The Train Inhabitants Series is a weekly series of twenty-five 1,000-words-or-less pieces based on the interesting people I see riding the train during my daily commute. Each drabble will center around the imagined life of one person, how they relate to the train, and the how they relate to the other people who ride the train with them. This series is designed to enable me to explore characters: their strengths, their flaws, their beauty and ugliness, along with the interconnectedness of the people we encounter throughout the day. At the end of the series, I plan to put together a small publication along with the In-between Alphabet Series, which I’m looking forward to.

The In-between Alphabet Series will be a weekly series of twenty-six 1,000-words-or-less pieces based on the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Each drabble will explore one word, an in-between word. These are words that are generally found in-between sentences, the essential but largely forgotten words that have little meaning outside of the context of the sentence. This series is designed to give me a playground to develop my command of fresh literary language without constraints. At the end, I would like to put together a small publication, so stay tuned for that.

With a new year, comes new changes.  With a new website that gathers together all my writing endeavors underneath one roof, Imaginor is being transmuted into a repository for fun writing exercises, experimental pieces, short-shorts, and any number of other quirky pieces of writing that don’t have a home anywhere else.  Stay tuned for more fun in the future. 

Long time no update!  The writing conference basically blew my brain.  First of all, I’d never been around so many people that loved writing so much.  When I talked to them, they really understood where I was coming from: my fears, my dreams, my hopes, my loves.  Second of all, there was so many interesting ideas that I was exposed to in the industry of writing.  It was interesting listening to all the speakers.  Third, I learned SO much.  I did this sequence of classes called NovelCram.  It was intense but so worth it.  I had never known how to approach writing a novel.  Trinity was written purely accidentally.  So, this gave me a strong foundation to base my future writing on. 

Inspired by the conference, I have embarked on Nanowrimo for the 6th year running.  This year, I am adamant on finally writing the 50,000 words.  I am using this chance to finish a whole new novel from beginning to end in just one month.  Of course, it’s going to be a seriously rough draft, but I need the motivation to get cracking on it. 

So, that’s the big news: a new novel is coming! 

There’s a big future ahead for Trinity also.  It’s not quite traditional but I think it fits the novel very well.  I’ll explain the reasoning behind my decision for it in a future post.  So, stay tuned!

Writing Trinity has been a really great thrill for me.  What started out as an interesting idea turned into a short story that kept getting longer and longer until it morphed into a full-blown novel.  Acknowledging that I have a lot more to learn when it comes to novel writing and the writing business in general, I’ve decided to take the opportunity of the Southern California Writers Conference coming to town so I’ll be spending a weekend in September completely immersed in writing as well as having industry professionals take a quick look at Trinity to see what they think.  It should be a really fun novel (pun intended!) experience and *whispers* I may just start writing another novel while I’m there so stay tuned!

I wanted very much to keep a running log of how much I wrote each day.  What I’ve discovered is that not only do I write very sporadically, with fits and starts and many days of turning on the computer only to stare at the screen blankly, but that I dislike being so regimented.  What I’ve discovered about myself is that I write because I am compelled to, not because I want to or I desire to.  Of course, in the end, I do love writing, but it is not that love that actually produces my output.  Some days I write as if I can not stop, the words spilling out before my mind even begins to perceive that I am thinking it.  Other days, no matter how stubbornly I try to force myself, not a single solitary word that I write am I satisfied with.  Therefore, in a long roundabout way, I am trying to say that I am done with daily updates because I simply don’t operate that way. 

So, instead of being a journal of my progress, this blog will be a repository of my results, and therefore be updated as sporadically as I write.  I will probably end up posting my short fiction, fits of thoughts, and poetry.  I will also write about major steps forward with regards to my longer fiction.  Beyond that, we will keep our fingers crossed. 

I have actually finished writing my first novel which is amazing considering my stories tend to max out at around 10 pages and this one has ended up being about 170 or so pages.  I will probably write more about my feeling on this in another post.  So, I will have some of my go-to readers to skim over it and give me ideas on how to improve it.  Then, it’ll probably go through about two rounds of further editing.  And then, as drumrolls ensue, I am actually considering submitting it to some literary agents or publishers to see if anyone bites.  Let’s see what happens!