Writing is difficult

I’m 105% sure that is a true statement. I’m sure that blogging about isn’t peach pie either. I’m pretty sure that writing a novel while you’re still in high school is diffcult too. Of course, everything is diffcult without the right motivation. Knowing me, if I don’t feel like doing it, it isn’t getting done. It’s a new year and all, so here’s how I am to raise my word count.

Set a Daily Word Goal

I don’t work well without deadlines. I procrastinate. I work pretty well when I have an American History essay due first period tomorrow and I don’t even know what the topic is. Not very efficient, I admit. But without deadlines, nothing gets done. So maybe if I apply the same idea to my novel. If I were t set a goal, say 1,500 words a day, I might be able to get this project off the ground. Of course, I don’t know how I’m going to force myself to stick to this…

Stop procrastinating

And I don’t just mean putting off writing a chapter. I mean, stop putting everything off. If I get everything else done (like that pesky American History essay),  I’ll have some time to write a novel.

Write!

Possibly the only tip that I’ll probably stick to. Write whenever I can. During those ten minutes I spend watching my boyfriend do physics homework. On the bus. Whenever I get really bored in Trig. Well, that last one might significantly reduce my math average. But hey, I did write a couple hundred of words.

The Idea Jar: The Stealer of Frames

I'd much rather have the frame. (Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

Apparently, I said Friday is  idea day. Well, I never did imagine my blog would be so unfocused. Ah well.

Last year, while my family was vacationing in Montauk, my sister told me an idea she had. I liked it; it was really funny. So I wrote it down in my Book of Ideas. The heading was “The Frame Stealer”.

It’s a simple idea: a thief sneaks into museums and steals the frames of notable paintings, but leaves the art behind.

Well. It’s not very practical, is it? It’s probably much harder to steal the frame than the art. And that’s if the art has a frame. And are you even able to just leave the art there? I wonder. Heck, why would someone want choose the frame over the painting anyway?

But it’s a very novel idea, and I think it’d be interesting to see the thief’s motives and what is being done with the frame. Maybe a house is being built with the wood or something. It’s also kind of funny to think about the incidents being reported to the police. I mean, just imagine:

“Hello, I’d like to report a theft.”

“And what has been stolen?”

“The frame to the Portrait of Van der See.”

That would be strange to explain.

~Gena

Spoiler Tags: The Background of Jack Cristata

Today is Wednesday, so that means that I’m spotlighting something from Waxwing. I was reading an excerpt I posted some time ago (The Indigo Bunting Flies to the Apple with a Scarlet Tanager and a Cyanocitta Cristata, February 15, 2010). Jack is narating the excerpt, which used to be the beginning of a previous draft of Waxwing called The Man With the Mismatched Eyes. I believe the excerpt shows how different a character Jack was. So I’m highlighting the background of Mr. Cristata.

In Waxwing, Jack C. Cristata is about 24 years old and has lived in New York City since he moved in when he was 8. The Cristatas lived next door to the Waxwings, so Jack was pushed into a friendship with the Waxwing boy: 9-year-old Cedric. Although they were originally forced to keep each other’s company, the pair warmed up to one another and became best friends. Unfortunately, Jack and Cedric parted ways when Cedric joined the Police Academy and Jack picked up a job as an information gatherer for the Messenger Dove,  a newspaper and information broker. The arrangement was temporary as Cedric left the Academy and Jack became the Cristata half of Waxwing & Cristata Information and Investigative Services.  Through an investigation gone horribly wrong, Jack becomes a shapeshifter.

Of course, The Man With the Mismatched Eyes was a very different story. Jack replaced Cedric as the protagonist. Well, you can stop that sentence at “Jack replaced Cedric.” In fact, Jack was the whole cast. Being a shapeshifter, Jack ended up as every man in the story. And instead of being primarily a private investigator, Jack was a criminal. (Well, in some notes, I quickly jotted down something about Cedric Waxwing that matched the criminal Jack’s bio. But I don’t remember that.)

Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, Courtesy of Wikipedia

His real name was still Jack. But he was famous as William Whippoor (Obviously named after the Whip-poor-will.) He was so named because of the Whip-poor-will’s ability to blend into its surroundings. So Will got the criminal record, and Jack was as free as a bird. Well, William wasn’t the only name Jack held. He was also Nigel Cutwater, a police investigator who was supposedly investigating Whippor. He found it funny that he was both mafiosi Victor Jaeger and assassin Richard Kestrel. That meant he accepted a hit on himself. This whole set-up of names was before the wrong plot got revamped.

I think the only things that remained the same were Jack’s shapeshifting and his inability to change the color of his eyes. However, Jack’s eyes are now blue. The color was chosen after I saw Caspar David Friecrich’s Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (left, click for a larger image). Of the three figures in the painting, I think Jack is most like the one in the middle. Like the figure’s coat, Jack’s eyes are blue, for faith. Originally, one used to be green and the other blue. Hence, The Man With the Mismatched Eyes. Well, that time, I randomly chose the colors. Ah well.

~Gena

The Saturday Excerpt: The Unconscious Man Begins Causing Trouble Without Waking Up

Nothing much to say on this one. Mostly bantering, I guess.

The three of them circled a body sprawled across the center of the room. Jack leaned against the wall at the body’s head. Cedric knelt next to him, searching for a heartbeat. Marco balanced a chair on its hind legs by the body’s feet.

Cedric finished taking a pulse and sighed. “At least you haven’t killed him,” he said to Jack.

“I should’ve. He attacked me”

“And you provoked him”

“Says who?”

“You probably did!”

“Did not!”

Cedric drummed his fingers against the wall. “I’ll check if I have to!”

Jack stared at the door. “Alright. I provoked him. A little.” He glared at Cedric. “But he deserved it.”

Marco righted his chair with a sharp bang. “You shouldn’t have knocked him out.”

“I said he deserved it.”

Marco scowled. “I still doubt he deserved to get whacked across the head with a chair!” He sighed. Then he cleared his throat. “Anyway. Do you recognize him, Cedric?”

“Well, he looks sort of familiar.” Cedric tilted his head to the right.

“That’s Braxton Cutwater. Harrier’s inside man. He’ll definitely notice this guy’s missing.” Marco titled his chair backward again. “And Harrier will know we had something to do with it.”

~Gena

An Update Schedule (Because We All Like Some Structure)

With my summer internship officially over. I can now commit to (read:sometimes follow) a schedule of updates of some sort. I like having some sort of structure. Hopefully, this will give some sort of an idea of where I’m coming from. It’s going to go something like this:

• Monday: Music that help set the mood for various scenes
• Tuesday:  Inspiration from images
• Wednesday:  A spotlight on something from Waxwing, be it a plot point, setting, characters, whatever
• Thursday: News on literature, comics, video games, television, anime, manga, light novels, and the sort
• Friday:Something out of my Book of Ideas (I keep ideas in a  small, pink, and adorable journal.)
• Saturday:  Excerpt from the week’s writings.
• Sunday: And I take a break.

This week’s “Saturday Excerpt” will be coming up after the break.

~Gena