The Confabulator Cafe

Author: rlnaquin

  • Life Is Laughing at My Intentions

    I love monsters. I love pancakes. I see no reason why we can't move forward with this combination.
    I love monsters. I love pancakes. I see no reason why we can’t move forward with this combination.

    I don’t even know where to start.

    Okay, let’s start with last Friday. I took the day off from NaNo. Ran some errands. Did the laundry. I know. Crazy.

    Saturday, my husband and I went out into the world, claimed a spot at a coffee shop and wrote our fingers to the bone. Go us!

    Sunday, not as much. I wrote some.

    Monday, full of good intentions, I met a few Confabulators for breakfast and then writing. I was about 2300 words behind. Not bad, actually. I could make that up in no time at all.

    We talked a lot, which I needed. I ate pancakes, which I also needed. We wrote some. We talked. And then it happened.

    BOOM!

    Line edits for book four landed in my inbox. I think Sara and Jack probably thought a friend had died or something the way I sat wailing and holding my head in the restaurant. Line edits. And I have a week in which to get them done and sent back to my editor.

    Seriously.

    Originally, I thought I could do both. I should learn to multitask. I really should. And maybe I could multitask–write one book for part of the day, then edit another the rest of the day–if the two books weren’t chronological pieces of the same story. Writing book five while editing book four is too hard for me. I get confused about which events go into which book.

    Last night, depressed over my stagnant word count (I’m now about 8k words behind and the gap is growing), I considered going back to another story I’ve been working on. I had to set it aside for this one. Maybe I could switch over? My brain might multitask better if the stories were completely different.

    I sat and edited for nearly eight hours straight yesterday, and I’m only a third of the way through. The thought of writing more words in the evenings after that makes me want to cry. Also, I think my eyes are bleeding.

    So, no. I’m not writing right now. It’s not likely I’ll win this NaNo. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll do a half NaNo or 40k. That’s still halfway to the end of the book.

    On the bright side, I’ve figured out how to avoid the dreaded NaNo Week Two–ignore it.

    So. Next week. Will I be desperately behind on word count or exhausted from a stubborn need to catch up?

    Who knows?

    Every NaNo is a new adventure.

  • Who’s That Girl?

    MrsKravitzOh, look, Abner! It’s that weird girl who used to be at the Cafe all the time. Do you think she’s back for good?

    No, Mrs. Kravitz. I’m not back for good, yet. I’m back for NaNo. Now close the curtains before you see something really upsetting.

    I know. I said I would be gone for a month or so. That was–what?–eight months ago? Nine? I don’t know. It’s all a blur. I’ve published  two more books  since then. Seriously. And I wrote a book without it being NaNo, for the first time ever. And I went to Disney World. And I showered.

    I haven’t forgotten you, though. I promise.

    And here we are for NaNoWriMo once more. This is my fourth time around. I sold all three of my previous NaNo books, and they’re out in the world. This one is already contracted and due to my publisher February 1st. So, you know, no pressure. (more…)

  • There Are No Stories Here

    The world doesn’t need stories. Stories are purely entertainment, a way to fritter away time better No_booksspent being constructive.

    Think of the money we would all save without stories.

    Books, of course—that’s the obvious one. We could get rid of all the bookcases around our house, as well as the expensive e-readers.

    I know a lot of people have cancelled cable, but they still watch television shows through other avenues. Without stories, not only would we save on Netflix/Hulu/other sources of streaming content, we’d also save on the television itself. (more…)

  • I’m Listening

    ME_339_Advice-640x199
    Cartoon from Mimi and Eunice: http://mimiandeunice.com/category/advice/

    It seems every question here at the Café is tricky lately, for one reason or another. This non-fiction question had me stumped at first—not because I couldn’t think of anything, but because we’re a bunch of writers, most of us writing in similar genres, so other people kept grabbing my answers.

    My go-to answer was to say I’d write about depression. I was not alone in this response, so I moved on. I write urban fantasy. I read a lot of cryptozoology articles and know way more than I should about aliens, Bigfoot, and chupacabras.

