The Word and the Line

Poetry empowers the simplest of lives to confront the most extreme sorrows with courage, and motivates the mightiest of offices to humbly heed lessons in compassion.
― Aberjhani

I’m a great believer in poetry out of the classroom, in public places, on subways, trains, on cocktail napkins. I’d rather have my poems on the subway than around the seminar table at an MFA program.
— Billy Collins

The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness.
— James Gates Percival

As you might have guessed from the above quotes, workshop number six, run by Paul Vermeersch, was one of the two workshops that dealt with poetry. He began by talking about words themselves.

Words matter, ideas don’t. It’s the execution of the idea that makes a word good or bad. Words don’t just say things, they do things. Choosing the right word matters. When words are doing something different than what they’re supposed to, that’s ironic.

The right word can create tone or mood, give connotation or texture to your work, and rhythm and speed to your poem. Polysemy is a word or phrase chosen to mean many things.

He then went on to cite Canadian poet Dennis Lee, whose careful choice of words is apparent in his work. He’s not trying to say something, he’s trying to do something. He often starts with a sound and there’s a strong rhyme and rhythm to his poetry that continues its musical quality.

It’s really a matter of following, not my nose, but my ear, hearing what the poem wants to be. I may be as surprised by the end of it as the reader is.
— Dennis Lee

Then we were asked, what is the poetic line?

The line is the basic building block of making a poem. It’ consists of all the words that occupy the same horizonal space. Lines of poetry exist because of the way we read. Meaning does not create a line, but a line can create meaning.

A caesura is a break within a line. Initial caesura is found near the beginning; medial is found near the middle; terminal caesura is found near, but not at, the end of the line.

End stop lines with punctuation or a natural conclusion.

Self-enclosed lines follow proper grammar.

Enjambment – sense and syntax of line continues beyond the line.

Line breaks prevent you from reading the way you would prose.
They
Slow
Things
Down

Line breaks can sew confusion or provide clarity:

The old man the boat

The old man
the boat

The old
man the boat

Ask yourself:
What do I want the poem to say?
What do I want the poem to do?
How do I want the poem to sound?
Can I place the line breaks so the poem accomplishes all of these aims?

While this workshop started out strong, for me it kind of fell apart after this. One of the participants claimed to write exclusively sonnets, but he often used hyphens at the end of the line. He couldn’t understand why people didn’t like this and wondered if he should be doing it that way. The instructor’s response was: “You’re the boss of the poem, the poem’s not the boss of you. Do what you want.”

Sorry, but to my mind, if you’re going to write a sonnet, you need to follow the rules, otherwise you’re writing a sonnet-like poem.

We talked a bit about the Glosa , Erasure poems (also known as Blackout Poetry) and the Cento verse form.

For the remainder of the workshop, the instructor referred to a 20-page hand out that he’d emailed to us the day before. I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t think to bring a printer with me to the retreat, so I was kind of lost. And seeing as we were encouraged to use a notebook and pen in the workshops, few of us had a tablet or laptop to consult.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Despite the weather being absolutely beautiful, I did manage to spend some time in my office last week. Not too much though, because even with the window open it got kind of warm in there. Yesterday there was a warm breeze coming in the window. This is only April, I’m a little worried about what the summer is going to be like this year.

I’m still finding it hard to focus, so not much extra in the writing department. I did not do a master list, but I did do a daily to-do list – once.

The words are there, they’re just all jumbled up in my head and I still have to work to straighten them out. Now one of my problems is, what do I want to work on? It’s like when I would go to the video store to rent a movie – there was too much selection and I could never make up my mind which movie to pick.

NEW WORDS:
1847+0+460+808=3,115
DOWN 372 – words from last week

Well, that’s not surprising, considering I missed Monday’s post completely. I just didn’t have anything to write about. My other posts were longer, but not long enough to make up for Monday.

I did a fair amount of hand writing, but that doesn’t really count in my wordage totals. I guess playing word games doesn’t really count either, does it?

But to show my pure intentions, I did go into my office one day, intending to work, and . . . the power went out. And yes, I know the laptops both have batteries, but there still wasn’t any internet connection to do research.

Goals For Next Week:
Get all my blog posts done and maybe a few extra words besides.

EDITING:
2 hours
Which is better than nothing, I suppose. But it wasn’t on Elemental Spirit, I was playing around with some super short fiction – just changing a word here, a comma there.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep working on An Elemental Spirit.

TECH & TRAINING:
Ummm, no. I got nothing here.

Goal For Next Week:
Learn something new. Figure out Dropbox.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I have a folder of poetry forms on my desktop and when I went through it I couldn’t find one I liked enough to attempt, so I researched a bunch more forms and last week’s poem was one of them. Even though it was another weird one, I liked it better than the one from the week before.

Several years ago, someone on a poetry forum I was on asked for submission of poems to a specialized anthology. There was a central theme, and our poems were supposed to help tell the story. I thought it was kind of cool, so I submitted a poem and to my surprise it was accepted. And further more, I was going to get paid for it. I think a whole $5.00. LOL

Anyway, for a couple of years, nothing happened, then I got an email from the organizer who said the book was still a go. Then nothing again for another few years until last week, when I got an email explaining that the original publisher had backed out and he was working for someone else now, but even though he’d lost touch with a few of the poets involved so he couldn’t use their poems, the anthology was still a go, he’d just work around the missing poems. Cool, eh?

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share.

CRAFTING:
We had a couple of guest speakers at our regular stitchery guild meeting, and seeing as it’s not considered rude to be working on something while someone’s talking, I worked on my embroidered pillow case and managed to finish it. One down, one to go.

And wouldn’t you know. One of the ladies was down-sizing their stitchery stash and I ended up bringing home a couple of crewel kits. There’s a small one with hummingbirds so I can re-learn how to do crewel work, and a bigger one with a mother and baby tiger laying on the grass. Like I didn’t already have enough projects.

I’m putting off the jewelry I was going to make until I’m able to take possession of the baker’s rack, so . . . not any time soon. *sigh*

Goal For Next Week:
Better organize my sewing bag, either start the second pillow case or find something new to work on.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished The Knockoff Eclipse by Melissa Bull, and The Writing Retreat, by Julia Bartz. And Goodreads sent me a friends update, letting me know that the daughter marked Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson as one she’d like to read, so I texted her so she didn’t buy a copy – I had one. So I ended up reading it, too, so I could pass it along. Now I’m reading The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep reading.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Still kind of disappointed in myself over the lack of writing, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it because that would just lead to a downward spiral. Yes, my recliner is more comfy than my office chair, but I need to get over it. When I’m in my office I do well, it’s just getting there that’s the problem.

I really need to get back to list making, if for no other reason than to make me feel like I’m accomplishing something during the week.

I’m keeping my goal of editing for an hour a day. If I put Elemental Spirit onto a USB stick, I can edit it on my other lap top, the one that has TraxTime on it so I can keep track of how long I’m working.

I’m also going to keep the goal of making a master list on Sunday night, starting tonight, and then divvying the tasks up through the week. Time well spent, methinks.

I’ve got a bit more on my plate this week. I have a stitch-in at the library on Tuesday, I have a blood test on Wednesday, and a poetry seminar on Thursday afternoon. Then Thursday evening I have a conflict of interest. There's a poetry reading I'd like to go to, but it's also the series finale of Star Trek Picard. While I'd really like to go to the reading, is it worth missing Picard for?

Yes, I know I could have my TiVo record it, or even watch it on On Demand at a later date, but any Trekkie will tell you it's not the same.

But, there’s still little excuse not to spend some more time in my office. I was in there all afternoon yesterday, and only went back to the living room when the battery died on my laptop. Yes, I know I could have just brought the cord in there, but I promised myself I’d work until the battery died. So there. LOL And actually, another advantage of working in my office is that when I’m running on battery I tend to stay off the internet unless it’s important, so no gaming. It really sucks up the battery juice.

Let’s hope I can get my head out of my butt this week and actually get some work done for a change.

Wish me luck.

Shake It Up Baby!

