I'm slowly getting over the last of my cold. It's more of a nuisance now, though I'm still not sleeping well. I've decided to blame my brother for this cold. He had it before me and his germs must have decided that I needed to join in the fun as well.
The nice thing is that I am well enough to ease back into writing, which I have sorely missed. But an odd thing happened tonight. I wasn't sure how to start the chapter. For some reason, I feel more pressure for things to be perfect the first time I type them. However, none of that pressure exists when I write on paper. Paper is a comfort zone for me. It's where I started my writing so many long years ago. The feel of the pen in my left hand and the way the paper glides beneath my hand as the words flow so easily from my brain through the ink. On paper, I can scratch out, start over, without feeling like I wasted time and words.
So, tonight I returned to my security blanket. There was also a small joy in digging out a brand new green uniball pen. I've got an addiction to nice pens and even more so for colored pens. I've asked for specific brands of pens for Christmas (along with a stack of legal pads) and my family thinks I'm insane. But there's nothing like the feel of breaking in a brand new legal pad and a brand new pen on a burst of new ideas. Maybe it's just a writer thing. And maybe I really am insane. Who knows?
In the meantime, I have to admit that I had a thought when I was driving home from work today. It's not a new thought. It's something that occurred to me last year before Nightwalker was released, and it was brought up by one of my blog readers about the same time, but I've resisted out of a lack of time. My resistance is slowly wearing down. I mean, I've recently fallen to the temptation of not only Twitter, but also Facebook in the past couple of weeks. Why not add a discussion board for the Dark Days Series?
I know of a number of authors that manage discussion boards that offer fans a place to hash out their favorite characters, their motivations, their love interests, and potential plot lines. My question is: who is interested in participating? If I did open a discussion board, that group would most likely get first dibs on breaking news, contests, and possibly even spoilers.
So I'm taking down my social networking poll despite the fact that it has several days before it officially closes. Yes, yes, the Facebook people are in the majority. I bow to your obvious wisdom. I am now posting a poll about whether you would participate in a discussion board if I created one for the Dark Days Series. If I did, I wouldn't open its doors until close to the release of Dayhunter, which is on April 28.
If you are interested, I must stress that you should vote in this poll. If there isn't enough interest, I probably won't revisit this topic until after the release of book 3 or book 4.
[If you're reading this on LiveJournal, here is a link to my Blogger account, which is where I am holding the poll]
Also, if you have any suggestions for a possible venue for the potential discussion board, please leave a comment.
5 comments:
I would be very interested in this. Sounds like fun!
I have to write my first drafts by hand. Took me awhile to figure this out, but it is the only way to keep my internal editor's mouth shut. I can't keep myself from editing when I type.
I also use an ergonomic pen so I can handle the task.
www.penagain.com
HECK YES for a discussion board! I would suggest proboards, but you have to be careful with that and have good mods because it's a free, public system and attracts spammers like no other.
A Discussion board would be great -many authors get a moderator other than themselves to keep it running and then just stop by when they can. It helps take some of the pressure off you from what I've heard!
First discussion board. Yes I'd be interested!
Second I hand wrote my first draft and figure I can edit as I type my second draft. So you're not crazy unless I am. Yeah... that doesn't sound as reassuring as I meant... ;)
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