A Little Friendly Competition

Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.
— Nancy Pearcy

It was never wise to challenge fate to a Hold my beer contest.
― Yasmine Galenorn

It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory.
— Blaise Pascal

Have you ever entered a writing contest? They can be a lot of fun, and the prizes can be a lot more than you’d ever make just publishing your short fiction or poetry.

When I first started writing seriously, I wrote science fiction and fantasy, I used to enter the quarterly Writers of the Future contest, that was started by L. Ron Hubbard. Not only were there decent cash prizes, winners and runners-up were also published in their yearly anthology. A couple of times they sent feed back on my stories, and once I made it as a finalist but was too far down the list to be included in the anthology.

I’ve also entered the annual Toronto Star Short Story Contest several times. In the early days prize was a word processor or computer with word processing software, which I coveted more than the prestige of winning the contest. These days first prize is $5,000.00 and tuition for the Humber School For Writers’ online course.

There are a lot of benefits of entering writing contests, the main one being the prize money. While some contests offer little, other than bragging rights, for all your effort, many of them offer substantial rewards. The drawback is that many of them have an entry fee so you can actually lose money entering them. Myself, I never enter a contest that requires an entry fee, but I think that could change for the right story.

A lot of contests are themed, looking for a specific kind of story, which encourages you to try something you might not have considered before. There are also a variety of lengths (everything from six words to sixty thousand), genres, and styles. This is your opportunity to stretch as a writer.

Contests have specific deadlines, which is great motivation to overcome that pesky procrastination and get it done. You’ll need to finish your story, polish it up, and get it submitted on a schedule. And if you’ve done it once, you can do it again, even without a deadline.

It will improve your writing as you polish up your work before sending it. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll get feedback on your story.

Entering contests will help you develop perseverance. It’s unlikely you’ll win the first time out, but if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And even if you don’t win, you have a polished story that you can submit elsewhere.

There are plenty of contests out there, do yourself a favor and find one.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

You know, it might be easier to do the Wordage Report if I actually kept track of the words I wrote. I worked on a couple of stories, but didn’t think to keep track of the word counts. I guess I should just be happy I got things done.

I think I’m going to stop worrying about the Wednesday post. I’m just getting back into a writing routine and the Wednesday posts tend to be time consuming. Even when I’m recycling from old posts I need to update them.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,198+550+942=2,690

Three minute words – 108+119+116+127+128+128+130=856
Total words: 2,690 words

EDITING:
I did some bona fide editing last week. Specifically, Story 1 from NaNo received a title and an overhaul. I think all in all it was reduced by about six words in total.

I also edited two poems and printed out a story to edit the old fashioned way. Next week I’ll try and keep track of the time I spent doing so.

MARKETING MONDAY:
Every year I remember the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, only after the deadline has passed. This year I remembered with a whole week to spare. LOL While there’s no fee for the contest, I did spend $17 on postage to ensure it arrived before the March 1 deadline (they only accept submissions through the mail). I also submitted a couple of poems to themed anthologies.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I had another Zoom meeting with my stitchery group and I kind of liked it. It makes me wonder why I was resisting for so long. Unfortunately it took up half my Tuesday, and the final polishing and a trip to the post office with my contest story took up the rest of it. So that was pretty much it, technically speaking.

CRAFTING:
I got a little more work done on my current afghan. The moderator for the Zoom meeting gave us another challenge, putting me three projects behind. This inspired me to get working on one of them. I’d forgotten how hard cross stitch is on the eyes.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Carnal Innocence, by Nora Roberts and then read Divine Evil, and so far I’ve resisted picking up another of her books. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off though.

And easing back on the Noras meant I spent more time with the Kindle. I finished A Mate For the Christmas Dragon, by Zoe Chant, and then Holiday Heat Boxed Set (five books in one), by Vanessa Vale. Now I’ve started Her Cowboy Prince, by Trish Milburn. Looks like I’ve turned from the shifters to the cowboys.

GOALS:
1. Continue working on my Christmas Story.
2. Complete one of my stitchery projects.
3. Check out more contests.
4. Continue the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.

Have a happy writing week.

That Time of Year

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
— A. A. Milne

The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they’re organized for.
— Laura Ingalls Wilder

Yup, it’s that time of year again, when thoughts turn to getting my crap organized. And by crap I mean my electronic files. You know, the ones that are spread out amongst several USB sticks and my computer and I think an SD card.

Oiy!

Is there such a thing as being too organized? I’m beginning to think so.

The problem, I’ve found, with getting all my files organized, is that you have to keep up with it. Some time last year(?) I went through all my text files, got rid of a bunch of duplicates, and patted myself on the back for a job well done. I had photos saved to one place, various text files to another, and de-cluttered the desktop of my computer.

Except . . .

I’d upload pictures from my camera to my computer and instead of taking the time and trouble to sort them and save them to wherever it was I’d saved my photos to, I’d stick them in folders on my computer.

And yes, I kept my writing files organized (more or less) on the computer, but I’d forget to update them wherever it was I saved them to. And my poetry files . . . well, frankly they’re a mess again. One of the problems with my poetry is that I never think to put dates on it, especially my early stuff. I’ve gotten better over the last five years or so and started to create a folder for each year. So at least my newer stuff is a little bit organized.

At one point I created a folder on my desktop called “filing.” This is where I’d stick anything that needed to be filed on one of the USB keys I’d used to organize all my files. The idea was, every once in awhile I’d move files from this folder onto their appropriate key to stay, well, organized. Only I didn’t. Just like I didn’t back up any of my text files.

What brought this all to a head was when I decided to move the folders I have on my old lap top over to my new lap top. My method for doing this is simple – copy to a USB stick, then copy onto the new lap top.

