Lookee What I Got!

A couple of weeks ago, the lovely Miriam Drori  nominated me for the Leibster Award.

The Liebster Award is an online award presented from one blogger to another. It helps build community, recognition for a blog, and helps readers discover new bloggers and content. And if you’re lucky, you might even gain a few new followers. :-)

Rules of the Liebster Award
• Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog in your post.
• Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”.
• Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
• Provide 11 random facts about yourself.
• Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers.
• Create a new list of questions for the nominees to answer.
• List these rules in your post (copy and paste from here). Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
• Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!).

Questions for me to answer:
1. How old is your blog?
This is my third year for this blog
2. What’s your main reason for blogging?
Because it’s fun and I like to share
3. Does your blog have a theme/themes?
This blog is writing themed, so I won’t be talking about a lot of personal stuff unless it pertains to writing (like how life gets in the way of writing sometimes)
4. Do you have a blogging schedule?
I didn’t start out with one, but now I do my Wordage Report on Sundays, which basically sums up my writing/editing for the week, and Fridays I have Fun With Quotes.
5. Which sort of posts gets the most comments/views?
Ones that I remember to post a link to on Facebook and/or Twitter. LOL
6. Which is your personal favourite of all your blog posts?
I think my post on Working From Home is probably my favourite so far.
7. Do you write many guest posts? Why?
Nope. Never been asked to. :-D
8. Do you host many guests on your blog? Why?
Not so far. The timing just isn’t right yet. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility for the future.
9. Have you/would you post self-made videos on your blog? Why?
Oh hell no! *shudder* That’s just too far out of my comfort zone.
10. What was your greatest blogging failure and what did you learn from that?
I’m not sure if this is a blogging failure or too much of a success, but I had a blog at one time where every Friday I would talk a bit about the books I’d read that week. More my opinion than a review, but the next thing I know I’m getting spammed up the wazoo by people wanting me to review their books. I haven’t posted to that blog in years, but I still get emails.
11. What about your proudest blogging achievement?
Hahaha. Completing the A to Z challenge.

Eleven Facts About Me:
1. I enjoy editing for other people more than for myself.
2. I used to read Tarot cards for friends and have always wanted to design my own deck.
3. One of my favourite memories from my childhood was going fishing with my father. I loved to fish, although I haven’t been in years.
4. I enjoy both knitting and crocheting equally.
5. I found my first grey hair when I was 19. It may, or may not, be just a co-incidence that that was the same year I got married. ;-)
6. I have battled depression my whole life.
7. I do not like sports. Not one little bit. Not even hockey (but please don’t tell anyone, that might be enough to get me thrown out of Canada LOL).
8. I love to cook and bake, but hate to clean up my mess afterwards.
9. I have over 1600 unread books on my Kindle and a bookcase full of unread books in my home office and I still keep buying books!
10. When I was in high school, I wanted to be either an artist or a photographer.
11. My favourite comfort food is creamed tuna on toast.

Questions for Nominated Bloggers:
1. What’s your favourite television show?
2. Do you prefer cats or dogs?
3. What are your hobbies?
4. Who is/are your favourite author(s)?
5. If you could live in another time/place, when/where would it be?
6. What did you want to be when you grew up?
7. If you could bring only three things with you to a deserted island, what would they be?
8. If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where’s the first place you would go?
9. If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you would do?
10. Do you believe in astrology?
11. What’s your favourite kind of music?

For my nominees I chose blogs I found through the A to Z Challenge:
Rosa Temple Writes 
Writing In Wonderland
Kavis Take
Writing Off The Edge
Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time 

There’s no obligation at all, but I hope you give it a try. Who knows, you might make some new friends. And if anyone else wants to join in, please feel free to do so! Just leave me a comment with a link so I can read your answers. :-)

Thank you, Miriam, for including me in this. It was a lot of fun and I hope the people I nominated have fun with this too!

