Yzabel / July 26, 2007

Writing Site Update

For some time, I’ve been wanting to ditch the Joomla! installation on my writing website. The RSS feed wouldn’t work, the URL-rewrite mod was a horror, and I don’t know if it’s me who’re lacking in skills, or if it’s really the CMS that can be a serious pain at times, but all in all, I got tired of it. Moreover, there’s no way I want to find myself fixing stuff in emergency during the school year. So, I finally gathered my spirits, and took a couple of days to redo everything from scratch, save for the texts themselves. The CMS I replaced with WordPress, and the forum with Simple Machine Forums. I can only hope that these changes will be for the best in terms of security and efficiency.

Why am I mentioning this now? Simply because URLs have changed, so in case you had bookmarked a specific category or something, be aware that the link may not work any more.

I’ll of course welcome any remark about how I could improve it in the future (I’ll probably change the template, but I still need to work more on developing those skills).

Yzabel / July 2, 2007

A Summer Update

I’m getting so great at writing updates after weeks or even months of silence, am I not?

Since there is no way I want to give up on this blog, here is one. There are just WAY too many things going on in my life at the moment for me to be able to write daily in all my blogs, and since the Y Logs are pretty much geared toward writing and writing did NOT go well in the past months, somehow it was kind of normal for me to not post here.

But don’t go running away yet! A few weeks of facing the dreaded blank page are far from enough to discourage me.

First, as I was announcing in March, one of my short stories was accepted. The three others finally weren’t, but, hey, one was! And the webzine is now out here at http://nuitsdalmor.over-blog.com/article-10920933.html (of course, the blog and ‘zine are all in French).

April was a big month of learning and revising, May was a half month of exams. Which I passed successfully. After all, it’s not every day that I can brag about getting a 18/20 at a syntax exam. 😉 I won’t even mention the ‘computer science’ exam, that was cake and a joke, and I gobbled the cake while laughing a lot.

The problems appeared after, when I found myself 1) exhausted, 2) unable to recover from those exams (and I’m still tired), 3) as a result, all the writing I had planned on doing pretty much stalled. As a result, I just said “screw it” and went to resume weight-lifting, because being so out of shape is never funny; mens sana in corpore sanao and all that.

And there is also the big move. I got very tired of living in my crappy student room, and went on the look-out for a 1-room apartment, where I could at least have a mini-kitchen AND a bathroom of my own. Talk about living la vie boheme here. Later on, the biography to be put on the back cover of my novels will probably look similar to that of a Stephen King. “This girl has lived every were and done everything save from selling a kidney to go through life”. Anyway, I will be moving in three days. Three days, and that hell hole will be behind me. Seriously, I cannot wait. It’s keeping me busy with packing and filling paperwork and running everywhere to get more paperwork to fill, but life’s good and happy.

About writing? Well, here’s a good thing as well: two weeks ago, I said “screw it again, and on top of it, I am NOT going to worry and blame myself any more”. Two days later, bam, it hit me like a brick, I got to work, and I got back into it big time. With a new short story under my belt that only needs proof- and beta-reading now. The story, not my belt. It won’t be the best short story ever, but I’m really glad to see that I still have ‘it’ in me, you see?

And this will be all for today’s update. I hope I will also have internet access soon enough after moving out, so that I can go on attempting at updating more often.

Yzabel / March 30, 2007

Good news

As usual, I don’t have too much time to write in here these days, but since I have something nice to share…

I got an answer regarding one of the short stories I had submitted a few weeks ago, and it was a positive one, which will be… the first time ever for me. No need to say I’m pretty happy about it, because no matter what, whether it is in a paper anthology or in a webzine, I had never been published before (save for a couple of articles in a fanzine, but that was long ago, and it didn’t have to go through a screening process first).

I don’t know how it goes for other authors. In my case, I… didn’t sleep during that night, out of being so excited (I got the answer at 11:30 PM), then lived on a happy little cloud the day after. It’s a small step, yet one that will definitely hold much importance to my eyes. It’s also one of the short stories I’ve had the hardest time writing, because it dealt with a sort of ‘borderline’ theme that could’ve quickly fell into exaggeration, and I constantly was under the impression that I was ‘going too far’. So, I’m sort of twice as satisfied.