Everything was going smoothly. I used the key with the most storage (32G), saved half my folders, then started to save the other half. Only it said I didn’t have enough space. Say what? So I checked the size of a couple of the folders, figuring maybe the folder I kept my background pictures in was too big. Nope. It was only 1G in size. Maybe my miscellaneous files? Nope, it was only 2G. The rest were mostly text files.

Then I checked my “filing” folder. Oops! It was 25G in size, mostly photographs. Apparently I take a lot of pictures. The good news was, although I didn’t file them on my USB key(s), they’re at least organized by year and sometimes subject matter. But still, they ended up on a USB key of their own.

So now I have stuff on the old computer, the same stuff spread out over three USB keys, and some of the stuff on my new computer. Not to mention the various USB keys from my previous organization attempts. I’m starting to think the problem isn’t so much my organization system, as it is the fact I spread it out so much and I don’t keep it up – i.e. update my external files.

One of these days I’ll figure out a way to get and stay organized. I’ll let you know when I do.

Meanwhile, this week was pretty much a bust as far as writing or editing goes. The spirit was willing but the head kept getting distracted. I did finish that free course on “show don’t tell” and while I found it interesting, if not helpful, it didn’t really help motivate me. The sad part is, I have these stories in my head, I just can’t get them out.

I finished reading The Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling and I really enjoyed it. All the stories were wonderful, but I think my favourite would have to be the last one, The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change by Kij Johnson. I advise you to check out her author’s site at Kij Johnson. Her writing link includes so free stories so you can check out her work.

Next up for reading is The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington. It’s a bit of a departure for me, reading-wise, but it looks fascinating.

The Week Ahead . . .

I’m actually having fun with my non-fiction Spice series, and I already know what my next two spices will be which will tie into the first post in October. I’m not trying to be mysterious about it, honestly! Maybe you’ll figure out what October’s post will be after you’ve read the next two.

A serious application of BICFOK (butt in chair, fingers on keyboard) is needed in regards to Magical Mayhem. I started writing it for my 2013 NaNo, that was EIGHT years ago! Granted it took probably another couple of years to finish writing it, but still, that’s way too long. Time to be done with it.

All the determination in the world doesn’t mean squat if you don’t actually apply yourself, so this week my main goal will be to write every day. Could be a prompt, could be that last scene from The Perfect Match – just so long as I write something. Anything.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Readin’ and Writin’

I have advice for people who want to write. I don't care whether they're 5 or 500. There are three things that are important: First, if you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair. And second, you need to read. You can't be a writer if you're not a reader. It's the great writers who teach us how to write. The third thing is to write. Just write a little bit every day. Even if it's for only half an hour — write, write, write.
― Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine’s advice seems simple enough. I do keep a journal, in fact I keep two of them. One of them is for everyday stuff, mainly used as a letter writing source. The other one is my writing journal which I use to jot down interesting quotes, ideas, poems, rants, and honest accounts of how the writing’s going (or not going).

Reading – well, we all know that’s not a problem for me.

Which brings us to writing a little bit every day. *sigh*

Well . . . I’m getting better, but I’m not at the “every day” part yet. I’m still struggling a bit with my focus – I get distracted easily and this week was full of distractions.

I had a visit from my niece and great-niece, stopping here for lunch as they drove from Hamilton to Ottawa where the great-niece is going to be starting a writing course at Algonquin College. I have to admit, I’m pretty envious. Not only of the course (which I looked up online) but the fact the great-niece gets to live in one of the most beautiful cities in Canada.

But the visit did have the positive effect of making me want to do more than sit around reading Nora Roberts books all day. Until . . .

My new lap top was delivered later that same day. It’s small, it’s light, and totally intimidating. I waited until the following day until unpacking it, and then waited some more before hooking it up and turning it on. Then I spent a couple of frustrating hours jumping through Microsoft hoops to get just the basics set up.

Yes, I know I would have had to go through the same thing no matter what lap top I got, but that doesn’t make it less frustrating. I never did get the fingerprint scanner to set up, so I still have that battle to fight. And I sprang for the Microsoft Home and Office 2019 (I’ve been using Office 2007) which I realize was a mistake. I paid for the full version, which I’m assuming came pre-loaded, but without the access key I won’t be able to install it on any other computer. And yes, it’s totally different from Office 2007 so there’s another distraction – learning to use my new software.

Other distractions this week included a morning at Jungle Cat World with the daughter and granddaughter, followed by an afternoon of back-to-school shopping (always a good time) followed by a visit the next day by a bunch of the hubby’s family from Ottawa. Any excuse to have a sausage barbeque is a good one. :-)

Still and all, I did get my blog posts done this week, including the first post in my new non-fiction series. I worked for a week on that post, and then the night before I was to post it I realized I was writing about an herb, not a spice. So it was back to my big book of herbs and spices to pick a new one.

The first post in a series is always the hardest because you have to work out a format that the rest of your posts will follow. But the nice part is, I know what the next series will be about. LOL

No editing done on Blood Ties last week – too many distractions I guess. But I am kicking around the idea for a new, better title. It started out as Wandering Wizards, which made it sound like my characters were wandering around without a purpose, which they weren’t. Blood Ties doesn’t really cut it for me either, so I’m going to think about the new title I’ve come up with before announcing it.

Reading wise I zipped through those Nora Roberts books I found (they were some of her early works which were much shorter) and now I’m reading The Coyote Road, which is an anthology of trickster tales gathered by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. I have another in this series The Faery Reel, but I haven’t been able to find a copy of the third in the series, The Green Man.

The Week Ahead . . .

My new non-fiction series is off to a great start and I want to keep up the momentum. So this week’s goal is to get my post done earlier.

Since I got no editing done on Blood Ties last week, I really need to buckle down this week. And I’ll probably be doing it on my old computer until I get used to the new version of Word on the new computer.