Lesson Learned

I have always prided myself on being a die-hard pantser when it comes to writing. Outlines are for sissies, they stifle the creative flow. However, before anyone gets up in arms over that statement, I may just be willing to admit to being a wee bit mistaken.

Let me explain.

For the last couple of years I’ve been pretty much focused on the two series I have going on - the Ardraci Elementals and the Moonstone Chronicles. Mostly I’ve been editing them, not writing new words. I did make a half-hearted attempt at a new series, but I kept stalling. I finished a couple of stories last year, but they were ones I’d already started and made notes on - so I knew where they were going. This is why I’m kind of wondering what’s going to happen when I reach the end of what I’ve written on Wandering Wizards - will I know what happens next?

Last Friday I got some editing done and then started working on a new sci fi short story. I got the first couple of pages done and then ... I had no clue what happens next. I needed to think about where the story was going and maybe write out a few notes.

Yesterday the same thing happened. I started a new story, although this time I had a vague idea of where this story was going, got a quasi prologue done and then I had the urge to pull out a pad of paper and pen and work out more of the details - character names, settings, time lines ...

I refuse to believe I’ve sunk so far as to want to use an outline, but I fear the day is coming! ;-)

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2,611 words total
Down by about 200 words this week, which surprised me because of the length of my movie review last week. However, when I was adding up the blog post words for last week I did not include the words from my excerpt. I don’t know if I did previously but it kind of feels like cheating to include them because they’re words that were already written.

New Ideas
478 words total
This space is supposed to be for those ideas I need to jot down so they’ll leave me alone. So technically, these words should be added into the New Words total because the idea for these stories came out of one of my ideas files, I didn’t just come up with them off the top of my head, but they’re old enough they could almost be new so here I am.

Editing
45 pages total
I did the second pass on the middle grade adventure/mystery but I have not included the pages here because, well, it was the second pass, which is more just double-checking my work.

The 45 pages were from An Elemental Earth. I’m well over the halfway mark now and my big accomplishment was getting past a stumbling block I encountered. However, this also means I’ll be starting into the section that needs some heavy editing now, so we’ll see how I do this week.

New Words
2,462
And these were all on Wandering Wizards. Okay, I can hear you now. If I wrote so many new words on this, why did my word count go down? Like I said last week, this was a section that had to be totally re-written. So I started by deleting 3,887 words, then I added in 2,462 words - a difference of 1,425 words.

I don’t have enough of either of the new stories that’s coherent enough to use as an excerpt, so again, here’s one from Wandering Wizards:

Unable to face her, he got to his feet and then began pacing as he talked.
“I made myself a promise that I would never lie to you, and it’s put me in somewhat of an ethical dilemma.”
“I think that’s ad--wait. What kind of ethical dilemma?” The smile that had begun blooming on her face died in the making at his serious expression.
“While I have not lied to you, I am guilty of perpetuating a lie of someone else’s making.”
“Stop that and sit down,” she said when he paced close enough for her to reach out and grab his arm. She pulled him down beside her. “That’s better. Now who’s been lying to me?”
“Pretty much everyone,” he said quietly.
“What?”
“I guess it started with Howard.”
“Howard?!”
“To be fair, even he didn’t know what was going on at first, and by the time he did there was no good way to tell you, and then he kept getting himself in deeper and deeper--”
“Holy Saint Christopher!” she exploded. “Will you get to the point?”
“Thackery isn’t just some random wizard, he’s your father. And he and your grandfather are the reason you’re in the world in the first place.”
“Oh.”
Dominic waited for the explosion that never came. “That’s it? Just ‘oh’?”
It was Jessica’s turn to look uncomfortable. “I’ve been meaning to tell you ...”
“Tell me what?” he asked with growing irritation. He’d been agonizing over telling her the truth for days, he just hadn’t been able to find the right words.
“Do you remember when I was lost on the Fae Road?”
“Yes.” He would never forget. He’d almost lost her forever.
“I ended up somewhere called the space between worlds where I met my mother.”
“What?”
“Well, I guess it was more like the spirit of my mother, but she seemed real enough. Anyway, she kind of told me what was going on.”
She slanted a hopeful look in his direction but he could only stare back blankly. All this time and she’d known the truth.
“She’s also the one who gave me the incantation I used on Ewan.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“Things happened so fast, it just never seemed to be the right time to tell you,” she said in a small voice.
Dominic’s anger ran from him like water. He sighed and pulled her back into his arms. “Well, I’m glad you know, and that neither of us need keep any more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” Jessica said, and leaned up for a kiss.
“No more secrets,” he agreed. “I think that’s enough talking for tonight.”