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.
— Anne Frank

'Shake It Up' definitely teaches kids about the importance of reaching for your dreams and setting high goals. It also teaches great lessons about friendship and family.
— Zendaya

I think that if you shake the tree, you ought to be around when the fruit falls to pick it up.
— Mary Cassatt

Well, here I am again, at a writer’s retreat in Kingston. I’m hoping this will be what I need to shake things up a bit and jump start my writing mojo. I think it might be working because as much as I like being here, I’m kind of looking forward to going home and working in my newly re-arranged office.

I have to say, the retreat did not get off to a great start. I thought I left in plenty of time on Thursday, but I hadn’t counted on some unnaturally heavy traffic. So . . . I was already running behind by the time I got to Kingston, and then my infallible sense of direction failed me when I turned right when I should have turned left. By the time I reached the hotel, it was already more than 30 minutes into the first workshop. So I parked the car at the hotel, and went wandering until the second workshop.

I’ll be discussing some of what I’ve learned in future posts, so for now I’m just going to share my first impressions. Of the nine workshops that have been held so far (I’m writing this on Saturday evening) I have missed two – one accidentally and one on purpose – I really enjoyed two, I’ve been disappointed in two, and today’s were great, so-so, and okay.

There’s not as much actual writing as I expected, and these people talk way too fast for effective note taking. So really, I’m not sure how my future blog posts are going to turn out. I did write a rather humorous story about a talking hand though.

There are about half a dozen of us who paid for the four-day pass, so I see them at most of the workshops. Then there are a few who are local and were able to just pick and choose what they wanted participate in. I think the most surprising group was the workshop for writing Rom Coms, which included several men.

And I don’t know if it’s stress, poor eating, or what, but I’ve been feeling pretty crappy since I’ve arrived. Coffee started having an adverse effect on my stomach, so I’ve been drinking a lot of water and green tea. I felt slightly better today, so hopefully I’ve taken a turn for the better.

The other part of the shaking it up I’ve got for you, is the changes to the wordage report that I talked about last week. Turns out the retreat has left me with some time on my hands that I don’t care to fill with watching TV or reading. And the weather has been too crappy to take any of those nice long walks I was planning on.

So I redesigned the Wordage Report a bit to include “The Week in Review” and “The Week Ahead.” I’m hoping having what I intend to do written down will encourage me to actually . . . do some of it. :-D

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Well, let’s see. It started out with my car having to go into the shop. Is it just me, or does my car go on the fritz every time I have to go more than 100 kilometres out of town? As you recall, the last time my car went on the fritz was around Christmas when I was supposed to go to Hamilton. And here’s a bit of trivia for you, Cobourg is almost halfway between Hamilton and Kingston.

Fortunately, the dealership was able to take my car in on Monday and I had it back on Tuesday. But I was still forced to take the hubby’s car to my stitchery gathering. I’m not fond of his car, I feel like I’m sitting on the road – I drive a GMC Terrain, he drives a Hyundai Genesis.

Despite this being the March Break, we only saw the granddaughter on Wednesday, which is a shame because she’s a lot of fun to be around. Then after her mother picked her up I spent the rest of the evening getting ready for Writersfest.

NEW WORDS:
1895+399+272+632=3,198

UP – 438 words from last week

Technically, I do have more words to show for my week, but I haven’t had time to type them out, so I can't really include them.

With the exception of Sunday’s post, they were all up on time, even the serial installment which I had to finish here. And kudos to me for getting two of them written while I was in Kingston.

Goals For Next Week:
Get some words written besides my blog posts.

EDITING:
0 hours
Well, you can hardly blame me, I was a little busy getting ready for Writersfest. But thank you Writersfest! I’m actually looking forward to getting back to work on Elemental Spirit.

Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.

TECH & TRAINING:
No tech to speak of, unless you count attempting to connect to the hotel wifi (they changed their access and forgot to change the info card that came with their key cards) but I’ve got seven workshops of training under my belt. And I’m coming away with a new desire to keep learning. AND I really need to get on top of backing up all my stuff to Dropbox.

Goal For Next Week:
Learn something new. Figure out Dropbox.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Technically, last week’s poetry words should have been included in the word count from the week before, because that’s when I had them written. I believe there’s a gathering of my poetry group scheduled for this week – guess I’d better check my email to see what the poemwork is.

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share, do my poemwork.

CRAFTING:
Seeing as there was a stitchery gathering last week, I got a few more rows done on the afghan. Only three more colours to go! And if I actually stick to my plan to do more work in my office this week, I’ll get to crochet while watching TV at night.

Goal For Next Week:
Push to get the afghan done so I’m free to work on other stuff with a clear conscience.

WHAT I’M READING:
Believe it or not, I didn’t do much reading last week. Not even while I was away. I took four books with me, figuring I’d have plenty of time to read, but I didn’t. I’m about a quarter of the way through Hex Appeal, by Kate Johnson, and that's it.

Goal For Next Week:
Maybe try to increase my reading just a little.

THE WEEK AHEAD:
As much as I’ve enjoyed being here at Writersfest, I’m looking forward to being back at home. The chairs here are not as comfortable as they are at home, and the weather has prevented me from venturing too far from the hotel to forage for food. The restaurant here has a limited menu and it’s pretty pricy.

One of the things we learned on the first day was about daily pages – where you get up in the morning and immediately free write for 15-30 minutes before doing anything else. This is fine while I’m here, or even on the weekend, but during the week I get up at 5:30 a.m. and have just enough time to get dressed and drive to the gym, I really don’t see myself getting up 15 minutes earlier just to freewrite. I’m going to have to figure out how to modify this.

I would like to spend more time working in my office, and I can’t see any reason why I can’t begin to do so, other than my own mental hangups. And if I’m working in my office during the day, this will free me up to work on crafts during the night. The projects are piling up again.

We had one poetry workshop, and while I was a little ambivalent about the instructor, I did come away with a few ideas to apply to working on a poetry anthology. Or two. Or more. Time to pick up that big book ‘o poems and crack it open.

Two more workshops to go, and then it’s home again, home again, hot diggity dog.

Miscellany

A Miscellany is a collection without a natural ordering relation.
— John Edensor Littlewood

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.
— Jim Watkins

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.
— Earl Nightingale

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
— Neale Donald Walsch

Well that was interesting, trying to come up with quotes for this post title. Originally I was going to title it “This ‘N That,” but that really got me no where fast, quotes wise. Then I searched for “quotes about miscellaneous,” and ended up taking my title from the very first quote that popped up.

The state of my mental health has been really up and down lately. And it’s a little wearying. It really doesn’t help that the time change happened last night, where we “spring forward” and hour. I really needed that hour!

Kids everywhere have a whole week to get used to the time difference, seeing as this week is the March Break. I have just a few days and then I’m leaving to go on my writing retreat to Kingston. Had I realized this weekend was the time change, I would have booked an extra night at the hotel so I could drive up Wednesday. Instead, I’ll be getting up early Thursday morning and driving into the sun the whole way. *sigh*

But the good news is, this time I registered for the event early enough to reserve a room in the hotel it’s being held in. Theoretically, once I get there I don’t have to leave the hotel for the four days I’m there. All the seminars are going to be there, my room is there, and they have a restaurant.

That’s not to say I’m going to stay inside the whole time. Weather permitting, I’d like to take a daily walk, and I definitely want to go to that coffee shop with the amazing almond croissants. But I’ve looked at the line-up and I’m pretty sure I won’t be skipping any of the workshops this time. And you know what that means, lots of fodder for blog posts!

Speaking of blog posts . . . As I was filling out the Wordage Report of this blog, I was thinking I need to do a little house-keeping. Maybe come up with a title for the part where I just ramble about the past week. And the Goal Review seems a little redundant because I kind of do that as I go along in each little section. And maybe instead of the goal review, I can look ahead to what’s going to happen/what I’d like to see happen in the week ahead.

Obviously, none of these changes are happening this week. And probably not next week either, seeing as I’ll be writing next Sunday’s post while I’m still in Kingston (there’s no way to write it ahead of time because I won’t have written any words yet).

But soon, my pretties, soon.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

I really like the new set up for my office. Too bad most of the work I got done in there was cleaning up, and personal correspondence. I got my table from Amazon and spent Monday morning putting it together. Have I mentioned how much I hate using allen keys to put furniture together?

The table is perfect for the typewriter, and is the perfect size. But Monday was just one too many in a series of grey days, and putting the table together was pretty much the only thing I got done.