If I get tired of editing, I still need to get that last scene written for the book I’m taking with me to the retreat, which is coming up fast. And if I’m going to follow Madeleine’s advice and write every day, there are many prompts out there just begging for stories.

So . . . what’s will you be doing this week?

A New Leaf

You know, there’s nothing worse than becoming addicted to a game and having it fail on you. I’ve been playing Solitaire Garden for a few weeks now. There are 800 levels to it and despite the fact it’s a tri-peaks solitaire game, it’s been getting progressively harder. The idea is to play a round of solitaire to earn a star, then use the stars to complete tasks in the garden. Tasks can take anywhere from 2 to 5 stars so you have to go through several levels to complete a task.

As I said, some levels are easier than others and it’ll often warn you if it’s a “hard level” or a “really hard level.” But I’m nothing, if not persistent. It took me several days to get past level 626 and after that the tasks dried up. All I get is the message “More tasks will be available soon. In the meantime, beat more levels to earn more stars.” So I kept going, racking up 39 stars for future use, until I came to level 649. Now I’m getting a message “New levels coming soon! Stay tuned.”

*sigh*

It’s pretty obvious that fate has stepped in to force me to turn over a new leaf. I’ve making noises about getting back into some good writing habits (or any writing habits for that matter) but despite all my good intentions, every time I open my lap top (while sitting in the living room) I automatically gravitate to the games. So what does fate do? Take away my favourite game.

Okay fate, I hear you. Here I am in my office typing this.

To be fair, I really have been wanting to get back into a routine. And on the weekend I started thinking about stuff I needed to get done, stuff I wanted to get done, jotted down a few ideas for moving forward . . . . I even made a couple of lists – not just for writing stuff, but for every day stuff as well.

Then I started thinking about my blog format and how a wordage report doesn’t really work anymore because I haven’t really been doing any writing. And while I have a non-fiction series in mind for Wondering Wednesdays, I’m not sure what to do about Fiction Fridays. I can finish the excerpts from my NaNo novels, but then what? Do I start over again with different excerpts?

It would be great to start something totally new, but can I justify that with all the novels I got that need finishing? And I’ve still got the final edits to do on Blood Ties, the final book in the Moonstone Chronicles. I’d like to see it over and done and out by Christmas.

Which doesn’t really solve my problem of what to do about a Wordage Report or Fiction Friday, does it? That’s just the way my mind is circling these days, I guess.

In the end, what matters is that I’m here in my office and I’m getting new words down, even if they are words in a blog post. But it’s either that or clean my office. Which would you rather do?

An Apple a Day . . .

If someone wants to start a Go Fund Me campaign to create a Windows-like operating system that does not constantly updates and needs to be upgraded every couple of years, I’d be happy to contribute.

There were a couple of updates to Windows this week and one them messed with the settings on my lap top. The first one changed the back light colour of my keyboard – instead of multi-colour it went to straight red. I was able to fix it, but then I noticed my cursor was all over the place. And why was that? Because at some point it enabled my touch pad.

One of the first things I do with a new lap top is disable the touch pad. I find it annoying at the best of times but when I’m typing I find it super annoying. I find it unnatural to type with my hands raised, which you have to do to keep from touching the touch pad and sending the cursor to unexpected places.

I tried the usual ways to disable it with no luck. I even Googled it and they didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. And they took away the Paint program, which I found useful, and replaced it with Paint 3D, which I do not. Microsoft, you suck!

It’s just a good thing that I’ve been doing the bulk of my typing on the Neo lately, then uploading to the lap top. Otherwise my productivity would take a serious nosedive this week, and I only just started getting my nose up in the air again.

I might also mention that it changed my snipping tool, which I found handy for making maps for the hubby when he has to drive into Toronto, and it tried to make me switch to Microsoft Edge for my browser. There’s nothing I hate more than being strong armed into something.

When I’m ready for a new lap top, I’ll be taking a serious look at a Mac.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Editing – 0 hours/pages
To be fair, I did have my editing stuff sitting beside me most of the time, I just didn’t do anything with it.

Wandering Wizards – 1,000 words
Be still my heart!

Blog Posts – includes the post for my regular blog, but not the prompt story.
386 + 787 + 368 = 1,541 words total

Weekly Prompt – 669 words

Total Words – 3,210

New Prompt
One night, some children find a zombie hunter while searching for a doctor.

Goals From Last Week:
My total word counts were higher than they’ve been in a long time, mainly due to the fact I finally got going on Wandering Wizards again. No editing, but did I mention I got some new words done on Wandering Wizards? LOL

I kind of like working with prompts from The Story Shack, the addition of the word count adds a little something to the challenge. Once again I was over by about 20 words, but still, that’s not bad. I think the story worked better with the limit – if I’d kept going I probably would have thrown a Buffy reference in there and that would have pushed it over into cheesy.

No edits, and still no kanban board last week. I actually did get a few stick notes on the kanban board, but stick notes tend to . . . stick out. It kind of bugs me. So I got a dry erase board and a pack of washable markers, thinking that if I go for any kind of board that might work better. But the board I made is black and the dry erase board is white, and the white is really kind of . . . white. This might require a bit more thinking.

Goals For This Week:
1. More words on Wandering Wizards. I’ll keep it at the top of my list and maybe magic things will happen again.
2. New prompt story – different prompt source this week, just to keep it fresh.
3. Decide whether I’m going with the kanban board or the dry erase, or just forget the whole thing.
4. Make time to work on the edits for Visitation Rites.

And there’s what I’ll be up to this week. How about you?

The Little Writer That Could

Well, much to my surprise I kept up the blogging schedule I set myself last week. Yeah, Friday’s post was a little late, but I did manage to get it done so I get credit for that.