Perfection's Over-rated

So how, exactly does one have fun with quotes?
Glad you asked! If you’re like me, you start by exchanging quotes on a daily basis with your best bud. But not just any quotes, writing quotes, to give each other inspiration. And then you pick the two best quotes of the week to share with the rest of the world - because ... why not? :-D

The quote from Jamie this week is short and sweet:

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.
—Margaret Atwood

Ain’t that the truth? Maybe you’re waiting for the perfect story idea. Or maybe you’re waiting for the perfect circumstances. Or maybe you’re even waiting for the perfect words to flow onto the page. Well cut it out!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my years as a writer, waiting for perfection won’t get your story written. And to be perfectly honest, nobody, and nothing, is perfect. How boring would that be if it were?

That’s not to say you shouldn’t take care with your work and strive to make it as perfect as possible, especially if you self-publish, but leave that for the second draft. Don’t get caught up waiting for the perfect set of circumstances in which to write. What sets writers apart from non-writers is that they write.

My own quote for the week once again goes with Jamie’s:

The worst thing you can do is censor yourself as the pencil hits the paper. You must not edit until you get it all on paper. If you can put everything down, stream-of-consciousness, you'll do yourself a service.
― Stephen Sondheim

Nobody writes a perfect first draft, not Margaret Atwood, not Stephen Sondheim, not J.R.R. Tolkein, not William Shakespeare, not Stephen King, not anybody. So really, what’s the point of constantly backtracking and editing during the creative process? You’re only going to be making changes to the next draft anyway. Why waste the time and energy now? Just get ‘er done.

This is kind of the philosophy behind NaNoWriMo. You apply BIC (butt in chair) and start writing without looking back. Of course with NaNo you’re trying to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, but the method is sound.

When you constantly edit as you write it’s all too easy to turn into the writer zombie that we talked about last week. You spend more time going over and changing what you’ve written instead of moving your story forward.

So that first draft has a few plot holes and flaws. So what? Nobody’s perfect.

Wordage Report

You know, I might have to rethink this whole updating on Sunday thing. It kind of sneaks up on a person, you know what I mean?

Last week I did really well with the editing, not so well on the new words, and held steady on the blog posts. Just when I start to get comfortably settled into a routine, something always comes along to upset the apple cart. In this case it was my daughter going to Vancouver for the week leaving her hubby and I to look after the 15 month old baby. I only had three days of full-time babysitting, but as a lovely parting gift my granddaughter gave me her cold which knocked me right on my butt for a couple of days.

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2807 words total
I was up by 500 words in the blog posts last week. I suppose if I was really anal about such things I could go back and see if it was one post in particular that had the increase or if it was more or less spread evenly across them all. But in the grand scheme of things, I’m sure it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is I got all four posts done and up in time. :-)

New Ideas
I have a story scenario replaying itself in my head (as I usually do) and I keep refining it and trying out different paths for it to go in, but I’m not at the point where I want to commit it to paper (or computer screen) yet.

Editing
82 pages total
There’s something to be said for a three hour nap time (for the baby, not me). I really smoked it on the whole editing thing. Not only did I manage to edit a respectable 23 pages on An Elemental Earth, and I finished the first edit on the adventure/mystery. Go me!

I always do at least two passes when I edit for someone else, so I’ve got one more pass to make before it goes back to its author. I was hoping that I’d be able to get it back to its author by now, but I had some unexpected company drop in for the weekend. But tomorrow’s a holiday here in Canada so we’ll see ...

