Spreading the Love

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it all into words is all that is necessary.
— Margaret Cousins

Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.
— Mary Kay Ash

You get a good review, and it’s like crack. You need another hit. And another. And another. I know authors are like Tinkerbell and generally need applause to survive, but it’s a slippery slope.
― Alexandra Bracken

When was the last time you showed appreciation to someone for something they did? Of course, we do it all the time. When someone does something for us we thank them. Not just because it’s common courtesy, but because we appreciate that they took the time and trouble to do it.

Now, when was the last time you told a writer how much you appreciate the book they wrote?

I thought as much. Don’t worry, I’m guilty of the same thing. And this is something I’ve regretted over the years because I keep saying I’m going to, but I don’t. And now it’s too late to show my appreciation to a couple of my favorite authors – they died without knowing how much their books meant to me.

I don’t know what it is about showing appreciation to an author that’s so difficult. We’ll tell a friend or family member how much we loved a book, but rarely tell the author themselves. It’s a wonder any of us keep writing.

In the old days you could write your favorite author fan mail. These days it would be email, so much quicker and easier and you don’t have to make a trip to the post office. Some people show their appreciation by writing fan fiction, where they like a story so much that they never want it to end, so they continue it on their own. A prime example of this is the Shades of Grey series, that started out as fan fiction for the Twilight series.

Of course the sales help. When those sales figures go up an author knows they’re doing something right. Nothing says I love you like someone paying full price for the book you slaved over. I have to wonder though how Stephanie Myers felt about those sales figures from the Shades of Grey series creeping up towards those of Twilight.

Have you ever written a book review? I used to do that on a regular basis on a different blog (which is long gone now), and one of the perks of that was when publicists started sending me books to review. So many free books! But I only accepted books I intended to read, figuring it unethical to do otherwise.

Reviews are another way to show appreciation. I keep track of the books I read on the Goodreads site, and I’ll usually leave a quick little review when I add a book to my “read” list, but I never think to add the review to Amazon, where ratings are everything. And there’s no reason for me not to, other than sheer laziness.

So next time you read a book you really enjoy, let the author know. Send them some fan mail, or better yet, leave a review. I know I’m going to start trying to do so.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I’m starting to see a pattern here. My weeks start out strong, and then somewhere in the middle they just seem to get away from me. Or they kind of peter right out. It’s a little bit frustrating!

Monday was a really good day – a nice balance between writing and stitching and reading. But Tuesday I had some medical stuff going on, and then I figured since the day was pretty much a write-off anyway, I might as well drive up to Peterborough to drop off the car load of donations I had.

Wednesday there was some unexpected socializing, which really threw what was left of my schedule off. Thursday I had a coffee date with a friend, which I might not have made if I’d known Wednesday afternoon was going to be a write-off.

By Friday my ambition had kind of deserted me. I worked in my office, but didn’t get much done. I fixed the poem I’d done for my “poemwork” . . . yeah, that was about it. In my defense, though. I’d like to point out that we’re deep into allergy season and my head has been hurting on a daily basis.

But also Friday, I had the final installment of The Pond up. I probably could have split it into two, but I really wanted to end at part 40. And I was getting a little tired of it. And despite the fact that it seems a little rushed, it did end the way I’d always intended it to.

And the really good news is, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what my next serial is going to be. It’s a strange story I had the idea for many, many years ago, loosely based on a poem I did that personified winter.

Should be something a little different.

NEW WORDS:
2205+633+427+1099=4,364
DOWN – 85 words from last week

Down a little bit from last week, despite the rather lengthy post on Friday. But I’m still not tempted to include my morning pages (which I’ve been doing faithfully) because first, they’re hand written and I’d have to either count the words myself or type them out, which seems a little redundant, and second, I don’t know how creative they are really, they’re more just angsty, whiny, rants. :-D

But I have to admit, sometimes my morning pages are a bit of a struggle. Not because I don’t have anything to write about, but because I’ve been getting distracted lately. I come downstairs and sit in my recliner to do them before I go to the gym, but the kittens lately have decided to start going after my plants, breaking my train of thought when I have to chase them away from them. Maybe I need to sit at the dining room table, or go into my office to do them.

I did spend more time in my office last week, but I forgot the advice from one of the workshops where the instructor said to take a 5 minute break every 25 minutes or so. My office chair is not as comfortable as my recliner, so sitting in it for long stretches at a time becomes really uncomfortable.