That being said I spent way too much time trying to decide what my next non-fiction series should be (and then doing research on it), and looking at prompts and finding new ones. I mean WAY too much time. I think it might be time to reinstate the jar of prompts, and the rule is that can only pick one a week. Which also means I’ll have to settle on my new prompt Saturday night so I can post it Sundays.

I did create my own version of the kanban board, but didn’t really have time to do more than stuck it up on my wall and stick three headings on it – to do, in progress, and finished. I spent a lot of time making a master list when I really should have just been writing things on the stick notes and sticking them to the board.

While I can take pride in setting a goal and reaching it this past week, the proof will be in the pudding – can I keep it up? I guess we’ll see.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Editing – none
You know, if I had a ‘To Be Edited’ box and a ‘Finished’ box on either side of my desk, my desk would probably tip right over. The sheer volume of ‘stuff’ that needs to be edited is daunting, but I need to suck it up and get to it.

Wandering Wizards – 0 words
I know how this book ends. I know how to get there. But there seems to be a connection problem between my brain and my fingers. I’m seriously tempted to skip ahead and then work my way backwards.

Blog Posts
– includes the post for my regular blog, but not the prompt post.
430 + 518 + 592 = 1540 words total

Weekly Prompt – 596 words
Considering the amount of time I spent looking at/generating prompts, I find it a little ironic that I ended up using a prompt I tried using a few weeks ago. I just typed out the two paragraphs I had written and ran with it. Go figure.

Total Words - 2136 words

New Prompt
One evening in the forest, a boy, an old widow, and a fortune teller find an old man.

Goals For the Week
This is kind of scary because it means I really have to commit myself to getting stuff done. Otherwise I start looking like a poser instead of a writer (which is the way I’m starting to feel). So, goals (in addition to blog posts):
1. New words on Wandering Wizards. Any words. They don’t even have to be good words, just words to move the story forward.
2. New prompt story – and this is just an exercise so I don’t need to agonize over it, I just have to get it written as quickly as possible.
3. Edit - just pick a story at random and start pecking away at it. And hopefully it’ll be so easy I’ll be inspired to edit others.

Wow. It looks like I’ve got a lot on my plate for the week ahead. How about you?

The Clouds of Grathos IV

As you might have guessed, last week was not a good week writing-wise. Or anything-wise really. But it was but it was and I’m making neither apologies for neither. Things happen. Or don’t, as the case may be.

I missed my fortune telling post, which is a little disappointing on my part because I had all the research done, I just didn’t have the desire to put it all together.

I seem to be swinging back and forth between reading too much and gaming too much. Now, writers should read, that’s a given, but they should read a variety of things and I seem to be fixated on Nora Roberts lately. Mostly her romances. Sometimes her romantic suspense.

But the good news there is I’m currently on the last of one of her quartets right now and Indigo/Chapters won’t be delivering any more until May 7th. Obviously they’re using Canada Post again instead of UPS. But this also means I’ll be forced to read something else, like something from my to-be-read bookcase.

We won’t even discuss the gaming. It’s just pure escapism.

I’ve been good at giving myself a stern talking to when it comes to my lack of, well, anything, but I’m also pretty good at ignoring myself. I seem to be productive one day, then a slacker for two. This week’s goal is to be productive at least every other day.

We’ll see how it goes.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The cloud was talking, and you know what that means. Yeah, that’s right. The weather control system was off its grid again. I’ve been working the night shift so I’ve been sleeping during the day, or I would have noticed it sooner.

Of course one of the other scientists stationed on Grathos IV could have mentioned it, or left a report or something, but Garth and Sandy enjoyed talking to clouds, Richard and Sven were too focused on their work to notice, and Kate, Beckett, and Taylor just didn’t care. Of course the clouds rarely talked to them.

We’ve put in seven of our twelve month stretch here. It would have been well into our eighth month if we hadn’t had to sit around in orbit while the microbiologists and biochemists argued about whether or not the virology in the ecosystem of the planet was safe for humans. Ultimately they decided it was harmless, and we were green to go.

Once we get the weather stable enough to sustain itself without the grid Grathos IV will be ready for settlement. It should have been ready long before this, but every time we shut down the grid we get talking clouds, or worse singing clouds.

It’s a little disconcerting to venture outside and have them whispering above you. Sometimes they just carry on monologues, sometimes they ask questions, but more often than not they offer advice. It was amusing in the beginning, but not so much when they start interfering in our personal business.

They see everything, you understand. They’re clouds, vapor. There’s no locking them out, no hiding behind closed doors. They know everything we do, even things we hide from the others. And they like to share, so there are no secrets on Grathos IV.

It’s not like they’re sentient, any more than the rocks, grass and water was, at least that’s what the environmental specialist claims. We managed to silence all the voices except for the ones in the clouds. But we’ll get them too, eventually.

Well, better get back to work.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Wandering Wizards – ? words
I tinkered around a little, but my heart wasn’t really in it last week. Hopefully I’ll to better this week.

Weekly Prompt – 349 words
I actually like the way this little prompt story turned out. If I can figure out a way to expand it at little, I might even try marketing it.

New Prompt
Use this as your first line:
After the goblin invasion we realized all the dark lords were dead.

Happy Writing!

Revisiting Goals

Summer’s half over and it got me to thinking that the year is half over as well. And I think it’s high time I checked out the goals I set out at the beginning of the year to see how I’m doing.

First up, a reminder of those goals:

Publishing: Wandering Wizards and an anthology; start submitting poetry and stories.
Organizing and indexing
Writing every day
Less gaming & social media, more exercising and eating healthy

Doesn’t look bad, does it? Because technically there are only four goals. But three of them are multi-part goals so it’s not as simple as it looks.