New Words
@ 1,000
Now, you may have noticed that my word count on the side bar jumped by about 9,000 words. So why am I only crediting myself with 1,000? Because I wrote 50,000 words of Wandering Wizards before I finished Lucky Dog, the book that came before it. And apparently there were things that happened in Lucky Dog that drastically change what I have happening in Wandering Wizards. So at this point I’m more editing/rewriting than actually writing, but these are the only new words I’ve got, so there you go.

I’ve come to a big section that’s included in the word count that has to be totally changed. There’s this big, long-winded explanation of who the heroine’s parents are and what’s really going on, and then the heroine’s reaction to it all. However, someone already let the truth slip out during Lucky Dog so now that whole section has to be rewritten/cut. I’m pretty sure that next week my word count will actually go down once the dust settles.

Once again, here’s an excerpt from Wandering Wizards:

“I guess there’s nothing left but for us to be on our way,” Kaelan said, rising from the table. The others followed suit and then trailed after Aracelia as she led the way to the courtyard where their mounts were waiting, grabbing their personal gear on the way by.

“Holy ---” Howard stopped in his tracks.

“What?” Ellen asked, almost running into him. She peered around him. “Wow, now that’s what I call a horse!”

“Those aren’t just horses,” Sebastian said, a note of wonder in his voice. “Those are elven-steeds!”

Ellen was not one of those girly-girls who had a thing for horses, but even she had to admit the animals were magnificent. They were taller than draft horses, but not as heavily set. They had long, thick manes and tails and there was an unexpected intelligence in their eyes.

“They look like Friesians, only . . . bigger,” Howard said. There were two dappled grey and two black. He went up to one of the greys and stroked its nose. “Hello beautiful.”

Ellen looked at him with a mixture of amusement and surprise. “I never knew you were into horses,” she said.

“I took riding lessons as a child - my mother thought it would make me more manly - and ever since I’ve always wanted a horse of my own,” Howard replied, still stroking the velvety nose.

Ellen eyed them as well, although not quite as appreciatively. “So, do these things come with a step ladder?”

Don’t forget to come back Friday for Fun With Quotes!

Fun With Quotes

So how, exactly does one have fun with quotes?

Glad you asked! If you’re like me, and you enjoy both quotes and research, you start by exchanging quotes on a daily basis with your best bud. But not just any quotes, writing quotes, to give each other inspiration. And you also like researching stuff. So you pick the two best quotes of the week, research a little about the person being quoted, and then share them with the rest of the world. At least you do if you’re me. :-D

My best bud Jamie sent me a good crop of quotes this week and it was hard to choose a favourite. But I finally settled on this one because I could relate so well:

Most writer zombies don't realize they are the undead, because they do just enough to convince themselves (and others) that they are actual writers. They talk a lot about writing -- boy, are writer zombies great talkers -- going on for hours about the screenplay or pilot they're supposedly writing or will write once they have the time. They also read writing books and blogs and take seminars because that makes them feel like they are in the game. And they take classes, especially those that impose short-term deadlines, because that gets them writing, which makes them feel alive. But once the class is over, they almost always go back to their zombie ways.
~ Corey Mandell

I have to make a confession. Like a lot of people, I started out as a writer zombie. I didn’t talk so much about writing but I spent a lot of money on writing books, took a couple of night school classes, and I took three different correspondence courses. I’d start a story and my interest would wane or the plot would peter out and I’d move on to something else. Finally, one day I realized I was spending all my time rewriting - and by rewriting I mean copying them over and over while changing very little - the first six chapters of a book I'd done incredibly detailed character sketches and maps for instead of actually moving forward with the story.

I guess I had a bit of an epiphany at that point. It was shortly after that when I finished my first story. It was a heady feeling. I may have even sent it out to a few likely places. Then I finished another one. Then I attempted my first NaNoWriMo, losing the challenge by about 10,000 words, but still ending up with a finished novel. I was no longer a writer zombie, I was a writer.