In any case, Yza is happy (and may now proceed to decide on a pen name at last, because she’s going to need it * chuckles *).

Yzabel / March 5, 2007

Separating the Siamese twins

I’m not talking about cats or a piece of news, but about a process initiated some time ago, grown in my little mind by what’s left of my brains, fed with the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, and finally blossomed in full. This is to say that I separated in two distinct entities (in brief, two novels) the first volume of my trilogy set in the world of Eien.

Complicated? Yes and no. I had been hesitating for a long time, fearing that by doing so, I would only pursue new chimeras, but the facts dawned on me rather than I imposed them as a law. Either I’d get rid of a secondary plot that deserved something better than background importance (and I’d then find myself with characters without any reason of travelling any more, and with the need of modifying a general plot that otherwise suited my tastes well), or I’d develop that secondary plot, with the risk of overshadowing the main one. In the end, none of these seemed good in my book.Read More

Yzabel / February 23, 2007

A Victory Over My Fears

This may seem odd, but in my case, I think I’ve just crossed a new threshold.

This afternoon, after having made sure that no typos nor spelling mistakes remained, I sent Au sein de la nuit and La Dévorante to the 5eme Saison French publishing house for their free theme. And that was… surprising. A sort of huge change in my little world.

I explain: writing, editing, sending the short story to proof-readers, applying their corrections, modifying the text hoping it’s for the best… all of this is easy. Annoying at times and leaving me with the need to rip my hair off, but easy. On the other hand, what is harder for me is to actually send the texts once I’m done with them. By doing so, I’ll now be running the risk (which is real, I admit) to see them rejected for a reason or another. I’m standing in front of failure, more than of success. And the fear of failing is something one definitely needs to triumph over. It is useless to tell oneself  “I want to be published” if it’s to keep all those short stories bundled up in a drawer or on the PC, and if it’s to end up not sending the texts. (Note: I am indeed able to pull a “oh, what a shame, I had completely forgotten the deadline, now it’s too late! It’s such a shame, indeed!”)

So, it’s official: I’m ready to accept failure, and it has helped to increase my chances of getting published. Because if I don’t take part in and don’t send my stories, said chances drop to 0 anyway, right.

And even if my short stories are crappy without me realizing it, which is probably the case, at least I’ll have won something treasurable: new knowledge regarding all those little writing quirks and mistakes I should correct. (And good pals, too: the people who accepted to proof-read my stuff.)

In other words, progress came with those short stories, and I’m not afraid anymore.

Yzabel / February 17, 2007

Online novel (at last)

It is a public fact that sometimes, I am a real millstone. In order to illustrate that rule, I had of course to put stuff online, mention it everywhere, and… totally forget to write about it on my own blog. Ain’t I dumb!

I’m thus taking a few minutes this morning to post a belated notice here, and announce that, after mulling and pondering the thought, I finally decided to put a story online–namely Unsung Heroes, which those who’ve been here since 2005 have surely heard of (a sci-fi/cyberpunk novel I had started for NaNoWriMo ’05).

As the title easily enough reveals, it’s written in English (I just don’t have the time to translate it into French), hence I feel entitled to blab about it on the English version of the blog as well. The rest of the website is in French, though.

I’ll update accordingly in the weeks and months to follow, and don’t be surprised if I also rewrite a few bits here and there, especially if we take into account the fact that studying English in college always causes me to spot new mistakes these days. For the moment, at least, the first chapter is already available here.

(Critiques and the likes are to be left on the forum or through e-mail, unfortunately: I don’t want to activate a comment system on too many pages of the website, since it seems to attract many Russian people who seemingly love football and bedroom sports a lot. Sorry about that…)

Yzabel / January 29, 2007

Progressing: 4 short stories

Once again, I failed at keeping this blog updated… well, not as much as last year, that is. This time, it was for a good reason if there’s any: as you can notice in the sidebar (warning, it’s boasting time), I’ve finished three short stories answering to themes proposed by a few French publishing houses and magazines. Truth be told, I’ve actually written four of them, but the last one is more a rewriting than something completely new, and as such, I haven’t put it in the list.

