Sarah J. Carlson

Contemporary Young Adult Author

Category Archives: Writing

Two months, five countries, four islands…. Now back to writing your perpetually-nearly-finished novel and building your social media empire, Sarah J. Carlson!!!

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Yeah, so this is me right now.

Daily-Life-GIFs-13-Exhausted-Guy-CollapsesAs I said in my ridiculously long, hopefully attention-grabbing title, I’ve been doing a little bit of traveling. Not only have I been traveling, as the official resident of Southeast Asia, that has made me a tour guide of sorts for the four fabulous, wonderful, amazing people who spent thousands of dollars to come over to Singapore et al to spend time with me. So…Singapore, Ho Chi Mihn City (Viet Nam), Koh Lanta Island and Chiang Mai (Thailand), Siem Reap/Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Bintan Island and Bali (Indonesia). Also one minor motorbike accident and an ambulance ride to the Cambodian hospital (um… interesting, though I don’t remember most of it because I had a concussion). Let’s just say, this white girl ended up in a private room that housed other medical supplies while the waiting room was filled with locals on cots. So sad :,(  Cheap ambulance ride… 30 USD. Annnnnyway, I think that’s all the places I’ve been with my friends and family. Yeah, I’ve covered Indochina pretty well now, though there still is Laos and Myanmar….

It has been an exciting, expensive, and EXHAUSTING life that I’ve been blessed to live for the past two months. I can do without budget airlines for awhile. Air Asia, you kind of suck. Now it’s all coming to an end and it’s back to what I call homeostasis for one Sarah J.C. Singapore normal, if you will. Also that means I will get back to working on my novels, which is pretty exciting–particularly since I made a shocking discovery the week before my Southeast Asian Travel Extravaganza while doing what I really THOUGHT was a final revision. That realization…the reason why I didn’t particularly care for one of my characters. This launched a pretty major re-write that got interrupted by all that pesky travel 😛

panicSo anyway, now it’s back to it…. Finishing up that major re-haul of my novel and re-starting the whole blogging thing. Like for real, I mean. I have been lazily posting pictures so I can get a gold star or whatever and say I’m still blogging, but I mean to get back to the whole non-writers don’t understand/promoting my work/writing in general/on being the token Yank kind of thing. Oh and posting proper pictures from my real camera (not just uploading from my iPhone cuz it’s easy) with details on my travel-ventures. Oh, the motorbike accident was just a teaser! There were very dodgy ferry rides, near ship wreck on a longtail boat, elephants, lady boys, many temples, jungle exploration complete with leeches, cat poop coffee, stegosaurus carvings in the Tomb Raider temple, extremely depressing poverty, massive monitor lizards, very annoying tourists (NOT American!), shooting guns with the Vietnamese army, durian and so, so, so much more. Plenty of fresh creative fuel for writing. Not gonna lie, I seriously contemplated taking pictures of my bruised up face daily to document the healing process in order to describe it in my novel.

But really, here’s how I feel about the return to homeostasis and finally, FINALLY getting back to writing…

funny-gifs-i-get-excited-about-insurance-tooAnyway…how do you get restarted after a writing/blogging/life hiatus?

Side note: To see my iPhone adventure pics, click on my Photography category, or Samples of Southeast Asia

Hey writer friends, anyone need inspiration for writing a horror novel? Check out my pics from the Ten Courts of Hell, Haw Par Villa, Singapore (warning…these plastic figures actually look pretty gross)

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P1160229 P1160233 P1160234 P1160235 P1160237 P1160240 P1160241 P1160252 P1160255 P1160258 P1160265 P1160266 P1160271 P1160272 P1160273 P1160276 P1160282

Haw Par Villa was constructed by the inventors of Tiger Balm as a place to teach traditional Chinese values. By the way, punishment for disobeying your elders in Yama, the third court of hell, lorded over by King Songdi? Heart cut out.

Also, there was this….

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Non-writers just don’t understand…. Wait, how many versions have you written?

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how many

So if my non-writer friends often struggle to comprehend how much work it takes to actually write a novel. It’s not just about getting it out of your head. Then you have to sculpt and perfect. The more you work at it, the more you see you can do to make it even better, until you reach the tipping point and you just have to stamp it done.

I THOUGHT I was close to stamping one of my novels done…. Until, during a re-write of the first chapter, I realized why I didn’t particularly care for one of the two POV characters. She didn’t have enough agency. Or spunk. All the sudden she went and completely evolved into a new, spunkier, more exciting character in my head. And now I have to pretty much re-write my entire perpetually-nearly-finished novel. Again. Draft 17 now.

Typewriter-throwing

Just kidding, I didn’t really do that, even though that’s kind of what I feel like doing.

It needs to happen, without a doubt. It’s absolutely why my readers were more drawn to the other POV character and why I didn’t even particularly care for her. Still it can be frustrating to be so close to “done” only to discover, crap, I’ve got much more work to do. Anyway, even though I’m feeling a bit lost as I work through it all, I know she will be much more compelling and my novel will be even better. I just have to take it slow and have patience with the character, myself, and the writing process as I work through it all.

Anyone share my pain? Have you ever had battles with your characters as they unfold in ways you don’t expect? What do you tell your non-writer friends?

 

Writer friends, are you addicted to writing? I think I have a problem….

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bruce-almighty-typing-animated1So here I am on an amazing Thailand and Cambodia with two of my best friends, soon to be joined by my brother and what am I doing? Waking up at like five a.m. to write lol. Writing on the plane. Thinking about my novel on bus rides.

Now give me a break, I did have kind of a major plotting/characterization breakthrough the week before we left and it’s just really bothering me not to be able to work on it. I’m having a fabulous adventure to be sure. Making the most of my Southeast Asia adventures…hanging out on beaches, playing with elephants, attending ladyboy shows, eating lots of amazing food, seeing things like this….

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But my novel’s still working through my brain. And then I see things like this in Chiang Mai…. Not going to lie, I wanted to go here…

P1140196The first step is to admit you have a problem, right?

Are you addicted to writing? Do we need to start Writer’s Anonymous?

I’m going on an adventure!!! And hoping to refill my creativity well….

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going-on-adventure

I’m off to Krabi and Chiang Mai, Thailand with two of my best friends. We don’t care about no military coup! Then we’re off to Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Beaches, elephants, and temples! I’ll try to keep regularly posting and I’m hoping to squeeze in a little bit of writing time, but we’ll see. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to returning to Singapore re-charged and ready to put the finishing touches on my novel, Hooligans in Shining Armour.

I’ve found that I have a finite source of creativity and I am currently tapped dry. Drained. I think this break from writing will do me good.

Have you ever drained your creativity well? What do you do to refill?