I also have to admit I’d never heard of Corey Mandell before, but I’m sure I’ve probably watched many of his movies. He’s a playwright and screenwriter who also offers professional screenwriting and television writing workshops. No wonder his quote was so intriguing. You can learn more about Corey HERE.

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My own quote of the week sort of dovetails with Jamie’s:

Ideas come at any moment -- except when you demand them. Most ideas come while I'm physically active, at the gym, with friends, gardening, so I always carry pen and paper. My first draft is always written in longhand. But once the first dozen chapters, more like short stories, are written, then momentum builds until I can't leave the project until it's done.
~ Chuck Palahniuk

Ideas can be tricky little things, always popping up when you least expect them. I have not joined the electronic age - I don’t have a cell phone to text myself ideas, or carry a tablet with me. Like Chuck, I carry a notebook and pen.

And when I first started writing I also wrote in long hand. So yes, those six chapters I kept re-writing I was being literal. I was re-writing them long hand.

I would like add the suggestion that you save all these ideas you write down, even the bad ones. You never know when you might see one in a different light. Those six chapters I kept re-writing? They became the basis for my swashbuckling fantasy, Magical Misfire.

Wordage Report

Whose idea was it to make my wordage report on Sunday?? Oh, yeah. That would be me. :-D

The spirit was willing, even eager, this week, but the writing time was a little hard to come by. Part of this was the 3500 word letter I wrote to my sister and a couple of insanely long emails. These words are not included in my report because they’re private words, not public ones. Nor did I include my journal entries for the same reason, and I had a couple of long ones there, too. But I’m not displeased with last week’s word count by any means.

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2,309 words total
I debated about included blog posts in my word count, but despite the fact they’re non-fiction, they are new words and they’re shared with the public so I think they should count. I think what impressed me most about my blog words this week is that I got them done. Both of my new features were a tad more time-consuming than I’d counted on, so it led to a couple of late nights. But I got the posts up and on time, so that’s the main thing.

New Ideas
I’m including this as a category because if I take the time to write down new ideas so I can get them out of my head, they’re new words. I always have ideas running amok through my brain. Usually I go over and over (and over) them in my mind, refining them before I’m ready to commit them to paper. I did get a rather good idea last week, but I didn’t get it down on paper and now it’s gone. Poof! I don’t really need another idea for my files, so I'm not real worried about it, but I’ll be sure to write it down if it does return.

Editing
27 pages
While editing isn’t always a lot of new words, it is work and thus should be included in my creative endeavours. Currently I’m editing the fourth book in my elemental series, An Elemental Earth. I’ve been hanging onto this book for far too long. It needed to be done like yesterday, so I’m pleased to have found the time to get 20 pages done.

Like it says in my “about me,” I also edit for other authors and I managed 7 pages on a really great adventure/mystery targeted towards a younger audience. It would have been more if it hadn’t been poor planning on my part. Actually, the planning was pretty good, it’s just every time I try to plan for things, life starts tossing monkey wrenches my way. I get a fair amount of editing done after my granddaughter goes down for her nap (I babysit for a few hours every day) so this week should be a good one in that department because I have three days of extended nap time.

New Words
@ 3,000
Okay, here’s the thing. I’ve got two WIPs on the go: Wandering Wizards (book 3 of the Moonstone Chronicles) and An Elemental Spirit (book 5 of the Ardraci Elementals), but unless I’m struck by a sudden inspiration, I’ll be focusing most of my attention on Wandering Wizards.

I have learned the hard way that it’s never a good idea to try writing the next book in a series before the previous one is finished. Book 2 of the Moonstone Chronicles was a NaNo Novel. At least the first 50K words were. Then I kind of set it aside for a while and before I knew it, it was NaNo time again. So I wrote the first 50K words on the next book of the series and now I’m paying the price. Until I reach that 50K mark, what I’m doing isn’t so much writing as re-writing. Things happened in the latter half of Lucky Dog that changes what I had going on in Wandering Wizards drastically. So, while I added 7,284 words, only about 2 or 3,000 were actually new.