Then Tuesday I went to a long, early lunch with a friend, so it wasn’t until Wednesday that I spent any significant time in the office. But it was quality time. My new set-up is really working for me.

I spent the entire morning on Thursday in there, and it would have been longer, but I had a bunch of errands to run in the afternoon. It left me with a good feeling though, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish in there.

NEW WORDS:
1856+0+286+618=2,760
DOWN – 396 words from last week

Goals For Next Week:
Get some words written besides my blog posts.

EDITING:
0 hours
I’m actually looking forward to getting some editing done this week. Wish me luck!

Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.

TECH & TRAINING:
Once again, the TV came to my rescue for learning. This time it was Netflix. I went through pretty much the same rigamarole I did with Paramount +, only I didn’t have to go through the Roku. I signed up for both services at the same time, but I didn’t try to access Netflix until yesterday. Anyway, I ended up having to change the password for it, too, and after jumping through a bunch of hoops for it, I discovered that I can get into it by simply pressing the Netflix button on the TV zapper (instead of going through a bunch of menus from the TV). I can do that with Amazon Prime, too. *rolls eyes*

For the tech part . . . my trusty Neo has one stuck key and one key that’s missing altogether. So I thought it might be time to replace it – I like using it for letter-writing, if nothing else. A few years ago I bought a back up Neo and stashed it in my closet (after removing the batteries). I hauled it out, put the batteries back in, and immediately got a message about the batteries – I think, probably, because it had been sitting without batteries in it so long. I kept getting error messages for a couple of different things, until finally I shut it off and replaced the batteries with the ones from my original Neo.

Turned it on again and it seems to be working fine. Of course I wasn’t going to take the chance of writing the letter to my sister on it, so I did a couple of test files and then shut it off. I’ll check it this week to see if it’s still okay, although I’m not sure if I’m going to be trusting it any time soon.

Meanwhile, the Freewrite Traveller is looking pretty good, if I could justify the price. Although . . . it would make a good incentive to get An Elemental Spirit finished. It could be my reward. :-)

Goal For Next Week:
Learn something new.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I don’t seem to be having much trouble finding forms these days, but finding ones I’d like to try is another story. Remember high school English class where you were forced to work on poetry? It never ended well, did it.

A couple of years ago I was doing forms I didn’t particularly care for, just for the sake of presenting a new form every week and I kinda burned myself out. Forcing myself to work on it took all the fun out of it. It took a long time before I remembered that I actually liked poetry.

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share.

CRAFTING:
Well, the whole point of going through all that rigamarole to get Netflix set up was so that I could start watching it while I work on the cancer blanket. I got a bunch done, and I’m happy to say I only have three colours to go. Whew! And seeing as there’s a stitchery guild meeting this week, I’ll be able to knock off a bunch more.

The theme for this years father/daughter ball is Disco, so I’m just waiting on some direction from the daughter and granddaughter before I start looking for material for the dress. Should be lots of fun.

Goal For Next Week:
Push to get the afghan done so I’m free to work on other stuff with a clear conscience.

WHAT I’M READING:
I’m about halfway through a paranormal romance anthology called Moon Shadows. The stories all revolve around, you guessed it, the moon. The first one was about a woman who was bitten by a werewolf and is looking for a cure, and the second one was about a moon witch. Not far enough into the third to see what it has to do with the moon.

Goal For Next Week:
Maybe try to increase my reading just a little.

GOAL REVIEW:

I really dropped the ball last week by skipping Monday’s post. Once again, I just didn’t have anything to say. My other posts got up on time, though.

Technically, I think a 5,000 word letter to my sister should count as new words, even if they were personal words, not fiction. But these words were written in my office, which is a big step forward. Just think what that could mean if I was at my desk to write fiction?

No editing, unfortunately. It’s not that I’m not ready to get back to it, it’s just that I had a busy week with other stuff, and I wasn’t in the best of mental health early in the week. Probably won’t get any editing in this week either, but it is what it is.

I’m not sure it was what I had in mind for tech and training, but figuring out how to access all my streaming services on the TV takes some learning, and getting the back up Neo to work I think should count as technical.

The one thing I can count on is poetry. I guess that’s because I started out as a poet before anything else.

The probably with crafting is that I prefer to do it while watching TV. But I also tend to have my laptop on my lap while watching TV. Now I did spend one morning catching up on a couple of my Netflix shows, so I got some work on the afghan done. Hopefully, I’ll get more writing done in my office so that my evenings are freed up to do some crafting.

Very little reading last week. Half a book – what’s up with that? I do have a couple of books to take with me to the retreat – maybe I should take my Kindle with me too and figure out how I’m supposed to access my books. And its charger because I haven’t used it in months.

I’m keeping my attitude status to myself this time. Last week I said it was getting better, and then the next day was a complete write-off. While it did improve for a couple of days, by the weekend it was right down in the crapper again, as you may have guessed by the lateness of this post.

But attitude or not, it’s going to be a busy week this week. Let’s hope I can get ‘er done.

Writing Vivid Characters

It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.
― William Faulkner

The characters in my novels are my own unrealized possibilities. That is why I am equally fond of them all and equally horrified by them. Each one has crossed a border that I myself have circumvented.
― Milan Kundera

The characters who go to make up my stories and novels are not portraits. Characters I invent along with the story that carries them. Attached to them are what I’ve borrowed, perhaps unconsciously, bit by bit, of persons I have seen or noticed or remembered in the flesh – a cast of countenance here, a manner of walking there, that jumps to the visualising mind when a story is under way. I don’t write by invasion into the life of a real person: my own sense of privacy is too strong for that; and I also know instinctively that living people to whom you are close – those known to you in ways too deep, too overflowing, ever to be plumbed outside love – do not yield to, could never fit into, the demands of a story. Characters take on life sometimes by luck, but I suspect it is when you can write most entirely out of yourself, that a character becomes in its own right another human being on the page. ― Eudora Welty, On Writing

I have a confession to make. I did not attend every one of the masterclasses. But I did attend the one about creating character, presented by Shyam Selvadurai

First we were told that the sense of character can come across effectively using simile and metaphor. This was followed by an exercise in which we were asked to pick 4 or 5 people from our lives and describing how we feel about them using simile and metaphor.

My father was stern, as only a former drill sergeant cold be.
My mother gave new meaning to the phrase “work-a-holic.”
My aunt was like a butterfly with a mother complex, always flitting from one thing to another to make sure everyone was taken care of.
My granddaughter is an unceasing ray of sunshine.
My sister is like an ostrich, always sticking her head in the sand so she can’t see what’s going on, and when she does raise her head she has her rose-coloured glasses firmly in place.

A well-developed character has flaws and limitations. They need to grow and evolve and have a basis in human nature, even if they’re not human. They should be unique – slightly different from the world around them. Thought should be put into them and their flaws and foibles.

On the other hand, a flat character has only one distinctive trait and is incapable of varying from that characteristic. Flat characters can be just as important to your story as a well rounded one. They’re predictable, so there are no surprises with them. The town gossip can never be trusted with a secret. The old man across the street can be depended on to keep track whatever is going on the neighborhood.

There are many ways of showing character. Authorial Interpretation is where the author tells us the character’s background, motives, values, virtues, etc. It allows you to move in time and space; lets you have control over what the reader knows.

The Direct Method uses the five senses to shape character. We humans receive our primary impressions through sight, but the other senses are important too – the limp handshake, soft check, scent (perfume or cologne, garlic or onions on the breath). Sound associations could come from the character’s name – Debby Downer, Mary Sunshine.

The contradiction between appearance and reality can be a source of conflict and tension to define character. Think of Alice in Wonderland. A character’s physical features, their shape, sense of style, clothing, or relationship to people or objects can help define them.

A significant character must be capable of causing Action and being changed by it. What does the protagonist want to have happen at the end? What Thought process must he go through? Work back from that.

There is a gap between suppressed thought and expressed thought. A person can’t control their wants and desires, but they can control what they do about their behavior. Achievement of that which we desire would be easy if the internal thought process was not so faulty. Idealism is often a good character trait.

Dialogue adds to a reader’s knowledge of a situation. It moves the story forward and reveals something about the speaker’s personality. It can dramatize the relationship between characters.

