Melani Blazer

I’ve had some real crazy dreams the last few weeks. People often say eating certain things, watching tv or other behavior triggers them, but I’ve never found any correlation between any evening behavior and those bizarre sleep stories.

Occasionally I can get some neat story ideas from dreams. Sometimes major, sometimes just a teensy thought that may or may not turn into something viable.

Last night? er, OUT there.
The setting: my parents old house–the one I lived in from age 9 til 18. However, the inside of the house wasn’t set up the same, and “my” room, was actually from the house I have now. Yeah, cuz a dream isn’t ever going to make sense, right?

My dream started with me getting out of bed (although it wasn’t morning–it was… nearly dusk) because I heard scraping on the roof. I knew it was because my dad had finally decided to start removing shingles to reroof. (Sense is NOT part of dreams, remember?) I got up, (was already dressed) and dug into my closet for my old sneakers (cuz I didn’t wanna destroy the new ones, and needed good traction to get up on the roof and help)

So I walk outside and see a skateboard laying there. Which means I knew who was there. (Skateboard? WTF?) In fact, there was a whole caboodle of people there, some sitting, some helping clean up the yard as the guys on the roof threw shingles down.

(Here’s where it gets even more stupid).
I walked up to my friend and his girlfriend. I knew he was “white vampire” (but I have no idea what that means here in the waking world) and had a feeling his girlfriend was a witch. I was worried about them here among my family–not that I thought they’d hurt them, but that my family would think them monsters or something. I talked to them for awhile. While we chatted, my grandparents pulled up in a car my grandfather hasn’t owned in YEARS, a 1970-something burgundy colored Cordova. By this time is was full dark and two young teens had set up candles in bags (like you see at halloween). My grandmother immediately said “No, absolutely not, you’ll attract the _____.” I have no idea what she said, but it was something paranormal and evil. I personally wasn’t worried with my friend and his girlfriend there, but I wasn’t going to admit who they were.

They (being who? I dunno) ended up hanging candles in the trees around the house to illuminate the area well enough to keep working. In the meantime, my Grandma started walking around the house dragging a stick. I asked her why. I knew she wasn’t… a witch or anything powerful, but had some knowledge about protections. She said she was making a circle to keep out anything evil. I knew the circle would harm my friend and his girlfriend (no, I don’t have names! I can’t even picture them). So I told my grandmother protection was already in place.

We all took turns pulling shingles off the roof. At some point, my friend’s girlfriend asked where my husband was. I said he was in bed because he was ill. (that was my own dreamlike a-ha moment). So she said she’d go see if there was anything she could do.

And that was it. Dream over. I’m almost scared to ask someone to analyze the funky crap that comes out of my head while dreaming. However, the people who know I write–and write paranormal fiction most of the time–just shake their head and give a knowing smile instead of threatening me with a white coat and padded room.

To my writer friends: I know you do this, but does it bother you when you go to the movies (or watch a DVD) and find yourself overanaylizing plot and characters and… everything instead of kicking back for entertainment’s sake?

I do. Here’s why….

Had a chance to watch Twilight the other night. I had…expectations. I hadn’t put them into words, but term cliche would probably be one of them. No–I hadn’t read the book(s). My daughter has. She’s talked about them to a small enough extent that my expectations weren’t swayed. Another vampire plot. How original could it be? I expected to find the heroine TSTL (Too stupid to live) and the hero overbearing, bossy, possessive and…unheroic. Especially since these were teenagers.
(more…)

What that actually refers to is my never ending source of self-excuses for my writing behavior.
I’m not justifying anything, but I really had these huge plans that I could dive in and get something done when the kitchen was finished. (insert maniacal laughter) That hasn’t seemed to happen. I find myself bouncing from idea to idea, always finding something more enticing to work on than the subject I told myself, promised myself, I’d finish.

I know exactly what went wrong with my intended rewrite/edit of an old book I wanted to resurrect. I never could get to a “place” where I had no distractions and could find the zone I needed to really hash the story line, character arcs and plot out in my head clearly. I was surface writing. Surface writing is shallow, often pointless and babbling and has little conflict and writing’s equivilant of stick people. NOT what I want to produce. Not what I can stand to go back and reread, if only to “catch up” and get back into the groove.
The last week or so I’ve been spending computer time typing in 80+ handwritten pages of a nascar themed story I finished last fall and sat aside. That seems to be going okay and I ‘like’ the story. Hell yeah, it needs work, but at least it’s worth editing and no burning.

When I can’t transcribe, I’m allowing myself to write random scenes from a number of other books/ideas in a notebooks. They’re creative outlets, hopefully jumping boards to other ideas or character development. I suppose it’s not the best way to go and it certainly isn’t churning out viable stories, but I’ve at least come to grips with the truth I think I’ve known all along. I can’t not write. My creativity hasn’t died. Reality has simply intruded and frankly…I let it. Now it’s time to figure out how to fight back.

Doesn’t feel like nearly ten o’clock. But I’m sure when that alarm beeps at 5:15am it won’t feel like that either. Time changes always mess with my system. I was typing away so well too.

I had been working on a rewrite of a story I’d written several years ago. One with a story line dear to me, but badly needs work. I got to a point where I realized I wasn’t helping it by simply “fixing” the story telling. I needed to reroute the direction the story itself was going. It was more than I could focus on at the moment, so I’ve shifted gears.

Some months ago I finished my NASCAR themed book that features some of the characters you may have met if you read TROPHY GIRL. I had handwritten about 75 loose-leaf pages which I never had gotten typed in. Now that were several Sundays into this racing season, the bug has hit and I’m revisiting this story by typing (and editing, slightly) to get it “done” for real. It fits well with all the drama that’s affecting my creative juices these last few days…weeks…months! It’s good to have projects like this.

I’m off to bed, even if it means laying there, feeling like I’m hour early. G’night!

The kitchen, that is. At least to the degree it’s fully functional. The ceiling needs a bit of paint touch up (oh, what new lights will show you) and then trim around the ceiling/wall edge and one piece of trim. Oh, and we need to put a railing or trim along the top of the cabinets to “finish” them, but who cares about all that. It’s DONE!

Not only that, I splurged and got a stainless coffee pot (and I don’t even drink coffee) and napkin holder/salt & pepper shaker set and papertowel holder. Those cool touches that seem to set it off so well. I could just wiggle I’m so excited!

Went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and scoped out the healthy section of books, but nothing popped out at me. I was bummed about it. Of course I have a few (ha!) in my TBR, but I’m feeling a little picky. Anyone have any suggestions? I really don’t know even what genre I’m interested in. I scoped out mystery, sci fi and romance. Not that I looked at every book–who could?

I’m excited NASCAR’s back. And since the race is getting ready to go green, I’m gonna head out and watch!