Publishing — utter fail
Wandering Wizards has been moving forward at a snail’s pace and the anthology is still nothing but an idea. And I definitely haven’t been submitting anything to any kind of publications.

Organizing and indexing — utter fail
I did get the rest of my files pulled off of my old lap top, but they’re still scattered amongst various USB sticks. And I think I’ve pretty much figured out how I’m going organize my poetry, but haven’t made any effort to do so.

Write every day — sort of fail
It’s kind of feast or famine with me, especially lately. The spirit is willing my but mind is weak, and the distractions are many.

Less gaming & social media, more exercising and eating healthy — semi-win
The gaming and social media are kind of hit or miss – some days are more successful than others. It’s an ongoing process that I’m still working on, especially the games. But the more exercising and eating healthy is going well. I haven’t lost any weight yet, but my A1C (I’m diabetic) has gone down 1.4 points.

So . . . it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me if I’m to reach my goals by the end of the year. But the grandbaby starts kindergarten in the fall, which means I have my days to myself again. So if I can’t reach at least one of my writing goals by the end of the year then maybe I’m not cut out to be a writer.

Prompt of the Week

The Story Shack still won’t let me in, so this week I used the Seventh Sanctum writing challenge generator, which came up with the following:

The story takes place in the early morning. A character will send a letter.
A character will prepare for a religious ceremony. A character becomes attracted to someone during the story.
A character writes a book, but the action goes terribly wrong. A character becomes happy during the story. During the story, there is a sudden change in weather.
The story must have a giant at the beginning. The story must involve a pendant at the end.
A character is misunderstood throughout most of the story. During the story, a character drinks something that disagrees with them. The story is set during a day off. The story takes place at noon exactly. During the story, someone is mistaken for someone famous.

Last week I spent way too much time thinking about my story and doing research, but to be perfectly honest it just wasn’t happening for me. Hopefully this week I’ll have better luck with one of the prompts from above.

Readin’ and Writin’

Any writer worth their salt will tell you that reading is an important part of the creative process for a writer. In fact, one of the first pieces of advice many established writers will give a budding author is to read, read, read.

I tend to read books in genres other than what I’m writing in. For instance, while working on the Moonstone Chronicles I tend to shy away from reading swords and sorcery or fantasy based adventures. If I was working on the Ardraci Elementals I’d shy away from science fiction.

I read my Kindle while using the exercise bike (so I think of it as reading time, not exercise time) and I read tree books to relax. While I like books in a series, I loathe serials, but sometimes I get caught up in a specific genre and binge read. For instance, I just finished going through a werewolf phase on the Kindle – I read about six or eight werewolf books in a row (although to be fair, two of them were shapeshifting dogs).

I’d have probably kept going with the werewolves, but that was all I could easily find. Blame Book Bub, I have almost 1800 unread books on my Kindle. Now I’m really into this motorcycle club book I’m reading and I expect I’ll be looking for more of those in the future.

While the Kindle reading is a set, daily thing, the tree book reading is a little more problematic. It’s not always easy to fit into my daily routine, but I’ve been making more of an effort lately. And if reading leads to writing, then it appears to be working.

Check out the side bar people – the edits are done and I’m back to adding new words to Wandering Wizards!

I think I was up to around 69,000 words when I started the edits, and I added about 6,000 worth in new scenes, so I probably deleted about 10,000 worth of fluff. While the time line might be a little shaky, I think on the whole what I’ve got is a stronger story and I can’t wait to see what happens next.


Prompts of the Week

Prompt One - words
Quarrel
Bubble
Tidy
Stay
Shield

Prompt Two – archtype card:
Beggar
Light Attributes: Confronts empowerment at the level of physical survival. Awakens the spiritual authority of humility, compassion, and self-esteem.
Shadow Attributes: Dependence on others to the exclusion of effort.

Remember, you don’t need to use the words from prompt one in order, and you don’t necessarily have to create a character from the archtype card, you can use the attributes in the abstract if you like. Above all, have fun with your words, you never know what you might come up with.

Insert Pithy Post Title Here

As my reward for full-time babysitting last week, I’ve had the last several days off. In a perfect world I would have sat down with my morning coffee and written all day, coming up for air at the end of the day to count the number of pages I got done with an air of smug satisfaction.

But as we know all too well, the world isn’t perfect.

Day one I couldn’t seem to find my focus, partially (but not totally) because the pool guys were in the back yard putting the finishing touches on our newly installed above ground pool. Also, the phone kept interrupting my train of thought. So I worked on the prompt stories, such as they were.

Day two I was in a funk. It was one of those funks that nothing seems to help – not a change of scenery, not shopping, not even the kittens at the kitten adoption blitz at the library – you just have to ride it out. I was so hyper focused on Wandering Wizards that I couldn’t interest myself in working on anything else. So I did six loads of laundry just so I could say I got something accomplished.

Day three I decided enough is enough and started entering the changes I made to the paper copy of Wandering Wizards into the electronic one. And that’s when I made the discovery that I had an extra “Jessica and Dominic” scene, so technically I was no longer stuck. But I finished making the changes to the electronic copy anyway. I’m pretty sure I mucked up the time-line, but that’s something I can fix when the draft is finished.

Day four I caught up to where I’d stopped to go back and add more Jessica-centric scenes, and please note that the Wandering Wizards meter in the side bar has moved from 47% to 70%. I’m hoping to get the edits finished by the end of the day so I can have my reward (a brand new Lynsay Sands book I bought and then gave to the hubby to hold onto until my edits were done) and time enough to read it before it’s back to babysitting.

So the good news is that I’ve only got 60 pages to go, but the bad news is that I’m at a place where I need to insert another Jessica and Dominic scene. But this should be the last one because Howard and Ellen’s group has just reached the Wild Woods Elven Realm so that means Jessica and Dominic need to be in Claverton.