Here’s an excerpt from this week's words:

Ellen could feel the sun’s warmth beating down on her, which was very strange because she couldn’t remember going outside. But she must have at some point, she could hear birds chirping and the rustling of leaves somewhere above her. She really needed to open her eyes to check things out, but there was a big part of her that was afraid she knew what had happened and she didn’t want confirmation.

“Please let Howard have blown the roof off of the house,” she prayed. Opening her eyes she sat up. “Holy freaking crap!”

She appeared to be in a small glade surrounded by tall, leafy trees. The scent of flowers wafted up to her and she realized the glade was carpeted in an abundance of wildflowers, none of which were familiar to her. Climbing to her feet she turned in a circle but all there was to see were trees, the flowers, and a few bushes. There was no road, no path, no indication of civilization.

“I don’t freaking believe this!”

Don’t forget to come back Friday for Fun With Quotes!

Fun With Quotes

So how, exactly does one have fun with quotes?

Glad you asked! If you’re like me, and you enjoy both quotes and research, you start by exchanging quotes on a daily basis with your best bud. But not just any quotes, writing quotes, to give each other inspiration. And you also like researching stuff. So you pick the two best quotes of the week, research a little about the person being quoted, and then share them with the rest of the world. At least you do if you’re me. :-D

I don’t know about my friend Jamie, but I have two document files for quotes. One is marked To Be Used, and the other is marked Used. So to pick my top quote for the week I just have to go to the Used file. I forgot I was doing this and haven’t been saving the quotes that Jamie sent me this week, but I do have one of my favourites from her written down, so that’s the one I’m going with this week. But first, my quote:

When you're socially awkward, you're isolated more than usual, and when you're isolated more than usual, your creativity is less compromised by what has already been said and done. All your hope in life starts to depend on your craft, so you try to perfect it. One reason I stay isolated more than the average person is to keep my creativity as fierce as possible. Being the odd one out may have its temporary disadvantages, but more importantly, it has its permanent advantages.
~ Criss Jami

I think every writer can relate to this quote. We do tend to isolate ourselves and for the most part we are a socially awkward bunch. I’m not sure if we need to do this for our creativity to remain fierce, but I know for myself when I’m struggling it helps to avoid outside stimuli.

Like most of the author quotes we’ve been using, I have to admit that I’ve never heard of Criss Jami before this. But after doing some research on him, I have to admit I’m intrigued. For someone so young (born in 1987) he’s very widely quoted. He’s the author of several books, Healology, Killosophy, Venus in Arms, and Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile, to name a few. He’s a poet, essayist, and philosopher, renowned for his unusual writing style and perception. Of himself he says: I am a dedicated songwriter, poet, essayist, existentialist philosopher, and designer. I studied philosophy at George Mason University.

If you’d like to learn more about Criss Jami, you can visit his BLOG

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The quote from Jamie I have tacked to my cork board is:
I want to be the apostle of self destruction. I want my book to affect man's reason, his emotions, his nerves, his whole animal nature. I should like my book to make people turn pale with horror as they read it, to affect them like a drug, like a terrifying dream, to drive them mad, to make them curse and hate me but still to read me.
~ Leonid Andreyev, diary, August 1, 1891

I’m not sure what it is about this quote, but it speaks to me. Perhaps I don’t want people to “turn pale with horror” when they read my books, but I think every author would like their work to touch their readers in some way.

Leonid Andreyev was born in 1871 in Russia, a depressing era in its history so it’s no great surprise that his work was somewhat depressing and pessimistic. Well educated, he was a man of great intellect. He actually started out studying to be a lawyer and while pursuing this tried his hand as a police court reporter and found that more to his liking.

