Back to Class!

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
— Henry Ford

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
— Dr. Seuss

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.
— Brian Tracy

I used to do editing work for a woman who self-published a series of romantic adventure novellas. She did everything herself – the writing and the printing, and the selling of them at the local farmer’s market. When she reached her sixteenth book, she quit. She’d reached the number of books she’d envisioned, and that was that.

The thing is, she took a writing course through correspondence and decided she knew everything there was to know about writing. She had absolutely no interest in any learning beyond the course - she was an expert after all. This meant there was no progression in the quality of her writing - it stayed the same from the first book to the last.

My feeling is, there’s always something new to learn, whether it’s writing techniques or research technique. Continuing education helps you keep up with the current trends. Do you really want to spend a lot of time and effort on a story that in all likelihood isn’t going to sell?

Knowledge is power, and the more you know the more confident you will feel in what you’re doing. Maybe your writing has been feeling stagnant lately, a class or two where you’re learning something new is a good way to freshen things up. It might even generate some new ideas, or new ways to present old ideas.

Taking a class can also help you gain experience. The exercises you’ll be required to do give you practice at your craft. And learning is good for your cognitive health. It stimulates the brain, which in turn stimulates the imagination.

If you’re a freelance writer, continuing education is even more important. It helps you stay up-to-date on current trends, provides networking opportunities, and helps diversify your portfolio. Learning to write fiction can boost your creativity, making your non-fiction pieces more interesting. It can help you create stories people will care about.

So, now that you’ve decided a class or two might be interesting, where do you start?

Well, often your local college offers continuing education, or general interest courses for adults. Or if a classroom setting isn’t for you, there are plenty of writing books out there. Not only are these books loaded with information you can refer back to, they have exercises for you to do. There is also a plethora of online courses available, you have only to do a Google search to find one to suit you.

Or you could choose a variety. While I have several writing books for reference, and I fully intend to try out a few of those on-line courses, I have also taken a couple of night school classes at a nearby college.

But my jam is writing retreats. There is nothing quite like getting away for a few days and surrounding yourself with other writers to learn something new. I’ve learned something from every retreat I’ve been on and come home refreshed and full of knowledge.

Well, all except for the first retreat I went on. I came back from that one with a severe sinus infection. :-)

So don’t hesitate, go take that class.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Last week’s word would have to be . . . encouraging.

I figured the Labour Day weekend, being the last long weekend of the summer, would be the perfect time to turn over a new leaf and get my act together. Well . . . the holiday Monday I overslept and then spent the rest of the day trying to catch up, but Tuesday I was pretty much right on target.

The rest of the week I felt pretty blah and lethargic, but I got what I had to get done finished, didn’t have to stay up extra late to do it, and spent more time in my office than I have been lately. So even though my “turning of the leaf” only lasted one day, I’m still feeling encouraged.

I’m hoping that part of my unmotivated state last week was because our weather became hot and humid again, which means I was pretty much holed up in the house with the doors and windows sealed shut – the temperature didn’t even drop at night.

However, Friday evening a miracle happened and it began to cool off. In fact, it cooled off enough in the evening that I threw open the doors and windows and breathed in the healthy fresh air, that stuffed my nose up only slightly with allergies. Small price to pay.

Yesterday, with the doors and windows open in the morning, it was actually a little on the chilly side. I LOVED it! Welcome Fall!

NEW WORDS:
2566+564+455+867=4,452
DOWN: 70 – words

Okay, seriously, that’s not bad at all! Especially considering there were no late nights and I was only late with last Sunday’s post because I was away all of the day before. If I was early with any of the posts, it wasn’t by much, but I’ll take it anyway.

The installment for Winter’s Child went fairly well, but I feel like there’s some spark missing. Maybe it’s because I was writing from Joey’s point of view instead of James’s. It wasn’t quite what I had intended, but we’ll see what happens this week.

I caught myself a couple of times last week just farting around, playing computer games because I couldn’t think of anything better to do. Hopefully this week, with the return of the cooler weather as a motivating factor, I’ll find something a little more constructive to do with my time.

Goals For Next Week:
Try to get the blog posts done a little earlier; find some other writing to work on.

EDITING:
Last week – 77 pages
Total pages – 117 pages

Well, it just goes to show what you can accomplish when you work at something a little bit every day.

There are a lot of places where this needs to be smoothed out, and a lot more detail that needs to be added. One thing I’m going to do is make a character list, and jot down a few attributes for each one so I can flesh them out more. I’m working with a rather large group, which most people will tell you is a no-no, but it can’t be helped.

There are also way too many places where I have *planet name* or *needs alien name* and I’ll have to go through and figure those out. Good excuse to break out one of my notebooks, eh? But not a big one, because this is the last book in the series,

A story bible is something I should have done from the start, and I might have, if I’d thought it was going to be a series. But you know what they say about hind sight, it’s always 20/20. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I do have some of this stuff written down. For sure I know I have a list of alien words . . . somewhere. Not a whole language, mind you, just the odd word here and there.

Might be a good idea to hunt that up.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue first read-thru for editing.