Wish me luck!


Prompts of the Week

The friend that was helping me pick prompts has deserted me. Okay, actually she didn’t so much as desert me as move to a better place, but that better place is in another town. I have to admit, it was taking us longer and longer to find a couple of decent prompts to use each week and before she left we went through the rest of the jar and discarded all but about a dozen of them. Even at that I was hard pressed to find two I thought were doable for this week. So next week I’ll be abandoning my magical jar of prompts. But don’t worry, I’ll find something else to challenge you with. :-)

Prompt One
Write a 20-line poem where every line begins with the first letter of your first name. The only rule is that it can’t be about you.

Prompt Two
Write a story from the perspective of Harold the Armchair. What does he think about all day? Does he like being sat on? Do his parents approve of him being an armchair?

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Walking On Sunshine

Oh, the difference a little sunshine (and a long weekend) can make.

We’ve had enough sun over the last few days – in and amongst the wind, rain, and clouds - that my solar batteries are starting to recharge. And you know what that means – my writing mojo is returning.

Of course it may look nice outside, but it’s still a little too cool for planting my gardens, so I felt no guilt whatsoever staying inside over the long weekend and getting some writing done.

I’m still working on the edits to Wandering Wizards, but I finally feel like I’m making progress. I’ve deleted two chapters worth of NaNo fluff, and added in over 5,000 new words for Jessica and Dominic. And most of that was done over the weekend.

That was the good news. The bad news is that I’ve been making these changes to a paper copy I printed out and I’m still going to have to make these changes to the electronic copy. My hope for this week is to hunker down and get the rest of the edits done by the week so I can spend the weekend making the changes.

I think it’ll be a race against time though. I still babysit for the better part of the afternoons and tonight I have Fight Club (AKA my poetry group meeting). Tomorrow morning I get to go on a trip to a farm with the granddaughter’s pre-school, and Friday the daughter leaves for a conference in Calgary so I have the pleasure of the granddaughter’s company all day.

This is also why I want to get the edits finished by the end of the weekend. The daughter will be away all week so it’ll be full time babysitting until Friday, when she returns. And once I’ve caught up to where I’ve left my intrepid band of adventurers, I can move Wandering Wizards from “Currently Editing” back to “Current Projects” where it belongs.

So let’s hear it for the sunshine that’s pulling me out of my funk!





Prompts of the Week

Prompt One
Go over to your bookshelf, close your eyes, and pick up the first book you touch. Open the book to a random page, read the first full sentence on that page, and use it as the inspiration for a story or scene. Please include the original line at the beginning or end of your response.

Prompt Two
Write a scene that involves a fairy tale trope turned on its head or otherwise deviating from typical expectations. For example: A princess who’s cruel to her kind stepmother; a golden goose that lays explosive eggs, a big, frightening wolf who really just wants a friend.

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. Take 5 minutes to think about it, then write for 10 or 15 minutes. And if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means turn your exercise into an actual story. You can find these prompts, and others like them, at Writer's Digest .

Progress Report

Anybody still out there? Sorry it’s been so long but to be quite honest up until now there hasn’t really been much to report. Writing has been slow, when it’s been going at all, and it’s been mostly unfinished flash pieces for my writers group. In fact, if it wasn’t for my writers group I probably wouldn’t even have that much to report.

This has been one of the longest dry spells I’ve ever suffered (and anyone who writes will tell you that you do suffer when you’re not writing). It pretty much started right after NaNo. First there was the rush of having completed the challenge, followed by the inevitable let down when you finish a novel. Hard on the heels of that was the realization Christmas was only three weeks away and I was totally unprepared.

I had about two weeks over the holidays (Christmas and New Years) free from babysitting, but because my family is pretty scattered I spent most of that time still working on Christmas – baking, gift buying, wrapping, travelling. Then I got sick. Then life got kind of complicated and well, here I am, eight months into the new year with precious little to show for it.

So I thought this would be a good time to maybe take a look at some of the goals I set for this year. Maybe things aren’t quite as bad as I thought.

Write every day – at least 500 word: Fail
Most of the time I was lucky if I was writing 500 words a week.

Less time gaming and social media: Semi-fail
It’s an ongoing struggle – some days are more successful than others.

Shut down by 11 p.m., 12 at the latest: Semi-fail
The idea here was to give myself an hour to read before bed, but since I’ve started to go to bed earlier so I am shut down by 11, I can’t really count this as a win.

Spend more time doing crafts: Fail

Make better use of my Neo: Fail
When I’m using my Neo the writing seems to flow effortlessly, but it’s just actually sitting down to use it that seems to be a problem here.

Organize my poetry: Fail

Wow. No wonder I’m having such a dry spell. But hopefully that’s all behind me. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I’ve been doing a lot of reading (old favourites for inspiration), and I decided it was way past time to fish or cut bait. So I pulled out what I had of Wandering Wizards (the third in my Moonstone Chronicles), skimmed over it to see what I had, and then took the time to figure out where it was going. Then I went through the previous book to track down where my character had been so I could figure out the starting point to continue on.

Moving forward, my goal is to write every day. Wandering Wizards has been sitting around long enough, time to get it finished. And if I need a break from the magic and mayhem, I have about a dozen or more flash stories in various stages of being done. I want to pick one a week and polish it up. Maybe even start trying to sell the darn things. What good is a story if no one reads it, right?

If all goes well, starting next week I’ll be able to post my weekly word counts again. If all doesn’t go well… *shrugs* Then I guess I’ll just keep trying.

One Quarter Down, Three to Go

While I did better writing-wise last week than the week before, it wasn’t great and all the extra time I had on the weekend was kind of wasted.

