Woofajuana: Blog

Do you guys ever do writing warm ups? Short nothings that get you in the mood and the mindset? I do, sometimes. It's part of my writer's block(wall) exercises. Helps vault me right over the obstacle. They aren't meant to go anywhere. They aren't meant to be anything. Sometimes, it's describing an emotion or something I'm looking at or about characters that don't matter. This last time, that's what it was.

When it comes to The Dragon Tamer, keep in mind it's not the same story. The characters are all the same(ish) but things have changed significantly. S're is not the last Tamer, but they are still very rare. With that in mind....

*

He had to hurry. If the guards caught him now... well, they won't. He had eluded innumerous guards, soldiers, and even dragons since childhood. He was after bigger treasures than a meal these days.

Slipping into the fortress of a Tamer had been surprisingly simple. It was the getting out that was proving a bit of a challenge... but not impossible, mind you. Dodging through the shadows, he fluttered like a ghost as trained men shouted in confusion and passed him without a glance. What fools!

With a smug smirk, he rounded the corner and the breath was knocked from him, slammed into the ground by an enormous tail. His heart leapt to his throat, frozen in terror as a razor sharp snout hovered over him with a growl. However, it was not the dragon that he was most afraid of. No, it was the man with the iron gaze, a stare that ripped him asunder from the soul outward. He had looked up, he had locked eyes, and he did not possess the will to refuse.

“Fool,” the man growled like his dragon. “You thought you could steal from a Tamer? There is no such thing. And now, there is no escape. I... break... you.”

The thief's eyes grew larger, his scream echoing down the grand hall. When the guards arrived in a thundering unit, they found only a young man twitching on the ground, staring at the same nothing he muttered to; added to the collection of broken husks left to rot, forgotten in the catacombs beneath the fortress of Throne Drakinthrall.

*

I just really wanted to tease you guys. Kids are in school, hubby at work, house is clean, dog is walked, music is on, 5 chapters and an extensive appendix deep already....

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a safe, sane, and fun 4th of July. I want to thank you to all those who have reached out to me. Thank you for the well wishes and the support. Just a few of you, but that really does help remind me to make time to write, even just a little, so thank you!

My family and I made it to our destination (with some, uh, excitement with a blowout in the middle of a "no services for a 100 miles" area). It's been HOT!!! Even my cactus is wilting! Been inside unpacking, and I had a thought about writer's block.

I feel like there's 2 kinds. There's "content writer's block" and "emotional writer's block." I think most people think of the first rather than the latter when they hear "Writer's Block." But, as I've gotten better over the past couple of years at dealing with that aspect of writer's block, I've realized I think of it less as a "blockage" and more of an obstacle. A "writer's wall," more like. It makes the idea more approachable. I only need to figure out how to scale the wall. Sometimes, a brilliant spark will equip me with a pole to vault over that sucker. Other times, it's a slow climb up steep stairs that vanish into the darkness ahead. Every time I look around, I get better at noticing my tools to get over. Just... start. I found a grappling hook by writing a whole chapter of almost nonsense and then wrote it over, but at least the first writing gave me ideas to expand on, and I wasn't just waiting for "inspiration." Thus, less of a blockage, which kind of puts this idea of needing force to push through it. As authors, words are important, right? A block needs aggressive measures. That idea of "explosive" creation rather than a wall that can be scaled with one word after the other.

As for the emotional side of writer's block, well, more of a writer's "closet." It's a little different than the wall. Sometimes, you gotta find the door to get out of the closet so you can go sit at your desk. But, sometimes, the closet is simply cozy. I'm tired, folks. I'm drained. I'm just in my closet. This time, it's not a matter of having to find the door, it's a matter of just not ready to leave. I'm gonna rest a little more. I'm writing my ideas on occasion, but they don't make coherent chapters right now. I'm just tired.

So, those are my thoughts on the subject. Maybe some of you have different ways of looking at it. I will update when I'm ready to start posting. Until then, I wish you all well for now.

So, I get that I'm not some super special writer with anything published (yet), but I am the kind of writer who goes out looking for writing tips and tricks all the time. I read about writing as much as I write about smut and werewolves. In fact, the only things I read these days besides the occasional quick glance is writing tips and articles about top writers. One thing they all share in common that I, uh, lack: stamina. It hits 9pm, I am out. Pumpkin time. No amount of coffee or vit B complex is changing this fact, all it does is make a restless sleep that prevents me from writing the next day because my free time is taken by a nap. So, I simply work with what I've got. And I encourage all other writers out there, just work with the time you've got, however short. Standing in a long line at the store? We all got cell phones, right? I've gotten a whole paragraph or character sheet written up. I'm a crossing guard and I see about 7-10 kids all around the same time, so I spend a whole hour just standing there, so I whip out that phone and that's my editing time since I can keep my eyes moving in case one of those munchkins tries pulling a fast one on me! For those who are out of the loop, let me make you privy to Google Documents. It has its limitations that are a bit annoying, but it's good enough for the purposes of phone, tablet and computer all at once!

However, that wasn't my helpful writing tip. I learned a new technique while writing "In the Enemy's Territory" to get through writer's blocks, and it helps immensely for picking back up where I might have needed to walk away in the middle of an idea or wasn't in the mood to write something tedious. To some of you, it might be a big "duh!" Excellent! You learned it before others! But, I've the feeling there's plenty of folks out there who have struggled for years and lost the momentum on so many projects. *raises hand* I have an ancient thumbstick from the very beginning of solid state and its 256mb is filled with dead stories. So, there you are, writing furiously, everything is flowing, you're connected to some kind of cosmic energy flowing through your core, every fiber focused on the scene... and then you hit that brick wall like a high speed freight train. How do you continue? How do you bridge the gap? where do you go next? "Uhhhh, well, guess I'll... wait for inspiration." Well... if I had done that, I'd be stuck back somewhere in chapter 6-7ish. About the time I learned this technique. And in that time, after struggling for 2 years, the story suddenly took off and it's nearing done in just one. If I just had the damn stamina!

