Stephanie Scott

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with our blog friends and let them know what’s up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of Jaime or Erin’s blog.

What I’m Reading

I’m still not through with ORIGIN. It’s fallen by the wayside in favor of beta reading a fabulous manuscript by my friend Tori. I love her story. Her characters, the world, the journey – all of it is so rich and vivid. There are big things in store for her. I can tell.

What I’m Writing

To be honest, I haven’t done much on the writing front (unless you count rewriting my resume). I’m making a feeble attempt at a query letter, but even that is falling short for me. I’m not sure if I need a recharge or what, but it’s frustrating. I hate having this feeling about writing. I know we all have our peaks and valleys, and now I must travel through the valley and climb to the peak once again.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Right now, the warmer weather is really refreshing. I wish I had my patio table done so I could sit outside and write. I love the warmth, the fresh breeze, and the springtime temps we’ve had. I know summer is pretty unrelenting here in Texas, so I plan to enjoy spring as much as I can.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I haven’t been up to much else lately. Soccer season is drawing to a close, and I’m thankful for that. Our roof is being replaced tomorrow. Kiddo also has a field trip tomorrow and I have the honor of being one of the chaperones. It should be a fun time.

Thanks for stopping by! I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to. 🙂

Ciao kittens!

The Writing Blues

Posted on April 14, 2014 by stephswrites

I’ve reached a hiccup in my writing journey. A bump in the road that has me in a bit of a funk. I have “writing blues.” I’m not sure if that’s actual terminology, but for me that’s the best way to describe how I’m feeling.

When I began writing my current manuscript, I was full of passion and ideas. A flame burned bright within me for this story. I loved the characters, the villains, the world, the story. Everything spoke to me. I had trouble sleeping because characters wanted to chat endlessly. I wrote when I could, which was never often enough. It took me almost 1.5 years to finish the first draft of my novel. When I typed “the end,” I nearly cried. While I was thrilled I had finished my novel, the happiness was shadowed by some gloomy thoughts.

“Why did it take me so long?”

“This is a complete pile of crap, but it’s MY pile of crap.”

“This isn’t good enough for any agent to love.”

“This is probably the manuscript that will get rejected over and over. No matter how much I love this story, it will probably NEVER see the light of day.”

Still, I was so excited, I pushed the gloominess away in favor of thinking positively. I’d done something I could be proud of. I finished a book.

Then came the next part — letting other people read it.

I’m fortunate to be a part of a fabulous writing group. The ladies I write with are unbelievably talented. They are all at different stages of the publishing process and bring fresh perspective to the table. I’m in awe of them. We traded manuscripts.

I waited, choking on my own nerves.

I started reading what they sent to me. And I wanted to cry…again. Not because I begrudge them their amazing talent. I can promise you are going to see some incredible stories come from this group. They are SO good.

For me though, the doubt crept in again. “Will I ever be this good?”

Surprisingly, I received some pretty favorable feedback to my MS. Renewed in my love for my story, I attempted to tackle editing with gusto. It was a failed attempt.

Fear led to uncertainty. I’m stuck in that “everything I write is awful” rut. I feel as if my words don’t translate well to the page. My characters don’t speak to me. The world, once so vivid, is hidden behind a veil. The flame that burned so brightly sputters and flickers in the whirlwind of doubt.

It’s hard.

I heard a song recently. It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with what I have going on, but there was one lyric that stood out to me.

“Don’t be so scared of the things you love.”*

I love this story. I will stoke that flame until it burns brightly again, and it will be beautiful.

*From Waves That Rolled You Under by Young Summer

Fun Fact Friday (#1)

Posted on April 11, 2014April 28, 2014 by stephswrites

Hello and welcome to the first edition of “Fun* Fact Friday!” I want to give visitors to my blog a chance to get to know me outside of the “writing” me. So each Friday, I will share a snippet about myself.

*NOTE: The author makes no guarantee that all facts will be “fun.” She thought the title rolled off the tongue and decided to go with it.

And now I bring you today’s fact:

An incident occurred when I was little that prompted my dad to tell me I was book smart but had no common sense.

Okay, before we start with all the shock and gasps at my dad (how could he say that?!), let me share the incident.

When I was roughly the age in the picture, maybe a year younger, my dad watched my closely as I flipped the front cover of a rather hefty, hard cover book (maybe a dictionary or something like that), back and forth. I can’t say why I was amused by this action, but there I was, flipping back and forth completely entranced. I’m not sure how brilliant the next move was, but I placed my hand in the book and shut the front cover on my hand. That, in itself, was not painful. In a genius follow up move, I placed my free hand on top of the cover and proceeded to press down with the tiny amount of body weight I had. It was over then.

I screamed and panicked, trying to pull my hand from the book while simultaneously pushing down and trapping my hand. I struggled frantically while my dad laughed, of course (parental right and all). If only I had realized that I had to stop pushing on the book. *le sigh*

So that’s today’s (embarrassing) edition of Fun Fact Friday. Tune in next week for another fun fact!

Ciao kittens!

How Writing Saved My Life

Posted on April 11, 2014 by stephswrites

I have beautiful, wonderful, amazing friends who enrich my life in so many ways. I love these people for different reasons, each reason as unique as the person themselves. I feel so blessed to have met Tori. Check out her post and give her a shout out!

Coffee. Write. Repeat.

I have debated whether or not to write a post on this for some time, but am finally relenting. When I decided to start this blog, I knew I didn’t just want it to be a fluffy, happy, light blog about writing and trying to become an author. I wanted to be honest, and not just write about the happy, pretty things. I wanted to use this as a platform to talk about the difficult things too, the things people don’t always like to talk about. It may be early on to dive into it this heavy, but regardless, here it is.

More or less this has been the most difficult week of my life. Not only did another episode of illness knock me out for a week, but as I was starting to feel better I lost someone close to me, in a completely unexpected tragedy. Now I am not telling…

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What’s Up Wednesday (#2)

Posted on April 9, 2014April 28, 2014 by stephswrites

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what’s up. Should you wish to join us, you will find the link widget at the bottom of Jaime or Erin’s blog.

What I’m Reading

Still working on Origin. I had to take a break from it to read The King by J.R. Ward.

*sighs and swoons*

It’s been a while since I’ve visited the world of the BDB, and The King did not disappoint. Confession: I skipped Tohr/Autumn and Blay/Quinn books but I couldn’t resist returning to Wrath and Beth. Love them.

What I’m Writing

I’m still editing HACKED. So here’s a giggle for you…

I thought I would love editing. Here was my opportunity to clean things up and make everything pretty. I could add the details and the nuances. It was going to be AH-MAY-ZING!

Yeah…not so much.

This is me.

And this.

Okay, maybe not so much with the blood and flying eyeballs, but you get the point.

Still, we must soldier on.

What Inspires Me Right Now

I’m not sure if it’s inspiration or motivation, but I’m attending DFWCon in 25 days. I’m pitching my novel to an agent. I need to get it into some semblance of “ready.”

I’ve also been really inspired by the music of this great new band I found, of Verona. I’m absolutely in LURVE with this artist. Their music has a haunting quality that sticks with you.

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I’ve been up to a LOT in the past week! Friday brought a much needed gathering with wonderful friends. I’m truly blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

Backing up a bit, Thursday brought Spring: Texas Style. We had one heck of a storm, complete with tornado warnings. While the tornado decided to stay north of us, we did get a hail storm. Yay, spring!

Here’s some pics of the final product. Go Mother Nature! (<— more sarcasm)

So what are you up to? Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Ciao kittens!