Last week I got my Steampunk story finished and posted, and then Friday I got two really short pieces from Inspiration From Improv posted. And then I procrastinated by futzing around with the settings on a blog a friend and I are starting up for a photography challenge. *sigh*

This being the end of the first quarter of the new year, I figured it might be a good time to revisit my goals for the year. If nothing else, it’ll remind me that I have goals that I should be working towards. So here we go:

Write every day, at least 500 words Well that’s a big fat fail, isn’t it? Even if you count blog posts I haven’t been writing 500 words a day.

Less time gaming and checking social media I was actually doing pretty good on this early in the year, but I confess to sliding back into my old habits. I don’t know where I started on games like Bubble Mouse, but I’m up to 76 golden keys (you have to work through 100 levels to get a key) - I have this vague notion of stopping that game when I reach 100 keys.

Shut down by 11 p.m., 12 at the latest I think the idea here was to spend that time before bed reading, working on crafts, or catching up on my journal, but by the time 11 or 12 rolls around I’m too tired to focus on much of anything besides the mindless games I play on my lap top.

Spend more time doing crafts I had good intentions here, really I did. I started a long vest to help combat the cold in my new office, but I put my knitting bag away one day while cleaning and it’s been in the craft closet ever since.

Make better use of my Neo Poor Neo, so sad and neglected. I don’t know what’s going on here, I love my Neo and I type so much faster on it. I did finally replace the batteries in it a couple of weeks ago - second time in four years.

Organize my poetry This was supposed to be a project to keep me away from the games when I wasn’t working on a story. But do you know how much poetry I have? I’ve explored over a hundred different forms, with many poems in between. I have a lot of poetry. I need to win the lottery so I can pay someone else to organize it for me. :-D

Journal more often I’m thinking by journal I meant my writing journal, my personal journal I seem to be pretty good at keeping up with. I think part of the problem with my writing journal is that I never really know what to write in it. I see examples of other people’s writing journals and they look so...creative. Mine seems pretty lame in comparison. Maybe I should do some research on how to keep a writing journal. Oh look, a new way to procrastinate! LOL

I really don’t want to get to the end of the year and look back to see that nothing’s changed, so I guess that means I need to get to work, eh? Time to put on the big girl writer panties and get to work!

Writing Vs. Rewriting Vs. Editing

Wandering Wizards is really starting to tick me off. As I’m sure I mentioned before, I wrote the first half of it during NaNoWriMo, but I wrote it with only a vague idea of what was going on because it was part of a series and I hadn’t finished the book before it. And now I’m paying the price.

There were changes to be made; it was almost a whole new book. But silly me, I thought it would be faster/easier to incorporate as many of those 50,000 words into the new version than to just start from scratch. And yeah, a lot of what I’d written can be used pretty much verbatim, but a lot of it can ... not.

Along with a lot of little changes, there were a couple of big ones. One of these changes involved a crucial piece of information that was found near the beginning, and then repeated later on with no indication we’d read it before. Would it be better left in the beginning or later on? Decisions, decisions. I spent about a week changing and re-changing the beginning to set up the inclusion of the crucial information later on, and then started reading from the beginning, and ... almost immediately ran into another section that needs to be changed, this time to agree with something I wrote in the previous book.

Man! And I thought the previous book was the story that never ends! Although I guess it’s not the story itself, just the writing of it that seems never ending.

So why, you may ask, don’t I just soldier on and finish the darn thing, then go back and make changes? Because that’s what I did with the previous book, and the editing was a nightmare. Changing stuff as I go along is more like just a very bad dream. LOL

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
3,811 words total
Not bad if I do say so myself. Although I missed last week’s update post so the word count is from the week previous to that. But this past week not only did I get all of my posts done, they were up on time. Mostly.

Reading/Reviews
0 words total
Still haven’t been doing the reviews of the books I’ve been reading lately, but at least I’m keeping track of them. I finished a boxed set of SEAL action/romances on the Kindle - man, were they good! If you have a chance to read anything by Sharon Hamilton, do so. You won’t be sorry. Then I found another from that series and kind of devoured it in one sitting. And I finished A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain - it was a nice change from all that SEAL action. ;-)

Editing
0 hours total
While I did get some editing on Elemental Earth, it wasn’t as much as I’d planned. But any progress is good progress at this point. I even went so far as to buy myself a carrot -- the latest Lynsay Sands book. I'm not allowed to read it until the edits are done. I’ve come up with a vague idea for the cover, too. I just lack the PhotoShopping skills to make it happen. ;-)

New Words
11,752 words total
Before you get all impressed with the large number (for a change) remember that we need to spread that over two weeks. And I have to be honest here and admit that some of those words were already written, just needed some judicious editing.

Weekly Goals:

Last week (or two):
Did not finish editing Earth.
Did not start An Elemental Spirit.
I surpassed my 2,000 word goal for Wandering Wizards, but only because it’s been two weeks since I updated here (again).
This week:
Continue, if not finish, the edits on An Elemental Earth.
Minimum of 2,000 new words on Wandering Wizards.
Start catching up on my book reviews.


Since it’s really the only thing I have going on at the moment, once again the excerpt is from Wandering Wizards:

The hour was growing late and it was decided they would stay the night as Aracelia’s guests and start off in the morning. While Howard and Aracelia chatted amiably about magic, Ellen remained quiet at dinner that evening. Without her anger to sustain her, she was finally feeling the impact of what had happened.

“You are troubled,” Kaelan observed.

“I was just thinking that my parents must be going out of their minds with worry,” she said, picking at her food. “I didn’t exactly have time to let them know I’d be going away.”

“I’m sorry,” Howard said, looking a little guilty. “I should have told you what I was up to.”

She waved him off. “What’s done is done.”

“Perhaps I could get a message to them,” Aracelia said thoughtfully. “I am sure I would be able to open a portal small enough for a wind imp to slip through.”