In the Indirect Method, character may be presented through the opinions of other characters through speech, thoughts, and actions. The character giving the opinion is also characterized. When we are not privy to a character’s thoughts, the internal conflict must be expressed in a contradiction between appearance, speech, and action.

Exercise: We were shown a photo of a garbage truck that appeared to be stuck, with two youths, one wearing a mask, standing beside it and several police officers confronting them, and then told to write a scene showing character using appearance, action, thought, and speech. Show, don’t tell. Use significant details.

It was just supposed to be for fun, you know? A lark, a prank. But no, good ‘ole Mickey had to go all out, like he usually does, and next thing you know, the garbage truck got stuck. What a mess! And the smell! Whoo-wee the smell was bad. We’re talking dead bodies in a sewer bad. Not that there were actually dead bodies in the truck. Lordy, how much worse would it have been for us if there had been? Then old man Krantz called the cops on us. The cops! Man, I can’t believe that. Like I said, it was just supposed to be a joke. Mickey, he looks like a choir boy, even in his mask. That’s why I let him talk to the cops. We didn’t mean no harm. But man, it was fun while it lasted. My mom’s going to kill me!

The final piece of advice we were given was to consider what we want the reader to think about our character, and have their actions suit that character.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

So . . . in order to make any progress with my writing, I need to start working at my desk in my office. The only problem with that is that the kittens like to be wherever the people (meaning me) are, whether they’re sleeping or playing. And it’s not that I mind them playing or sleeping in my office, it’s just that they want to check out the view from the window – the window with the ledge I have my plants lined up on. So either I write at the dining room table, which gets uncomfortable after a while, or I relocate some of my plants.

Just recently, however, the kittens have given me a third option. I use a lap desk when I’m in the living room. A couple of days ago I was sitting cross-legged in my recliner with the lap desk across my lap, and Dinsdale discovered the space between the desk and the chair made a perfect, kitten-sized cave. And if I recline my chair, I can raise my knees slightly and they both fit in there. At least until they start wrestling and I boot them off.

This was another one of those weeks where I started out strong and then it went downhill fast. It didn’t help that the weather was cold and miserable – lots of wind and rain. The unrelenting grey gave me a headache several days in a row, and I was fighting off the flu bug that’s going around.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,957+675+341+739=3,712
DOWN 85 words from last week
Total = 3,712

Goals For Next Week:
Do some words outside of blog posts

EDITING:
0 pages
Remember how I took my laptop to Staples in the summer? And before I did that, I put all my writing files on a flash drive? Well, when I went looking for the thumb drive that had all my most current writing files, I couldn’t find it.

I checked every flash drive I own, including the ones that aren’t supposed to have anything on them, and I could not find the stories from last year’s NaNo, nor could I find the only copy I had of Elemental Spirit. They were missing. Vanished. Gone. Thirty stories and one novel. Poof!

I felt sick. All that work . . . Since I often use the arm of the couch as a shelf when I’m in the living room, I checked in the couches – found a crochet hook, a really nice mechanical pencil, and a bookmark, but no flash drive.

Finally, I emptied the messenger bag I use for my writing stuff entirely and found one last flash drive hidden in a fold. I checked it, and sure enough, there were my files. I now have them on the flash drive, my desk top, and I even backed them up to Dropbox (which does not look the way I remember it). Whew! Crisis averted.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish editing the story I was sent and get it back to the author.

MARKETING:
Honestly, why do I even have this as a sub-heading? I guess hope springs eternal. Maybe I’ll get something submitted sometime, but it sure wasn’t last week.

Goal for Next Week:
Submit something. Anything!

TECH & TRAINING:
I did go so far as to open Dropbox to check for the NaNo stories and it looks a lot different from the last time I saw it. And while it had some backups, my stories were not among them. Then I opened it again when I found my story so I could back it up.

Prior to that I was thinking that it was finally time to break out the ReMarkable and figure out how to use it. I could use it to edit flash stories in the evenings – it would be easier to manage than the laptop with the kittens around.

Goal For Next Week:
Check out the features of Dropbox. Figure out my ReMarkable.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I actually got the research done for a couple of different forms, and picked one at random to use for my form of the week. And yes, it was easier, with only a syllable count to worry about.

With NaNo fast approaching I’d like to get a couple of posts done ahead of time. Even if I can get the research done and distilled into the posts it would help. Then all I’d have to worry about are the examples.

Once again, I did not even give the anthology a passing thought. And I’m thinking I’ll have to put it on hold until after NaNo. There just isn’t going to be time.

Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form.

CRAFTING:
Crafting? I knew I was forgetting something. Actually, I did think about it, but the truth of the matter is I was afraid to do my needlework with the kittens around. I’m sure they would love to “help” with the colourful threads. And I’m not even going to think about doing and crocheting or (God forbid) knitting when they’re so active.

But Christmas is coming, and if I’m careful I should be able to do some crafts at the dining room table. Maybe.

Goal For Next Week:
Crochet bookworms. Figure out dragon pillow for granddaughter.

WHAT I’M READING:
Finished reading The Guest List, by Fern Michaels, and then went on to read It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey. Now I’m between books again. I’ve got lots of them, I just need to pick one. Or maybe even figure out how to organize my Kindle books in their “cloud” so I can start using it again.

Did not start my Goodreads list, but I did find some scraps of paper I’d jotted down books I’ve read on.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading. At least start my list of books so I can update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

Despite my week kind of falling apart at the end, it wasn’t too bad. My blog posts were all up on time, and most of them were done early. I did not, however, get any extra posts done. The kittens are not as glued to me as they were in the beginning, and they’ve been testing out other places to sleep. Plus, I’m getting better at relocating them if they’re in the way.

I almost gave myself a heart attack when I couldn’t find the flash drive my NaNo stories were saved to. Thirty stories is a lot of stories, and I have no idea what prompts I used so there was no chance of re-creating them. But my editing is getting a boost this week from a story I received in my email, so I should have a better week in that regard.

The marketing and tech & training . . . *sigh* I keep thinking about removing them altogether, but there’s always the chance I’ll have something to show for them. As for the crafts? The closest I came to a craft was repairing a stuffed octopus for the granddaughter.

But still when all is said and done, I can’t say it was a bad week. It wasn’t a great one either, but at least it wasn’t a bad one.

Let’s see if I can make this week a better one.

Happy writing.

Researching For Writing Historical Fiction

The thing that most attracts me to historical fiction is taking the factual record as far as it is known, using that as scaffolding, and then letting imagination build the structure that fills in those things we can never find out for sure.
— Geraldine Brooks

What really disconcerts commentators, I suspect, is that when they read historical fiction, they feel their own lack of education may be exposed; they panic, because they don't know which bits are true.
— Hilary Mantel

I often tell people who want to write historical fiction: don't read all that much about the period you're writing about; read things from the period that you're writing about. There's a tendency to stoke up on a lot of biography and a lot of history, and not to actually get back to the original sources.
— Thomas Mallon

Okay, the final masterclass of day one of Writersfest wasn’t really called Researching For Writing Historical Fiction, it was actually called Writing Historical Fiction, but my title suited it better because that’s pretty much what it was about. It was run by Eva Stachniak, a Polish/Canadian historical novelist. If you’re a lover of historical fiction you might recognize her as the author of The Chosen Maiden and The School of Mirrors, as well as several other novels.

She began by exploring what readers expect from an historical novel and what we, as writers, need to provide. We need to look for the unexpected angle, a new interpretation of historical events, or a subjective interpretation of historical characters.

Readers don’t just want to be shown the past, they want to be able to feel it and experience it. This is done using detail. Without detail, the reader can’t imagine themselves in that place. Rich, authentic, details help the reader to see the world the writer is creating.

Details gleaned from historic records are not always the absolute truth, and if you stick to those details you’re going to have a dull novel. You need to look for what is missing, what was unrecorded, the minutiae of everyday life. Your details, real or imagined, need to be sound, but interesting.

Start big and vast, and then distill these details down to be more direct. How do you know what to discard? Only when the novel nears its end will you be able to decide what to keep and what to discard. You’ll keep only what builds the texture of the novel.