Summarize.

-The snow melts and they all go to the festival.-

MOVING ON!

-After stealing the jewel in a clever manner, the two must hide in a cave, and then they fuck.-

CONTINUING!

-They have a conversation explaining the laws of the magic.-

ONWARD TO GLORY!

Beautifully simple, no? Simple, but a lot harder than you think. Especially when it's a change in how you think about writing. Practice. Practice. Practice makes better. And the most beautiful thing about this is how easily it can be expanded.

-The snow melted the next day and they got their masks ready, piled into the trailer, and had a conversation about the purpose of the fest. When they arrive, everyone gets their masks on and there's a scene with pups.-

Keep it going, keep filling it in with more summarized details. And then, before you know it, it's just... detailed.

I could sit here and berate you over diligence. Consistency. I write almost EVERY day. The only days I have not written something (not always ITET) are days I am genuinely ill or my ADHD was really bad that day and got me stuck in a loop I couldn't get out of until exhaustion takes me. (I was gonna do a thing, what was it? Oh yeah, that, but shit, I couldn't cuz I had to do this other thing just so I could do that thing, but that's complicated so I'll go do this thing, but now I see this other thing to do, but wait, I was already doing a thing, what the fuck was it? Oh yeah, oh but shit, I can't do that without doing this, but look, here's this to do, wait, what was I doing....) Every top writer says the same thing. "Write. Every day." That's the truest path to success in every field I have ever done even a modicum of research into. But, we all have our lives to live. We all got jobs, families, and a grand plethora of reasons we can't give our alls to writing. Maybe it isn't even that much of a passion for you, simply a passing fancy, just a tale inside you that isn't a big deal to you, but you'd like it out at some point.

Then, my friend, summarize and move on with life. Beautifully simple. It helps when you aren't sure how to keep going, when you need to walk away and don't want to lose the idea, or when you've lost the desire to trudge through a boring/uninspired scene. I've quite literally finished the revision of "The Dragon Tamer" in summary. Every major scene start to end. I don't think it'll be taking another 10 years to finish now! Soon as I'm done with these funny talking wolves, I've got dragons flying over their heads!

Hopefully, this tip was helpful for someone. If not, then damn, I'm just late to the party! XD Speaking of parties, Anubis was right in the middle of being the new mascot for the Hallowed Bounty, and Denver and Nova were trying to hide him from the hordes of ladies.... wait, I think he knows that bitch!

Hello, my readers. I started doing this thing at random on one of the other sites that I post to where I highlight a character in the world of my novel "In the Enemy's Territory" (which if you don't know it is about alien werewolves). I've already got a few of these spotlights written, but you guys are welcome to ask about other characters, even minor ones you may be curious about, and I'll get to them... sporadically.

Don't worry, I'm still working on the last 2 chapters. I stalled out with another story, one you will all be seeing soon... in the Halloween contest! It'll be fun, but you might be hungry at the end....

To kick off the character spotlights, I started with Khade'grr Landon! Because, c'mon, guy's the most bad ass MFer on the planet. He might as well be a god among wolves.

Age: 57
Height: 5'6"
Rank: Supreme Alpha
Color: Mostly white with several shades of grey and silver along his back and tail. Black hair, though has begun to grey with age. Black eyes.

Khade'grr Landon is the embodiment of the phrase "you can't be peaceful if you aren't dangerous, otherwise you're just harmless." Born to a pack that viewed their females as livestock and pups as disposable, he grew up watching his mother, aunts, sisters and cousins beaten and starved into submission and bred to make numbers for the pack in territorial disputes. A male had to prove he was as brutal as the rest to be accepted as an equal, fighting and eventually raping their way up the social ladder. And Khade'grr did it, with a bad taste in his mouth, until he had gone far enough up the chain with enough support that he overthrew all of the high ranks in a bloody battle and was made Alpha of the powerful Landon pack. Perched upon a ridge overlooking a calm bay connected to a major inland river, Khade'grr began to forge alliances and pay tribute to regain the pack's status and was soon a bustling haven for those who needed protection. His city of Port Landon has become a sprawling masterpiece of modern Aroogar engineering with well over a million wolves in one place and is the largest Aroogar city. With many dozens of packs voluntarily pledging their support to him, he is considered to be the most powerful Aroogar to ever have lived, and the closest to a sovereign ruler that the species is willing to accept. Even packs who are not directly aligned with him are willing to accept his rule to a point. As such an influential figure, some packs who have become too closely related have been known to send their women to him for making healthy puppies. While this is a perk he's fine with, he always questions them beforehand, and it's well known that any pack who forces their women into this action not only lose the woman they sent, but will likely end up with a very angry group of enforcers at their gates to ensure they're behaving themselves. A true force to be reckoned with, Khade'grr's legacy ensures his name will be known centuries after his death, even on a planet with no formal or institutional schooling.

I'm going to admit that the chapter is not what I wanted it to be. I had to cut it off at the bottom, but I came to the conclusion there would be a major chapter restructuring later anyway, so just have this while I fiddle entirely too long with the last two. You all know you want that last smut scene, don't lie. I'm totally not projecting!