan of sandwiches. I rarely ever eat them unless someone offers to buy me one from Subway, or unless someone offers to make me one). Then I went to make my brother a sandwich (I never make anything for my brother), and then I decided to go for another run (I already woke up at 6am to run -_-). And now I'm here blogging.

I'm not sure why I wasted so much time, and then when I won't have any time to write, I'll complain about never having time to write. I just don't get it. And it frustrates me. The worse part is, once I'm done blogging, I've got to catch a long awaited episode of Criminal Minds. I know. I'm hopeless, aren't I?

Common Elements

Mh, I just realized that every single one of my books starts some time in September. I'm not sure why. I've got this weird paranormal/drama book I worked on about 4 years ago, and that story starts in late September. Second Time Around starts in late September/early October. Theoretically Speaking starts in late August/early September. Bad Apple starts in mid-September. Destined starts in mid-September.

I don't know what it is with me and September, especially since I'm not a huge fan of that month (end of summer vacation, beginning of school...enough said). At first I thought this unconscious obsession was because I tend to start my stories at the beginning of a school year to give off that 'new year, new start, new story' vibe, but then for two of my books, the MC's not even going to school, so there's no such a thing as a new year for them.

And then I started thinking about all of the other common things in my books and came up with 1. a best friend 2. some kind of love triangle (even if the third person may be dead or almost out of the picture) and 3. a somewhat sarcastic MC. Even if the sarcasm is barely there, it's there. I have absolutely no clue why all of my books all have these things. I didn't even realize this until now, actually.

Anyone have a common element(s) in all of their books? I'm really hoping I'm not the only one :P

10 pages of description: run!

One of the things I absolutely hate reading are paragraphs and paragraphs of uninterrupted description. It bores me to death and makes me lose all interest in reading the book. On the other hand, pages and pages of dialogue with no description doesn't really work either but to be honest, sometimes I would pick nonstop dialogue over nonstop description.

In Jane Eyre, there's a passage at the beginning of the book that takes pages to describe a red room that contains nothing other than a red chair. It blows me away how the author herself didn't fall asleep while writing it.

Last night, I sat down to read some of Dress Rehearsal (by Jennifer O'Connell) but spent 2 chapters reading nothing other than the MC's internal thoughts about whether she made the right choice letting her ex-boyfriend move to DC without her. I was ready to shoot myself after one chapter.

An alarm clock: my cue to wake up, hit 'Snooze' and go back to sleep

Last year, I used to set my alarm for 5AM, wake up, go write for a few hours and then go through my day. I can only write in complete silence and there's really no better time than when everyone's in bed.
But this year, it's just impossible to actually wake up. I have 6 alarms (because you know, 5 just aren't enough :P) but I keep hitting the snooze button until the very last alarm goes off. The problem's not that I do it on purpose. It's just that whenever I hear that annoying music coming from my phone, my first reflex is to hit anything to make it stop.

But then just a few minutes ago, I found this alarm clock that I simply have to buy. It's a flying alarm clock that only turns off when the propeller (the flying part) is placed back on its base. So the first thing I'll be doing in the morning is chasing my alarm clock around my room.
I think it's just what I need to get my lazy butt out of bed so I can get some writing done.

Theoretically Speaking

While my sister was visiting during Christmas, we had one of those crazy, never-ending conversations at about 3AM. We joked about how it could become my next book and a couple of weeks later, I had a prologue and a first chapter. Here's the title, catch line, a cover I made while bored, and a little snippet:

Theoretically Speaking

In theory, she’s meant to find her one true love.
In reality, the search might be close to impossible. 

Being compared to a serial killer wasn’t particularly pleasant. Being forced to compare yourself to a serial killer was even less pleasant. For me, it was almost impossible not to. 

Because I had an obsession, just like most serial killers had an obsession with murder. From the day that my mother read me Cinderella, my obsession over finding my own prince charming had begun. When I say an obsession, I meant it in the truest sense of the word. It was, as described by the dictionary, the domination of my thoughts or feelings by the persistent idea and desire of finding my one true love. And nothing could stand in my way. 

If I had to jump over a fence to ensure that my new neighbor wasn’t my prince charming and in the process sprained my wrist, then so be it. If I had to face my fear of psychics to find a clue about the identity of said prince charming, so be it. If I had to ridicule myself in front of every guy who asked me out…again, so be it. 

This is from the first chapter. In a few months, it'll be posted on Inkpop (http://inkpop.com/profile/6c928805-a335-4c9b-9e97-99d9c7841f04/blueview/), so do check it out ^_^