Use accents and dialect sparingly. No one wants tutoring in Elizabethan language. You need to make the language clear to be understood. The judicious use of a word or phrase germane to the period you’re writing about can go a long way to make your meaning clear.

So where do you find these authentic details to add realism to your historical novel? Many fascinating details can be found in memoirs, journals, and letters. Novels written in that time period could hold the detail you’re looking for, or non-fiction and scholarly articles. Films and documentaries are also a good source.

JSTOR is a wonderful digital source. It’s an online library of back issues of academic journals as well as books that are free to access. Project Gutenberg gives you the option to search thousands of books by title or author, many of which are long out of print. You also have the option of downloading them to your e-reader.

I’m sure Ms. Stachniak had much more to say on the subject, but to be honest I was starting to feel a little peopled out by breaktime, so I left before she was done. But when I was researching quotes to use with this post, I found one that I thought summed up what not to do when writing historical fiction quite nicely:

my own definition of bad historical fiction hits these points:
It fails to transport the reader to a former time.
It fails to put the reader in another place.
It fails to bring characters to life.
It fails to make the reader shiver, sweat, sniffle, sneer, snarl, weep, laugh, gag, ache, hunger, wince, yearn, lust, lose sleep, empathize, hate, or need to go potty.
It seems dubious.
It has characters who seem too good or too bad to be true.
It has anachronisms.
It has clichés and stereotypes.
Its writing style distracts the reader from the narrative.
It takes historic license with times and facts.
It is pointless.
It is carelessly written.
It is easy to put down.
― James Alexander Thom, The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

If you followed the link I posted last week, you’ll know the hubby and I adopted a pair of kittens last Friday. It’s been twenty years since there’s been a kitten in the house and I have to admit, it’s a bit of a shock to the system. LOL

They’re very entertaining, and very affectionate, and they have forced me into better writing habits. No longer do I sit back in my recliner to work during the day. If I try, I have a kitten in my face, or on my keyboard. They have zero respect for the laptop. Actually, Khaos has learned she can go behind it or just on the edge of the front, but Dinsdale likes to go right across the keyboard. I think he likes putting it on airplane mode or calling up menus I didn’t know I had. I’m just glad I disabled the track pad.

I have found it’s easier to write at the dining room table, or in my office (I’m at the dining room table right now as I type this). It’s actually a good habit to get into and one that’s long overdue. When I’m too comfortable (like in my recliner) I tend to spend more time on Facebook or playing games. But at the table or desk, it makes me take the writing a little more seriously.

I also need to start writing more during the day. Writing in the evening means writing in my recliner, which is doable when the kittens are awake and racing around the house; not so much when they’re sleepy and want cuddles.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1806+739+561+691=3,797
UP 291 words from last week
Total = 3,797

Goals For Next Week:
Do some words outside of blog posts

EDITING:
0 pages
It’s taking some time to adapt to having two furry “helpers” around, so I think I can be forgiven for not getting any editing done.

Also, I seem to have been a little over-zealous in keeping my desktop clear of folders and I don’t know where I put the stories from last year’s NaNo. I’m sure it’s on a thumb drive somewhere, I just have to find it.

Goal For Next Week:
Find the stories for book flood and start editing them.

MARKETING:
You might want to see the above comments about having to adapt to a pair of furry little “helpers.” That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. At least it’s a proper excuse this time.

Goal for Next Week:
Submit something. Anything!

TECH & TRAINING:
Yeah, I got nothing. But I’m thinking Dropbox would really come in handy for all those folders I don’t want to keep on my desktop. You know, instead of hunting down thumb drives. ;-)

Goal For Next Week:
Check out the features of Dropbox

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Well, I manned up and did my Mad Cow poem. All 35 lines of it. It might not be a great poem, but it’s a poem. And it’s done.

Did not even give the anthology a passing thought. Hey, count yourself lucky that you got the Mad Cow!

And you may have noticed, I didn’t put the number of words in the poem I wrote as my example Wednesday on a separate line. It seems kind of silly to have the poem listed as a separate thing when it’s included in the weekly post. I’ll add poetry words in when I write a poem outside of the weekly post.

Goal For Next Week:
Find an easier (or at least less time consuming) poetry form. Start compiling the anthology

CRAFTING:
Here’s the thing. I dug out the box with the beaded Christmas tree and all its teeny tiny little parts in it, spread everything over the dining room table, and ultimately decided “Nope.” It’s not that it was difficult, it was just going to be very time consuming. And I decided I could better use that time for writerly things.

So I packed it all back in its box and took it with me to the stitchery gathering last week to return it to the guild. And funny, nobody else seemed to want to take it home either. We had a workshop in making poppies to wear for Remembrance Day, and I worked a bit on my pillowcase. And that was pretty much it for crafts.

Goal For Next Week:
Crochet bookworms. Figure out dragon pillow for granddaughter.

WHAT I’M READING:
I read a book! Well, what else am I supposed to do when I’m pinned down by kittens? LOL I read The Secret of Love Story Bridge, by Phaedra Patrick. I love the way she takes an ordinary, maybe a little sad, person and makes you care about them.

And I started reading The Guest List, by Fern Michaels. I think there's something fishy about the deaths in the beginning of the book, but so far there hasn’t even been a hint. Not that I won’t keep reading anyway.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading. At least start my list of books so I can update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

Once again, I did not make a list. Bad writer! I made no progress on coming up with a cover, blurb, and tagline for Magical Misfire. And I didn’t start any other editing. No marketing (as usual) and no tech/training.

I decided I need to start writing my blog posts earlier, starting with this one. The Pond installment almost didn’t make it. This wasn’t entirely the kittens’ fault as a family situation took up a big chunk of my writing time on Thursday. I worked as late as I could that night, and then skipped the gym the next morning to get it done on time. Moving forward, I need some kind of an outline to follow so I’m not spending so much time wondering “what happens next.”

While I didn’t exactly make time for crafts, I did do a crafty thing at the guild meeting, so I’m going to count that. I still have the afghan to work on, and I made vague promise to do some book worms for the guild’s craft sale, but I’m kinda hesitant to do anything involving yarn, or crochet hooks, or (God help me) knitting needles or bead work with the kittens around.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad week. I got all my blog posts done and considering I have two little distractions to get used to, I’d say I didn’t do too badly.

Let’s see if this week I can do better.

Happy writing.

Creativity

To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.
― Osho

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
— Mary Lou Cook

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.”
― Jim Jarmusch

The second masterclass I attended while at Writersfest was one on Forging Your Creativity, presented by Barbara Bell.

She told us that creativity can help you deal with the unknown. It’s a great confidence builder, encouraging you to take risks. Even when you fail, creativity can help you release your fears. But standing in your way is The Judge.

The Judge is that part of you that focuses on what’s wrong with you, on all the reasons you can’t be creative. He (or she) keeps you in your safe place of “can’t” and “won’t.” The Judge reduces your chances of being harmed by keeping you safe. He will beat you up (mentally), warn you about taking risks, and hijack your mind, instigating your negative emotions.

For our first exercise, we were asked to write a description of our Judge, as detailed as possible – give them a name and a voice.

My Judge’s name is Billy-Bob. He’s a good ‘ole boy, middle aged and uneducated, slouched in his worn-out arm chair, cigar dangling from his mouth. He’s unwashed and unshaven, his pants have seen better days and he’s wearing a white, grease-stained wife beater.

“You’re wasting your time,” he tells me. “You ain’t nothin’ special. What makes you think you can write? You don’t got no proper education, not like some of those real writers. Ain’t nobody interested in what you got to say. You might as well make yourself useful and get me another beer.”

The Judge doesn’t work alone, however, he has a posse of saboteurs to help him thwart your creativity and these saboteurs are part of our innate personalities.

There’s the Avoider, who avoids conflict and has difficulty saying no to others. They focus on more pleasant things to avoid the unpleasant things. And yet they have anxiety about the things they’ve been avoiding. These things don’t just go away and often this often leads to suppressed anger and resentment.

The Controller, on the other hand, needs to take charge and is a straight talker. Their anxiety stems from things not going their way. They tend to push people out of their comfort zone, often through intimidation. No one tells the Controller what to do, and they can become angry and intimidating with others who don’t follow their lead.