    Again, that subject got snatched up for this assignment pretty quick, too.

    So, I had to dig a little deeper and be a bit more honest. I have to confess something a little weird about myself. (more…)

  • Will Write for Cash

    fairy cashWithin the cozy, virtual walls of the Confabulator Café, I write whatever genre takes my fancy. The monthly writing prompts let my imagination grab whatever idea floats by on the wind, and I can fly off wherever it takes me. I push myself to come up with something different whenever possible. This is a playground. It’s our playground. We can fill it with whatever toys and games we want to play with, and it makes us better writers when we explore uncharted corners.

    Outside the Café, I write urban fantasy. I chose that genre for several reasons, not all of them creative. I’m going to lay a little honesty on you here, and I hope you don’t think less of me for it by the time I’m done. (more…)

  • No Fear

    self_esteemThis year has been crazy awesome, and it’s changed me accordingly. It’s quite possible that I, myself, am crazier than I started out at the beginning of the year. Or maybe I started out this way. You have to be at least a little nuts in the first place to choose writing as a career.

    Over the course of the last year I’ve written countless blog posts, more than a dozen short stories (thanks in large part to this blog), and another novel. I’ve also gone through edits with a fabulous professional editor on two other novels. Over the course of all that, I know I’ve improved as a writer. I think it would be impossible not to get better with all that going on. (more…)

  • Playing Favorites

    Love-CoffeeTo my surprise, this was one of the most difficult posts I’ve been asked to write here at the Café. Do I pick through my own posts and choose my favorite? Do I pour through the posts of my fellow Confabulators and decide — like some awards committee — who was the funniest, the most poignant, the wisest, or the most likely to succeed in the world of publishing?

    I tried, I really did. As it is, this is terribly late because of all the false starts and endless time spent scouring past entries from each writer.

    So, we’re going to avoid the question altogether. It was a great idea, but I don’t have it in me to pick and choose.

    Instead, I want to talk about how proud I am of this group. (more…)

  • Holiday Slippage

    a-charlie-brown-christmasI have a confession to make. For much of my life, I was a Christmas Eve shopper. Not because I procrastinated or because I was a Scrooge, but because money was paycheck-to-paycheck, and only that last check before the holiday allowed me to buy presents. Christmas isn’t cheap, and other extra things had to come out of those prior checks—extra food supplies like flour and chocolate chips, a Christmas tree, gifts for work parties.

    Every spare penny was already earmarked for something.

    I was fast at it. By the time I got to the mall on Christmas Eve, I knew what I needed to buy. I’d get it done in record time, then be up until midnight or two in the morning wrapping everything. (more…)

  • Out of Time

    Library/Secret Room — 1968

    aluminum branchMadge was not impressed with the pink, aluminum Christmas tree in the library. Stella seemed to think it was the height of fashion and that their employers had remarkable taste. Madge preferred real trees that grew from soil, not some factory in Wisconsin.

    She plucked at the cold metal needles and tried to arrange them in some sort of natural arrangement. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. No matter what she did with it, the gaudy thing still looked like a mistake.

    “Hand me the box of green balls, Stella,” she said.

    (more…)

  • Presents for Your Writer

    All a writer really needs is paper and some sort of writing instrument. If a story wants to come out, and all a writer has at hand is a stubby red crayon and a napkin, it’s gonna happen.

    So, let’s assume the writer in your life already has the basic tools of choice covered–paper and a pen, a typewriter, or a computer with whatever word processing software is most preferred.

    What can you offer as a gift to make the writing experience better, easier, or more comfortable?

    1. Liquid fuel

    You know your writer best. What do they like to drink? Coffee’s usually a good bet. Running out of caffeine in the middle of an intense scene is catastrophic. You could gift them with a pound of their favorite beans or even sign them up for a monthly coffee delivery. Some prefer tea, so you could gift them with a special blend, a whimsical steeper, or a beautiful new teapot. I know a few writers who prefer something more potent for after-hours writing. I’m sure a really nice bottle of their favorite would be much appreciated.

    (more…)