I think a part of this is due to my current disinterest in the urban fantasy genre. Right now, it all seems the same; every book on the bookshelf that's an urban fantasy seems to blend into each other.
- Good looking female heroine that either is clumsy/doesn't have a job/some other ineptitude that makes her seem like an Every Woman? Check.
- Suddenly getting attacked thereby dragging her into a "dark world"? Check.
- Hot male protagonist who is alpha male, metaphorically (or literally if he's a werewolf), in his chosen profession (usually something hot: assassin, pack leader, bad ass loner, mage/sorcerer/wizard, etc.)? Check.
- Strange murders/unsolved mystery/ancient relic? Check.
- Some challenge that doesn't allow hero and heroine to get together, oftentimes rival for love or murderous bad guy (oftentimes the character being one in the same)? Check.
Love scene full of purple prose where the hero candidly tells heroine he'll teach her about passion and how to embrace the passion in her own body.(I'll automatically put the book down and walk away if there's any shit like that. Gag me with a spoon. I hate books where the responsibility of the heroine's sexuality is put into the man's hands, as if she can't figure it out for herself.)
I think this ennui has spread to my writing, too. The Eternal Forest is an urban fantasy, even if I think that it's slightly different than your usual run-of-the-mill (mostly because I try really hard to make it so), there's still a romantic subplot, there's still vampires (although they don't really appear at all in this book, they did in The Blood Queen), so essentially, I am writing an urban fantasy. And I'm not feeling it right now.
Most authors would say, "Grit your teeth and write through it," which is ghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifood advice. That's the road to publication, of course; writing is also about business. But right now, I can't make myself do it.
I've been writing some short snippets, just writing exercises really, about a woman who lucidly dreams. All her dreams are allegories of famous paintings. I've done a few I actually saw at MoMA this summer: The Dream, Water Lilies, The Persistence of Memory, and Starry Night. They've actually been pretty fun exercises to do (I manage about one a week, which means I'm writing about 2,000 words a week...not very impressive for me). In some ways, these writing exercises are more like journal entries in story form, since writing has always been rather therapeutic for me.
I've been throwing around a story idea I've had for a while, but pushed to the background because I was working on the Tayce series. I can't decide whether to make it steampunk or cyberpunk, as it would fit wonderfully for both concepts, and I've always wanted to write something for those genres. I've never tackled steampunk, although I think it would be a lot of fun. Cyberpunk demands a bit of malaise, oftentimes; an underlying grittiness that I'm not sure I'm really in the mood for. What I'd like is a story that's fun and swashbuckling and filled with witty banter. Something I can walk away from the computer with a grin on my face. But I don't even know where to start with a steampunk, and I find myself staring at a blinking cursor on the computer monitor.
So, to sum up: I'm frustrated with my writing. I'm frustrated with the reading material I have, too. :D
And what happens when I don't feel like writing, reading, and I'm avoiding both cleaning/chores and work-related stuff? I willingly go to the gym! So, I'm off.