The Hyper-Achiever is also competitive and is good at covering up insecurities, always showing a positive image. They tend to be workaholics, keeping other people at a safe distance. Feelings distract them from achieving their goal; it’s important for them to feel successful. They feel that life is all about achieving their goals and this makes them lose touch with their deeper feelings and their ability to connect with others.

If you’re Hyper-Rational you could be perceived as cold and distant, and maybe a little arrogant. You have an intense and active mind, but you’re very private and don’t often let people inside. You prefer to analyze the world from a distance, and value knowledge and understanding. Your self-worth is attached to what you know and you get frustrated by people who are more emotional than rational.

Hyper-Vigilant people are always anxious, worrying about everything that could go wrong. They have chronic self-doubt and are always expecting the worst. This constant anxiety burns a great deal of vital energy that could be used for other things.

The Pleaser is the person who tries to please everyone but themselves, hoping to gain affection and acceptance. They have a strong need to be liked, and need constant reassurance. Expressing their own needs feels selfish to them, and they worry this might drive others away. But they’re also resentful when they lose sight of their own needs and are taken for granted.

The Restless personality is always looking for the next adventure. They’re scattered and easily distracted, always staying busy with as many different plans and tasks as possible. Life is too short and there’s always that fear of missing out on what lies ahead. But this is just another way of avoiding what’s really important.

The Stickler has a need for order and perfectionism. They’re highly critical and often irritable or tense. They’ll work overtime to make up for others’ laziness. They’re sensitive to criticism, believing they’re always right. Constantly frustrated and disappointed, this leads to a great deal of suppressed anger. No matter how hard you work, you’ll never please the Stickler.

The Victim is hyper focused on internal feelings, especially painful ones. They can be dramatic and temperamental, and give up easily when things get tough. They often feel alone and lonely and use their emotional problems to gain attention. This often backfires as it tends to push people away.

Have you recognized yourself in any of these Saboteurs? Maybe you’ve seen yourself in more than one. But now that you’ve identified them, you can start working to fight them off. 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

So . . . Not a lot of progress last week. Monday could be excused ‘cause I was recovering from my time away, but I really have no excuse for the rest of the week. Well, until Friday. But if you want to see what my excuse is starting Friday afternoon (and why this post is so late today), you’ll have to read Monday’s post on My Other Blog. 

I think part of my problem was I only made one list last week. And I spent a lot of time helping the hubby finish de-junking his office, which is a bigger deal than it seems because all that junk has to go somewhere. So it wasn’t exactly a writing-focused week.

And it occurs to me that this had better change because NaNo is in just a few weeks. Are you doing NaNo this year?

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,724+717+345+720=3,506
Poetry – 90 words (included in blog post)
Total = 3,506

Goals For Next Week:
Increase the words (should go without saying)

EDITING:
0 pages
I updated my sidebar to remove Magical Mayhem and put Elemental Spirit in its place, but I’m thinking that maybe I should have the book flood anthology up next instead. The stories are done, I just need to pick the ones I’m going to use and then edit them. Whereas An Elemental Spirit . . . I took a look at it and it doesn’t just need editing, it needs to be rewritten.

Goal For Next Week:
Pick stories for book flood and start editing them.

MARKETING:
No Marketing. Not even an attempt at marketing. Too much other stuff on the go. I swear, I don’t even know why I have this as a category.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECH & TRAINING:
Yeah, I got nothing.

Goal For Next Week:
Check out the features of Dropbox – I’m paying for it, I really should use it.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I choked. I admit it. I was all set to do the Mad Cow poetry form, but it’s 35 lines long and the lines have 12 syllables and rhyme. So yeah, I went with the lighter version of it called the Mad Calf.

Did not even give the anthology a passing thought. Oops!

Goal For Next Week:
Suck it up and do the Mad Cow form. Start compiling the anthology

CRAFTING:
Does doing some alterations for the granddaughter count? In that case, I got nothing. I did buy some coloured yarn to do book worms for the upcoming craft sale, but I didn’t even open the package.

Yikes! And I just remembered I still have that beaded Christmas tree I’m supposed to decorate, and I have a guild meeting on Tuesday. Guess I know how I’ll be spending my holiday Monday.

Goal For Next Week:
Get beaded Christmas tree done. Crochet bookworms.

WHAT I’M READING:
Believe it or not, I read nothing last week. Nothing! Nada, zip, zilch. I just did not have the time.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a little time each day reading. At least start my list of books so I can update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

I really should have made the effort to make a list, I do so much better with them. My blog posts were done, and they were all on time, but I did not do any extra writing. I thought about it a lot, and I thought of doing a couple of exercises I was given at Writersfest, but thinking isn’t doing, is it?

I made no progress on coming up with a cover, blurb, and tagline for Magical Misfire. And now that I’ve finished the edits on it I have no burning desire to edit anything else. I’m starting to feel like quite the lazy writer.

No reading at all was kind of surprising. And I didn’t make the time for any crafts, either. It wasn’t just being busy, I was tired and head-achy a lot too. We had a couple of sunny days, but then it was overcast the rest of the week so my solar batteries ran right down.

All in all, it was a rather disappointing week. I mean, yeah, I got my cleaning and organizing done in time for Thanksgiving, but while it’s nice, it doesn’t really feel like an accomplishment, you know what I mean?

*sigh* Well, at least I have a new week to start, and do better.

Happy writing.

Bad Idea

Our minds are a battle ground between good and bad ideas; we are whatever side wins the battle.
― Bangambiki Habyarimana

Take time to reflect, let ideas flow on their own schedule and let yourself have numerous bad ideas to inspire the good ones.
― Joanie Connell

A bad idea or a bold idea. And yet, history’s greatest minds always advised bold over safe; their words good padding for even the worst ideas.
― Holly Jackson

Where do you get your ideas? This is the question writers are asked most often. And no one wants to hear, “I dunno, they just come to me,” (said with a shrug). They want specifics. I used to think it’s kind of a dumb question – ideas are everywhere, you just have to open your eyes to them – but it’s not always that simple.

Yes, ideas are all around us, but are they good ideas? Ideas with enough meat to sustain them for an entire story, or novella, or novel? Not always. Sometimes the ideas you come up with are terrible. And you don’t always realize this until you’ve wasted considerable time trying to make it work.

I’m guilty of this, especially if I’m working with generated prompts. What looks good as a prompt doesn’t always translate into a story.

So how can you tell if your idea is good or bad? Well, you can’t always. But there are signs you should abandon it. If it’s taking too for you to get that first word down – you sit there and stare at the screen (or notepad) and nothing happens. Don’t wait too long before moving on to something else. This will only lead to no end of frustration and wasted time.

If it’s a struggle to get going on it, the words you think you could use just slip away when you try to put them down, or you keep changing them and they still don't make sense, it’s probably not a good idea. If you try plotting it out and it doesn’t really go anywhere, it probably never will.

If you’re unsure of an idea, run it by a friend whose opinion you trust. They might have insights on why it’s a bad idea.

Does this idea excite you? Make you want to sit at your desk for hours working away? Will there be an audience for it?

There’s an argument that there’s an audience for everything, even really bad ideas. So I guess the question you have to ask yourself is, what do you want to get out of this idea. Are you writing it for fun? For profit? Only you can decide if an idea is worth saving.

To help you find an idea, good or bad, here are a few of my favorite prompt generators:

Short Story Ideas  

RanGen 

Writing Prompt Generator 

Plot Generator 

Writing Exercises and Prompts 

Springhole 

Even a bad idea is better than no idea at all.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

Well, I was pretty much treading water, as far as writing went last week. But all things considered, it was a busy week so just keeping up is good enough for me.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,603+579+473+648=3,303
Poetry – Poetry – 181 (included in blog post)

Total words: 3,303

Goals For Next Week:
Try and add in some extra words to that total.

EDITING:
3 pages
Yowsa! I had a lot of good intentions, where editing was concerned, but good intentions don’t produce pages. This is getting ridiculous! How long have I been editing this book now? I think it’s time to smarten up and aim for a Christmas release.

