Theoretically Speaking

Let’s recap last week for a minute. It was my last week of babysitting, plus it was a short week – holiday Monday, plus a free day on Thursday. Theoretically I should have been able to get all kinds of writing done, right?

I can see you know me well enough by now not to have such high expectations. LOL

Here’s the sad truth. Tuesday I had my yearly (because I’m diabetic) eye exam. Later (much later) that night I had a bad reaction to what I suspect were the combination of drops used in my eyes. So when I wasn’t babysitting I pretty much spent the rest of the week curled up on the couch watching TV.

I was starting to feel better on Sunday, but then I accidentally shattered the chimney from the floor lamp in my office over my head. Who knew those things were so fragile? Anyway, that’s my sad little story. I’m thinking things can only get better. Right? (knock on wood)

It’s been so long since I’ve worked on Wandering Wizards I’ve kind of lost track of where they are. And, if I’m perfectly honest, I’ve kind of lost interest in the whole thing too. I need to re-read and maybe edit a little to catch up/regenerate my mojo.

What’s that, you say? Why didn’t I catch up/regenerate yesterday, which was my first full day of non-babysitting? Well, uh, I got busy taking pictures of butterflies, looking for a replacement chimney for my lamp, and catching up on my journal. Don’t judge.

I’ll do better today – promise!

Prompts of the Week

I went through a whole bunch of prompts (another time waster) and generators before settling on these two from Springhole. This site has a whole lot of options and if you don’t like the prompt it generates just click it again. Maybe I’ll just go straight here next week.

First I clicked on the Fairytale Plot Generator, which gave me this:

The story is about a lonely wizard who must outwit a faerie, defeat a giant, and find a magic mirror to solve three riddles. Assistance comes in the form of a magic ring.

Then as a bonus prompt I clicked on the Really Random Plot-o-tron, which gave me this one:

An ordinary dinosaur gains control of a monster from under the bed and discovers the princess.

Go ahead, play along with me. Or go to Springhole and generate a prompt of your own.

You know you want to…

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.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So…I almost finished the edits I’ve been working so diligently on and then I came to the part that prompted me to go back and edit in the first place. And then I dithered for a bit thinking I might have to make a map after all because my group was supposed to meet someone at this shrine, and I had no idea where the shrine was in relation to where my group was.

Then a light bulb went off over my head.

The shrine scene kinda bugged me and it suddenly dawned on me that this book hasn’t been published yet. I can go back and change anything I want. And trust me, I want!

So now I’m backtracking 30 pages or so to get rid of a couple more scenes I didn’t like. One of them I might be able to change enough to save, but I still feel like for every step I’m taking forward I’m taking two back. Am I ever going to get this book finished?

I hope so, because I’ve become so fixated on it that I can’t seem to focus on any other writing. And as I was falling asleep the other night I suddenly had all these ideas invade my brain for this science fiction series I came up with while I was still in high school. I laid all kinds of groundwork for it but eventually abandoned it, mainly because I just wasn’t mature enough as a writer to handle it. Then I wrote the first book for NaNo one year, but there were several sticking points I needed to overcome before I could give the series a go.

The notes I made the other night not only clear up the sticking points of that series, it also connects with my Elemental series (which is set further into the future) and I’ve figured out which of the three possible endings for the Elementals makes the best sense. Woot!

But first…Wandering Wizards must get finished!


Prompts of the Week

Last week’s prompts marked the end of my jar of prompts. It was a good idea, but it lacked proper execution. So until I come with better prompts for the jar (feel free to send me any of your own) I’m going to change things up a bit.

I have a large book I bought through Reader’s Digest called The Family Word Finder. Yeah, it’s pretty much just a big ole hardback dictionary, but it also contains the odd quote and word origin. Anyway, I’m going to pick five words at random, and the challenge is to use all five of them in whatever you write – poem, story, opinion piece, whatever.

For the second prompt…remember last year I talked about how the writing group I was part of used Archetype cards as prompts for some freewriting during our meetings? Well, I bought myself a deck and each week I’m going to pull one at random and share it with you for the second prompt.

And if these don’t work…well, I guess I’ll just have to come up with something else. :-D

Prompt One

Forestall
Review
Applause
Vocalize
Govern

Prompt Two
The Archetype cards are great for creating characters, but you can also create a story (or poem) using the attributes in the abstract. And really, you have three choices here: just the light attributes, just the shadow attributes, or a combination of both.

Child Eternal
Light Attributes: Determination to remain young in body, mind, and spirit. Ability to see things with fresh eyes.
Shadow Attributes: Inability to grow up and be responsible. Extreme dependency on others for physical security.

And remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of time on these, they’re just meant for fun. But if it turns out you like what you’ve written, then by all means keep going and turn your exercise into an actual story or poem or whatever.

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 .