An apple a day keeps the vampires away, wait, that’s not how it goes.
The final installment of the Twilight saga will be released on screen this week and it reminded me of something I rediscovered about a year ago. It turns out Stephanie Myers wasn’t the only person dreaming of vampires. When I was in high school, I was always writing something. Short stories mostly because I didn’t have the discipline to write anything longer. I started a lot of short stories that I never managed to finish.
I have a Unicorn Notebook from those high school days containing a half a dozen stories, or more precisely half a dozen half-stories. One of them is about a female vampire heroine named Nikki who finds out that she’s a vampire at age 16. She can go out in the daylight without bursting into flame (sound familiar?) and she reads minds (again, Edward anyone?). Oh, and get this, she gets married on the night of the New Moon! Of course the real horror of this story is that Nikki is getting married at 16. That’s more terror inducing than Stephanie Myers version where Bella gets married at 18. My working title for this story was “The Fog”. I have to admit that Twilight has a better ring to it.
Oh good, an original beginning for my next story.
The only problem with my story (besides lack of entertaining plot, sexy werewolves, compelling drama or engaging characters) was that before I could complete 498 pages about my vampires, I switched gears to write about a 16-year-old girl named Dana on her way to a party. (you’ve probably noticed a theme to my writing back then or at least the heroines) And I have no idea why the heck I was writing about vampires in a Unicorn Notebook.
A lovely book in which to jot down a few horror stories….
I wonder what would have happened if I had kept working on The Fog? I can all have great ideas all day long, but without hard work and effort put into those ideas they are worthless. For instance, I’m sure there are bloggers who sit down and pound out a post in just a few moments and publish it without another thought and it’s awesome. Even though it doesn’t always show, I put a little more effort into my writing. (by a little I mean tons of blood, sweat and tears – hey that’s a group . . .) I love writing and the ideas come quickly but the substance takes time to construct and evolve. Mark Twain said, “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” I certainly didn’t understand this when I was 16.
Write, rinse, repeat
Some of you know that I gave up on blogging pretty quickly too about 10 months back. It became overwhelming. I felt the need to post something every day and trying to keep up that demanding pace, a 55 hour a week job, being a wife. and a mother . . . well something had to go. I also felt very intimidated by all the wonderful writers out there with amazing blogs. I forgot that blogging is supposed to be fun. I didn’t start blogging because I thought I would get discovered and become rich overnight, I started blogging so I could write, because I felt driven to write. So I’ve finally returned because giving up on writing was what I did when I was 16, but now that I’m . . . um, older, I understand it takes perseverance. And lots and lots of practice.
So you may never see dazzling posts and you will not see posts every day. My goal is to post something at least mildly amusing 2-3 times a week. Most importantly I want to enjoy writing again. Because it is fun, right after you mop up all the blood, sweat and tears. Oh, and don’t judge me for following the Twilight saga. Us Angry Middle Age Women have to have some guilty pleasures!
Ramblings of an Angry Middle Age Woman 