Will these short stories be published? Nothing is certain here. This said, once I’ve properly proof-read them, I will send them, which will cause my chances of publication to soar through the sky–as stupid as it seems, before that, I’ve always been too shy to send anything, silly me!

I’m however resuming classes now, and will write more slowly… Nevermind, I already have caught sight of a couple more themes, and I’ll do what it takes to write some more by then.

Note: For those of you who read French, on Yzabel.net, I’ve added a page dedicated to keeping tracks of my submissions, nicely nicknamed “the rake list”. There, I’ll note down received comments, rejections, portential approvals, etc.

Yzabel / January 19, 2007

Website: The Fantastic Written Works of… Me

Until today, I had only mentioned it in a couple of places, but now that I’ve more or less finished building it, I’ve realized that I haven’t even written a word about it here on the Y Logs! Time to change that, I say.

(To those who’ve already seen a similar announcement in the past days: you can stop reading here, there’s nothing new under the sun for you.
Also: the website is mostly in French. Sorry about that. I’m focusing it on my career in my native country, that’s why… but you can still have a look if you wish, I don’t mind participation in English, and I will of course answer in English as well.)

More than one year ago, I had already mentioned my little yzabel.net domain name, and had vaguely used it for a purpose I’ve given up on since then. However, recently, I’ve decided to really do something with it this time, and not a pitiful blog. Therefore, I took on the opportunity to test a certain CMS and design a new site, a site that’ll be focused on my career as an author (amateur as well as upcoming one, because my dreams are strong and my pen very industrious)

.Contrary to my writing LJ, I’m not going to note down there a detailed account of how well my writing is going (or not). I want it to be a little more… let’s say ‘open’. On the other hand, I’m seriously toying with the idea of publishing Unsung Heroes on it, since I can’t do much with that story in France anyway. And Unsung Heroes WILL remain in English.

If you’ve visited Yzabel.net one year ago and found it completely lame (which I easily understand), or even if you had never seen it, this is the kind of new things you’ll find on it. And I do hope that one day, that page will become “the website of famous author Yzabel”. /smile/

Yzabel / January 12, 2007

Setting Aside Some Time To Write

Ah, the good old problem we all have to face sooner or later–finding time to write. Because unless it’s our job and we don’t need to have any other one, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

It did look easy when I was younger and only had to focus on my not-too-difficult high school homework. Now, after several years spent attending cramming classes, being in the workforce and going back to college while still retaining a job, I’ve seriously revised my opinion about that. And my guess is that for all of us who write with the aim of being published one day, it’s even harder to set ourselves to ‘work’–the pleasure is still here, yet our lives are already full enough as it is.

I’ve already expressed in the past how I agree that we have to set aside time to write, else we just won’t write at all. I still agree with this, however hard the prospect is: I know it’s the only way. That settles it. We may be tired after work, busy with school, busy with families, but in the end, it all comes down to the fact that nobody will write for us, and that if we don’t take that extra step, odds are we’ll simply never be published, and will remain amateurs until the end. I used to huff about that, now I don’t do it anymore. One has to accept the facts the way they are, and work around the problem. I can’t just go on dreaming about being a famous author later in my life if I can’t even find the time to finish at least a short story and submit it, can I?Read More

Yzabel / January 8, 2007

Short Stories vs. Novels

A little question has been wandering in my mind these last days, and I’ve decided to write it down here.

Those of you who are writers, are trying to be published, or are simply readers, do you think that the best course of action is to submit short stories in an attempt to be published in magazines, fanzines and anthologies, instead of working on a novel? Or, on the contrary, is publishing a novel or two first the right solution, before dispatching short stories around?

On the one hand, one could present the argument that it is best to be known through short stories before submitting a novel, because this sort of legitimates the author–much like a company would ask for previous experience before hiring you.

On the other hand, the format of the short story isn’t as evident as it appears to laymen’s eyes, and since selling such texts isn’t the easiest thing, what are the real chances given to unknown people in that area? Is working on short stories a waste of time? Should they focus on a novel instead?

I’m wondering about that, since myself am not the best judge in that regard. I’d rather leer toward the first solution, given my professional orientation, in which lots of previous jobs = valuable experience, not instability. But am I not too inexperienced in terms of writing to really have an opinion on that?

Is this only a question worth being asked, or am I nitpicking?