POETRY:
Last week’s form was one of the dreaded coded Welsh forms, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

The one thing I didn’t like about it was the four syllable lines, especially when they had to rhyme. It really doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room. Because of this, my example wasn’t exactly note-worthy, but it’s passable.

No other poetry news for the week – no gatherings, or poems written. Not even printing out any of the poems I keep saying I’m going to do to update my big book o’ poems.

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share, update my big book ‘o poems.

CRAFTING:
No more baby sitting means no more crafting with the granddaughter. And honestly, not a lot of incentive to do any crafting otherwise.

There was a stitch-in at the library, which only a few of us attended, but it was still a fun time, and I even got some stitching done on my second floral kit.

I did spend some time considering my zentangle sampler, and I’ve settled on the stitch for the next square. Should be simple enough to do. I think I’d like to try and get it done before I go to the stitchery retreat in November. Not sure if that’s possible, but it’s something to shoot for. Although if I’m going to use it as a tote bag, I should probably do something on the other side as well. Maybe something in applique.

Goal For Next Week:
Consider my zentangle as a tote bag; organize my jewelry stuff.

WHAT I’M READING:
Still reading Trashlands by Alison Stine. I slowed right down, not because of the book, but because it’s easier to read the electronic books.

Despite not using the exercise bike last week, I picked up speed on the Kindle. I read Thorrn, by Skye MacKinnon, which featured really cool, Scottish aliens. Then followed up with Knock Down Dragon Out, I’m Not Lion to You, and Bearly Hanging On, all by Krystal Shannon and I’ve just started Bearly a Chance. This series of shapeshifting romances are set in Alaska.

Goal For Next Week:
Try and even out the reading between the tree books and the Kindle.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I’m definitely trying that whole turning over the new leaf thing again, starting with today. There are only a couple of things that might interfere this week. On Monday I have an appointment with my mental health counsellor, which I think will be more of a help than a hindrance. But Tuesday I have the first regular stitch-in with my guild, which I will have to leave early to make my dental appointment.

I don’t mind saying that I’m a little nervous about this dental appointment. This is the tooth that was supposed to be a root canal, only the dentist who did the drilling out part only gave me a temporary filling, assuming my regular dentist would fill it for me. Well, she claimed she couldn’t because my gum started to bleed. So she had me see a periodontist, who did something to that tooth ($1300 for 15 minutes work) and then told me I had to wait two months before he could finish whatever it was he started and then I’d have to have the dentist do their part immediately after.

And even at that, there’s no guarantee they can save the tooth. Pulling it is NOT. AN. OPTION!

If they still can’t give me a permanent filling, then they can give me another temporary one and I will either have the work finished properly by a different dentist, or I will have an implant by a different dentist. This tooth is on the lower right side in the front, and I am not losing a tooth there right before I go to Writersfest.

Winter’s Child is moving along nicely. I updated the progress bar and I’m at over 11,000 words, which is 38% of the way to my goal of 30,000 words. That’s not even halfway, and I’m about halfway through the story. BUT, I already have three times as much story at this point as I had in the entire original story, so you never know.

I made excellent progress on my editing last week, but it’s opened up a whole can of worms of things that need to be fixed. Like, there’s one place where I guess I was having trouble with a scene because I rewrote it three times and left a note that I still wasn’t happy with it. And before you ask, remember that this was a NaNo novel, so every word is sacred and you don’t delete anything. ;-)

But trust me. Once I’ve finished the first read through (hopefully this week) I’ll be using both my print copy (because it’s easier to find stuff) and the electronic copy, and I’ll be keeping track of my hours instead of my pages. I’m still mostly liking what I’m seeing, but it needs a lot of work to whip it into shape.

Once again, I find myself in need of creating a balance. I’m getting better at controlling my binge reading, but last week I found myself binge editing, which didn’t leave a lot of time for other stuff, like poetry. I’m not saying I want to write more poems, but I really would like to get my big book o’ poems updated.

I think if I print them out a few at a time every day, I might get them all printed out this week, and then I can file them all in the big black binder when I’m done. Or maybe spend an hour each day printing and then filing. Whatever works, I guess. AND I have to remember to date them, as best I can, something that was not done to my earlier poems.

Now that I know there’s no rush on those floral kits (because there’s no craft sale) I want to re-focus my attention on my zentangle. I suspect I need nine squares to fill out the one side, and I’m starting square two. *sigh* It’s never going to be done in time to take it to the retreat if I don’t start working on it though.

And at the very least I want to make a list of Christmas crafts for potential presents. Jewelry would be the easiest, but I also bought this cool kit that uses thread and beads or sequins in kind of a punch it way, and supposedly you can make appliques this way. I should really check it out. Again, this is something that I could work at a little each day, but knowing me, I’ll probably wait until I can spend a whole afternoon on it.

I also need to find a better balance between my tree reading and my electronic reading. But it’s hard when you queue up a book on the Kindle and find that it’s a box set. Maybe I should make a deal with myself – no electronic reading unless I’m riding the bike. Ha! We’ll see how that works out.

Cross your fingers for me.