Goal For Next Week:
Step up the editing pace on Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING:
*sigh* No Marketing. Yeah, I’m not even going there this time.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECH & TRAINING:
Well, technically nothing new here, but I did get a message from Dropbox telling me the extra space I got when I bought my Lenovo (that I didn’t even know I had) was about to expire and what did I want to do about it. And then, just yesterday, I got a message from McAfee telling me my subscription was automatically renewed. You know, the subscription Staples screwed up so that I couldn’t access it so I paid for Avast instead. *sigh*

Goal For Next Week:
Figure out if I can make enough use out of Dropbox to warrant paying for it; figure out which virus protection I want to keep and get a refund for the other.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I shared an invented form, the Cascade, last week. It was a really interesting form to work with and I enjoyed working on my examples.

And I’m still contemplating a poetry anthology, or maybe that will be two – one of traditional forms, and one of non-traditional forms. Or maybe it’ll just be one anthology of all forms, and I’ll divide into two sections. Or maybe alternate traditional with non-traditional. So many poems to choose from.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new form to share and figure out the anthology.

CRAFTING:
I finished the pansies on the first of my pillowcases and I picked out the colours for the border. Then I realized that the border is too faint to see in some places. I didn’t want to cut up the original transfer and mess it up for future use, so I traced the parts I’d need onto tracing paper, and then went over it (from the back) with a transfer pencil.

Then the next problem popped up. In embroidering the pansies, I altered the structural integrity of the pillowcase. In other words, I can’t just lay the transfer overtop and have everything line up properly. I’m going to have to do it one section at a time. So . . . I think I’ll embroider as much as the border as I can, then iron on the remaining one section at a time, embroidering as I go along.

Once again I did not get the sewing machine set up and working again, so I did not get my skirt and blouse finished. And now I’ve got some hemming from my father-in-law to add to the mix. Not to mention there are a couple of other skirts I’ll love to make for fall. *sigh*

I did make some progress on the cancer afghan, and I figured out a better colour scheme for it without having to rip out anything I’ve done so far. AND I visited the yarn shop and found some beautiful variegated yarn to make a sweater to go with my skirt (if I ever get it finished). So that will be my next TV needlework project.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep working on the pillowcase. Work on the cancer afghan. Get the sewing machine working and finish my skirt and blouse.

WHAT I’M READING:
Still haven’t updated my Goodreads account – I’m really going to hate myself when I finally get around to it.

Finished reading The Lost Girl Found. by Maisey Yates. It was an interesting blend of family and what the mind is capable of to protect itself. Loved the different personalities of the sisters and how even with the age differences they stayed close.

I actally went a couple of days without reading anything, but then yesterday I picked up Book Lovers by Emily Henry. This was recommended to me by my daughter and so far she hasn’t led me astray.

Goal For Next Week:
Suck it up and update my Goodreads account!

GOAL REVIEW:

No extra words, but I did get all my regular words done, and like I said earlier, it was a busy week so that’s not too bad. But I did try spreading things out a little more – a bit here and a bit there, and I think that’s how I managed to keep on top of everything.

No tech or training, but I confess I did spend a little more time on mindless games than I’d like. And I forgot all about the shredding I keep promising myself I’m going to do.

The craft room project is on hold until we’re ready for a dump run – there’s not much I can do in there until I’m able to get rid of the futon parts and some of the other bigger, useless stuff. I am hoping to take a load of donations to the thrift store this week – mostly clothes and books. Yes, that’s right. Books!

I should probably start writing down some of my plans so I can prioritize them. And on that note, I was considering going back to lists to help clarify what I wanted to get done with other aspects of my life. I’ll start with a master list of everything I need/want to get done and work from there. At the very least, maybe it’ll be a reminder of what I can be doing instead of playing mindless games.

Happy writing.

Priorities

I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.
— Dan Millman

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.
— H. L. Hunt

Deadlines aren't bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it.
— Harvey Mackay

Keeping regular office hours sounds good in theory, but I’m seeing it’s a little harder to put into practice than I thought it would be. Especially when you spend more than half a day at a social function, a bunch of unexpected family stuff pops up, and you take a road trip with your daughter (that while fun, lasts an entire day).

The root of my problem is that I suck at setting priorities. Not just in my writing, but in my crafting as well. Ironically, when it comes to more mundane things, like gardening or housekeeping, I do much better. I don’t know why that is, unless it’s the fact that the mundane things don’t matter as much. Does that make any sense?

I used to make a lot of lists, breaking things I had to/wanted to do into easy to manage increments. It worked really well for the more mundane things I had to do, not so much for the more creative things.

In fact, listing the creative tasks, even breaking them down, ended up having the opposite effect. I found the list intimidating, I didn’t know where to start, and so I didn’t.

It doesn’t help that I have plenty of time at my disposal, that just makes it easier to put things off. My time management skills could also use some honing – I don’t make good use of my time. I’m a procrastinator. And I get distracted easily – I need to learn to focus better.

Another thing I’m having to overcome is my upbringing. I’m an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to put everyone else’s needs before my own. I set aside time to do something for myself but then other people’s priorities conflict with mine and I always seem to come out the loser.

I don’t know if setting priorities is something you’re born with or a skill you need to learn, but it’s definitely something I need to work on going forward, especially if I’m going to make my limited office hours work. The ability to prioritize effectively would also help in all the other aspects of my life.

I signed up for a free download of an interesting looking book about prioritizing, but something called Bitly wouldn’t let me. I don’t even know what Bitly is, but it decided the download might be potentially harmful. Isn’t that always the way? But I also bookmarked a bunch of helpful articles to read. It’s a start at least, and I’ll share what I learn about setting priorities here, next week.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

You know, I’m kind of getting tired of this. Last week was another one of those weeks that quickly spun out of control. However, at least I got my blog posts up and on time (except for Friday, but that wasn’t my fault), so there’s that at least.

I started out on track with my office hours, but life and a bunch of family stuff had a way of de-railing even the most loosely held schedule.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,567+763+351+870=3,551
Poetry – 351 (included in blog post)
Other words – 385 (bonus blog post)

Total words: 3,936

Goals For Next Week:
Give the office hours another try and get my s**t together.

EDITING:
0 pages
Well. That was disappointing. I wasn’t able to manage even an hour or so of editing. At this rate I’m never going to be done Magickal Misfire. Which I’ve been considering changing back to Wandering Wizards because of a line I rewrote.

Goal For Next Week:
Get back to work on Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
I’m starting to think it doesn’t make sense to limit marketing to just one day. So next week I’ll be removing Monday from the title here.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I’m thinking it might be time to let go of the tech. I mean yeah, I want to learn how to use my little gizmos properly, but they’re obviously not a priority. Instead, I think I'll try setting aside time to learn new skills. Maybe even start one of the online courses I signed up for.

Although, that being said, I couldn’t help but notice all my posts on my other blog have become italicized. And several posts from this blog have done the same thing. I have no idea what happened, but I need to figure out what’s going on and fix it.

Goal For Next Week:
Learn something new.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Being kind of crunched for time last week, I went for a poetry form I offered previously. The actually wording of the post was new, but the poem itself was an old one. But ironically, I’ve already started the post for this week – not a new form, at least to me, but definitely a new poem.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new form to share on my Wednesday blog post.

CRAFTING:
I did do a ranty post about cross stitch on Monday. I still can’t believe something so tiny took me so long to create. And when I sewed the little cross stitch into the felt needle book I made the discovery that felt liked to stretch, so it looks a little crooked. Might be a new a new rant in the making. ;-)

Someone in the family was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, so looks like it’s time to start another cancer blanket. I’ve already got the yarn, now all I have to do is find the pattern.

Goal For Next Week:
Start a new afghan. Start work on the granddaughter’s dress.

WHAT I’M READING:
When I was reading the three-in-one, Growl, I realized I’d missed the book in between it and one I read previously from the same series. So I ordered in online. While I was waiting for it to arrive I read Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. Then Wild arrived and I read Catch A Tiger By the Tail by Eve Langlais, Wild Passions by Kate Douglas, and Her Perfect Mates by A.C. Arthur. Then when I was grocery shopping on Friday I treated myself to Murder At Sunrise Lake by Christine Feehan, and I’ve just started reading it.

Funny how I can always seem to make time for reading but not other stuff.

Goal For Next Week:
I did a little better at slowing down my reading, but I think I can do better.