His first story was written in 1898; he achieved fame with his stories early on, perhaps because his works were often compared to Tolstoy. During his career he produced two novels, five novellas, and a number of short stories and plays. Project Gutenberg has his work available on-line for free, stories such as, Anathema: A Tragedy in Seven Scenes, The Crushed Flower and Other Stories, and The Seven Who Were Hanged. You should really check it out. I know I will be.

Cha-cha-cha-changes ...

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--"
~Lewis Carroll

Time to fish or cut bait. Pee or get off the pot. Put up or shut up. In other words, I’ve rested on my laurels long enough. Time to get busy and make good on some of those promises I made last week about blogging more often. If I wait much longer I can see myself sliding right back into my old bad habits of ... not posting.

First up, you’ll notice some cosmetic changes. I’ve taken down the A to Z Challenge banner along the top, and although I’ve changed the badge on the right to the survivor one I’ve kept a link to the linky list in case anyone still want to check out the other blogs.

After much consideration, I’ve left my manifesto, although I’ve modified it slightly. Whereas before I stated I wouldn’t be sticking to a schedule, now I find I’m more productive with goals and schedules. Go figure. So the goal here is to post a minimum of twice a week. Once on Sundays, which will be a general update of my writing/editing progress, and again on Fridays where I’ll be having a bit of fun with quotes. No, I’m not going to explain any further than that about it. You’ll just have to come back on Friday to see what I’m talking about yourself. :-)

My Sunday update will have a wordage report broken down into blog posts, new ideas (if any), and new words on my WIPs. I’m also an editor so I’ll be including an editing report. One of the hardest things about this will be getting into the habit of keeping track of my words. I did this, many years ago, and I even remember (vaguely) doing a nice little report on a different blog. But it’s been so long ago I’ve gotten out of the habit.

I had developed some really good habits - diet and exercise, writing every day ... But then last year life suddenly got complicated. I started falling so far behind in everything that eventually I just gave up. My focus this year has been getting back on track and it’s been a lot harder than I expected. But I’m getting there. One of these days I may even know what I’m doing. ;-)

Time For A Breather

You know, I meant to write this post for Sunday, honest I did. I was going to congratulate everyone who completed the A to Z Challenge with me and thank everyone who found their way to my blog and left comments. And then I was going to come up with something intelligent and witty to talk about ...

But I was tired, and it was a busy weekend. Although I do have plans to be more active on this blog, I’m taking a break this week. I did finish going through the blog list, and the faster I went the fewer comments I left, which was kind of ridiculous because unless you leave a comment the only person who knows you’ve been to a blog is yourself.

And I have a bunch of blogs I’ve book marked and I’d like to visit back to them over the week. If I’d been thinking at the time, I should have just signed up for the posts to be sent to me via email, if the option was available. Never fear, I’ll be doing that on the re-visits.

IF I do this next year (oh, who am I kidding, this was too much fun not to), I’m going to keep track of some of my stats. Things like how many blogs visited, how many I commented on, the kinds of blogs participating ... For the most part there was a nice variety, but around the 1000 mark there was a whole slue of cooking blogs. And there were also a handful of blogs where it appeared that the person signed up early in the year, forgot they had, and signed up again closer to the actual start of the challenge.

As I stated in the beginning, one of the reasons I did this was to give my writing a boost or a kick in the pants or whatever, and in that I succeeded. I’m slowly getting back into my writing/editing. And I’ve got plans in the works for posting more often to both my blogs. Two posts a week to each blog. I just have to work it into my routine, which I’ve been struggling with a lot lately.

One of the things I’m going to start doing is a weekly progress report. I did one for a while on a different blog and it encouraged me to make more of an effort with my writing. Let’s face it, you don’t want to have to report zeros each week, right? I haven’t quite decided whether these updates are going to take place on Sundays or Mondays yet, I’m leaning towards Sunday because I already do a Monday post on my other blog.

I’m also going to pick a day to do something fun, but I haven’t decided what or when yet. Guess you’ll just have to come back to find out. ;-)