“A wind imp?” Ellen asked.

“Each of the elements have creatures linked to them. A wind imp is the most useful of the air elemental beings.” She sent one of the servants for a quill and paper.

“This is so cool!” Ellen said, dipping the quill into the small bottle of ink. She wrote a deliberately vague message to her parents about a sick friend who desperately needed her help, apologizing for the short notice and asking them to let the boutique where she worked know that she’d need a leave of absence.

When it was dry Aracelia folded it carefully and summoned the wind imp. It was smaller than the letter the elf gave it to carry, invisible but for an indistinct outline of its body. “Hold the image of your parents’ home in your mind,” she told Ellen.

Ellen did as she was told and Aracelia muttered a gutteral sounding incantation under her breath. A small hole opened up in the air in front of her and the wind imp, carrying the letter, slipped through.

Ellen couldn’t hold back a smirk.

“What?” Howard asked her.

“Gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘air mail’, doesn’t it?”

The pair of them laughed while the others at the table remained mystified as to what was so funny.

Moving Forward

The good news is, I reached my goal. The bad news is, I’m left trying to figure out “what next?”

I’ve finished my transcriptions. There, I said it. They’re done and polished and sent off to the contractor. I can pat myself on the back over the fact I was able to meet my goal (only slightly late, and that was because of something I had no control over). I learned what I’m capable of if I put my mind to it, which is a good thing. But now that the sigh of relief has been let out, I’m left feeling kind of meh.

Surprisingly, this is a pretty common feeling. When you set a goal for yourself you start out with an initial thrill of working towards something, then there’s the euphoria of reaching your goal, and then ... the inevitable emotional letdown. So why does this happen?

Sometimes it happens when we look outside of ourselves for praise. When that praise from others begins to wane, as is only inevitable, so does our validation. And while we should feel proud of ourselves, we just aren’t used to feeling that way, no matter how well we do. But probably the most common cause of emotional let-down is self-doubt. That little voice inside your head that says, “Yeah, it happened this time, but don’t expect it to happen again.”

The best way combat this is to set yourself a new goal immediately. Keep up those good habits self-discipline instilled in you and move on. Learn how to give yourself praise or a pat on the back. Personal goals are just that - personal. While it’s great if someone else recognizes them, that’s not the point. The point is to achieve this for yourself. And never, ever compare yourself to others.

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2839 words total
Up by about a thousand words from my last report, and almost twenty-five hundred from last week. While I may have been late with all but one of my posts last week, including this one, at least I got them written, so I have that much going for me at least. :-)

Reading/Reviews
0 words total
I started reading Lord of the Flies while babysitting, and Thursday I spent the entire day reading Inkheart, which was really good. And really long. But I didn’t have time to review it.

Editing
0 pages total
It’s been a while since I looked at An Elemental Earth, but I finally picked it up again this week and I’ve gone over the first 12 chapters. So far I’ve only had a little bit of tweeking to do here and there, but I’m going to take my time and get it right.

New Words
2,372 words total
Okay, so that’s not as impressive as I’d hoped. The transcription project was done Tuesday, the files were sent Wednesday, so technically I had from Wednesday afternoon on to work. So what happened? Well, somewhere along the way I picked up a really, really bad cold. And then Thursday I felt so crappy that I spent the day reading. Friday I was doing other things, so most of those words were done yesterday.

This Week’s Goals:

Continue editing Elemental Earth, reach Chapter 24
More words on Wandering Wizards
Update my Goodreads

My last goal was to make it through the week with my sanity intact, and I’d have to say the jury is still out on whether I achieved that or not. LOL


This week’s excerpt is once again from Wandering Wizards:

Howard woke with a groan. It took a few minutes for his memory to catch up with him and when it did he sat up too quickly.

“Ow, ow, ow!” He held his head as it threatened to explode with pain. “Jesus! Why didn’t anyone warn me about side effects?”

The pain receded slightly and the spots that had been dancing in front of his eyes lessened. It was at that point he realized he wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by a ring of heavily armed elves, all dressed in some kind of dark grey uniform, all with drawn swords pointed at him.

“On your feet, human,” the one with extra decorations on his tunic ordered.

“Okay, okay. Just give me a minute to catch my breath.” The pain in his head seemed to recede a bit as he breathed in and out slowly.

This was not how he pictured arriving in the Magical Realm, although he was grateful that at least that seemed to be where his transferral spell had landed him. A quick glance around showed that he seemed to have landed in someone’s formal garden. In fact, he was quite fortunate that he landed on the path and not in one of the flower beds with their ornate statuary or worse, in the fountain.

The soldiers, he couldn’t think of them as anything else, showed signs of impatience so with a supreme effort he got to his feet. Another quick glance around had him breathing a quiet sigh of relief. There was no sign of Ellen, thank God she hadn’t been close enough to get caught up in his spell - he’d have never heard the end of it.

“I don’t suppose one of you kind gentlemen could tell me exactly where I am?” he asked, a puzzled frown on his face. While he didn’t exactly expect to land at Jessica’s feet, he had hoped to be in her general vicinity. And when he last spoke with her, she and Dominic had been off of Ghren lands, just at the edge of the Darkwood Forest.

“Silence. You will come with us.”

As much as Howard would have liked to protest, he had a feeling it wouldn’t do him any good. The pain in his head receded to hangover strength but he was feeling slightly dizzy, so at first he focused entirely on staying on his feet. Gradually the dizziness passed and he began to look at the passing scenery with interest.

The path through the garden was made from something like flagstone, only this was no dull grey slate, but a white, marble like stone. On either side of the path were flowering shrubs and exotic blossoms, slender trees that bore unfamiliar fruit. They came to a finely wrought gate that appeared to be carved from the same stone as the shimmering white walls surrounding the garden.