GOAL REVIEW:

I got my blog posts up, and on time, although my actual Friday post was a day late. I did cheat a bit by recycling for my Wednesday post, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Despite getting my needle book done in time for my guild meeting, I didn’t make time for any other crafts last week.

I’ve got a new week ahead of me and I can only hope I find a way to start making my office hours work for me.

Happy writing.

Poetry Month

When a reader enters the pages of a book of poetry, he or she enters a world where dreams transform the past into knowledge made applicable to the present, and where visions shape the present into extraordinary possibilities for the future.
― Aberjhani

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
— Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
— Carl Sandburg

A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms to be struck by lightning 5 or 6 times.
— Randall Jarrell

As some of you may already know, April is Poetry Month, and once again Writer’s Digest is running their annual PAD Challenge (poem a day). They provide a new poetry prompt every day for your writing pleasure. If you’d like to participate, or just learn more, go HERE

I did the PAD challenge in 2006 and had a lot of fun. This is where I was introduced to the Sestina, which set me on my path of exploration of poetry forms. One of the things I liked best about the challenge is the fact that like NaNo, there’s nothing official. So if you fall behind and have to catch up, nobody really cares.

I’ve found in the past that when I’m in a writing slump writing poetry helps pull me out again. I guess part of this is because my first serious writing was poetry. In junior high, my language arts teacher designated Fridays as “Anthology Day,” where we’d be given a prompt (a picture, a short film, an idea) and would write about it in our anthology, a special notebook designated for that alone.

The thing was, we could write whatever we wanted. It could be fiction, non-fiction, a poem, or a excerpt from someone else’s work. I only once used someone else’s work (a rather gross poem about a fly that I chose for its shock value), and once I wrote a short story. But usually I could be depended on to turn in an original poem. My teacher loved me. ;-)

Some of those poems survive to this day. Even back then I had a strong sense of rhyme and rhythm – I don’t know where I learned that from, but it was pretty much hardwired into me. I also learned to never abandon sense for rhyme, and was introduced to the wonders of the thesaurus.

Even when I began writing more prose (mostly short stories), I still wrote poetry. I wrote my first parody in high school. The assignment was to write three verses in the style of one of the masters whose work had a strong rhythm to it. I chose Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Cremation of Sam McGee and instead of three verses I rewrote the entire thing as The Refrigeration of Sam McGee.

In any case, like I said, when I’m in a writing slump I often turn to poetry to pull myself out again. So I figured I have nothing to lose and I decided to give the PAD challenge a try. I joined up a little late, but I’m only a couple of poems behind.

They’re not great poems, but they’re good enough to warrant their own category in the wordage report. AND I figure I can post a selection (or maybe all of them because they’re really short) on Wednesdays.

Look at me go – new words and a Wednesday post. It can only get better from here, right?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

Well, would you look at that. Not only did I get my blog pos back, I managed to get some poetry done. It might not be great poetry, but it’s something.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1326+726+816=2,882
Poetry - 72+40+49+55+43+65+47=375
Total words: 3,257 words

Three minute words – 93+112+92+94+114+91+88=684

Goals For Next Week:
More poetry, and maybe something else as well.

EDITING:
I’ve been working on Magickal Mayhem, bit by bit, and making steady progress. Maybe next week I’ll remember to keep track

Goal For Next Week:
Keep editing Magickal Mayhem – and anything else that happens to come my way. Hint, hint, Jamie :-).

MARKETING MONDAY:
*sigh* Nope, didn’t happen last week.

And I still haven’t heard back about anything I’ve submitted so far, not even the Toronto Star Contest. They’re supposed to make their decision by now, but I’m not finding anything on a Google search either.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
For cryin’ out loud. Seriously, I do not know what is up with me as far as the Paperwhite goes. Maybe I could start by charging the damn thing up. And just because I get the books uploaded to it doesn’t mean I have to get it all organized. Who says I have to organize it at all? I can just delete as I finish a book. I’ve got so many books in my cloud I’ll never have the time to re-read any of them. And just because I delete them off the Paperwhite doesn’t mean they’re deleted out of the cloud – unless I really want to permanently delete something. In which case I’ll just cross that bridge when I come to it.

Goal For Next Week:
Set up Paperwhite

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
By the end of the month I’m going to have 30 new poems. Wednesday seems like the perfect day to showcase some of them.

Goal For Next Week:
Catch up on the PAD challenge

CRAFTING:
Yikes! I’m behind in my crafting.

I finally have the design set for the embroidery on the granddaughter’s dress. This entailed tracing the designs onto tracing paper, and then tracing them from the back to create my own transfers. It really shouldn’t have taken this long, but I wanted to be really, really sure so I didn’t screw anything up.

Goal For Next Week:
Embroider the granddaughter’s dress – it’s supposed to be for Easter

WHAT I’M READING:
Thank goodness this slowed down a bit. I finished Key of Valour by Nora Roberts, and then read Stars of Fortune, and Bay of Sighs, and I’m almost finished Island of Glass. The good news is I have a couple of books on tap that are not Nora Roberts.

The bad news is, I ordered the next four books in the Freakin’ series by Eve Langlais, and three other kind of random paperbacks that were on a points sale with Indigo. And they’re supposed to be here by Wednesday.

Goal For Next Week:
Make an effort to keep my reading under control

GOAL REVIEW:
Well . . . some good and some bad, I guess. The new words got a boost from the poetry, so that’s a win. And I’ve been continuing my slow but steady work on Magickal Misfire as far as editing goes.

The marketing was a bust, as was Techno Tuesday. At least Poetry Wednesday is looking promising.

The crafting was a dismal failure, which is really putting me behind the eight ball for this week. And my goal to not order any more Eve Langlais books lasted a whole day. *sigh*

But if there’s an up side to not meeting my goals, it’s that it gives me something to strive for in the week ahead.

Happy writing.

The Year Behind and the Year Ahead

What’s behind me is not important!



Just kidding. I think what’s behind me does matter, which is why I like to review the year behind before setting goals for the year ahead.

Because this is the start of a new decade (yes, I know technically a decade is any ten year period, but you know what I mean) I thought it would be kind of cool to see what I was up to ten years ago, and I gotta tell you, I feel like I’ve kind of been back sliding.

For one thing, ten years ago I had three blogs going (two of which are now defunct) and I was posting to them several times a week, including serializing a couple of my novels. 2010 was also the year I switched novels 10,000 words and one week into NaNo and still managed to rock it.

While I think I’ve grown a lot as a writer, I think I was getting more actual writing done when I was working outside the home. It added structure to my day. There is a fitting quote out there (which of course I can’t find) about how it’s easier to add just one more thing to your work load when you have a million things to do than to find the motivation to get up in the morning when you have nothing to do. I think it kind of applies to my situation and I think it’s something I need to work on in the year ahead.

But enough of that. Let’s review the goals I set in 2019 and how I did with them.

Publishing:
1. Get Wandering Wizards finished and published - Fail
2. Do an anthology of short stories - Pass
3. Start sending out stories and poems to appropriate markets - Fail

Organizing and Indexing:
1. Set up a searchable database for my poetry; have only one hard copy and one electronic copy - Fail
2. Organize short fiction – keep only one copy and delete extras - made a start
3. Organize photos and delete doubles - Fail

Writing:
1. Write a minimum of 30 minutes a day - Hahahaha Fail
2. Finish Wandering Wizards - Fail
3. Finish Shattered - Fail
4. Make a start on An Elemental Spirit - Pass

Lifestyle:
1. More reading, less mindless surfing/socializing/gaming - getting better
2. Spend time doing things away from the computer - Fail
3. Get back on the exercise band wagon - off and on

Well, it appears I didn’t do so hot on my goals last year. I got my anthology done, although it wasn’t what I had in mind, but I definitely didn’t send any stories out for publication.

I did make a start on trying to organize my story files, but only my story files and I really didn’t get that far with it. I have this fear of deletion which is why I still have a lot of hard copies as well as e-copies.

The writing thing was kind of feast or famine. I did get some work done on Wandering Wizards, but it’s not finished yet. Never gave Shattered a passing thought, but I did get a draft done of An Elemental Spirit.

It looks like 2019 wasn’t a stellar year. One can only hope that 2020 will be better.

As for my goals for the year ahead, I still haven’t come up with any yet, but I’ll post them as soon as I do.