Goals For Next Week:
Find a workable routine to generate more words.

EDITING:
0 hours

One of these days I’m going to surprise the heck out of everyone and actually have something to report here. And no, I’m not going to remove it from my wordage report due to lack of updating like I did the marketing and tech. This is something I really want to get done, I just keep getting . . . distracted.

I know I said I wasn’t going to split my master list into sub-lists, but maybe I need to at least make a list of all the writing projects I want to do. A lot of the time with me it’s “out of sight, out of mind,” but if I have a list to consult then I won’t forget. And maybe I won’t waste as much time on games and surfing – I can work on something from that list instead.

Goal For Next Week:
Figure out the prophecy; get editing Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
I found last week’s form, the Octo, kind of interesting, despite the lack of information about it and the fact there is another form with the same name. And I liked the two examples I wrote for it.

There was supposed to a poetry gathering last Wednesday, but it ended up being cancelled at the last minute. I’ll spare you the details of the miscommunication revolving around it, but in the end I was just as happy I had more time to work on my “poemwork.” I really had to scramble to get my poem finished, and it certainly wasn’t my best work, but I was able to fix it now, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a lot better.

I was inspired to start a new poem that was neither a form nor poemwork yesterday. The bones of it are there, but whether or not I flesh it out remains to be seen. It’s a little morbid. I may finish writing it anyway, just for me.

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share. Expand on the other poems I started.

CRAFTING:
I finished the first square of my zentangle sampler and I’m debating what to do with the second one. I don’t want them all to look the same, so I’m thinking of doing an actual picture in the next square instead of a true zentangle.

To be honest, I didn’t really give much thought to the overall design/theme when I started, which I’m beginning to see I should have. The first square is fine, but it was a bit of a pain to figure out what stitch to use next each time I finished a section. But if I do 9 squares altogether, I can do one square in each row something other than a zentangle design.

Like, this row I can do just a scene of some kind. The next row I can do an appliqué, and the third row I could do stumpwork or something like that. Or maybe just to keep the look of it even, I could do two appliqués, one on each side, in the middle row and then the stumpwork in the center of the bottom row.

Lots of things to consider, I guess. But I need to consider them soon because I don’t want to lose my momentum.

My baker’s rack is all trussed up and ready to go, but getting it here is turning out to be a bigger issue than we counted on. My father-in-law has not been able to get a hold of the neighbor who’s got the truck, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to need a couple of extra bodies to help move it. It doesn’t look like much all trussed up, but trust me, that sucker is heavy! As well it should be considering it’s made of wrought iron and wood.

The art supplies I got from my father-in-law are just going to have to join the rest of my stash for now. I want to get my routine with the writing and crafting well established before I add art into the mix. Once I get my baker’s rack in place I want to get back into my jewelry making and bead work, something I can’t really do right now, especially with a pair of nosy kittens around (I can close the door to my craft room to work).

Goal For Next Week:
Figure out a layout for my sampler; start thinking about the granddaugher’s dress for this year’s father/daughter ball.

WHAT I’M READING:
I haven’t been doing as much reading lately. I’m still reading The Little Flower Shop, by Lori Foster – I’m about halfway through it.

And I’m ashamed to admit that I slacked off a bit on the bike riding, but I still managed to read Glacial Eyes, by J.K. Walker, and I’ve started Rule of Three, by Kelly Jamieson.

I did figure out how to upload new books to my Paperwhite, but I have no idea which ones are new and which were already on there. My old Kindle was having issues updating, so even though I was downloading books, they weren’t being uploaded. And I have no idea how many books, or what date, I stopped updating to the old device.

And there’s no option (at least not one I could see) for “update all new books” so I have no idea where I’m at as far as being up to date. Does that make any sense?

Goal For Next Week:
See if I can figure out how to put books in folders on the Paperwhite.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I have my stitch-in at the library on Tuesday and a blood test on Thursday next week, and that’s it. Hopefully there won’t be any unexpected visitors and I have no coffee plans. However, as I’ve seen in the past, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to have a more productive week.

For one thing, I need to get my garden in. Yes, that’s right, I still haven’t done that. I don’t even have bedding plants in the front garden. That’s because we were still getting frost warnings. It’s almost June, for crying out loud!

But while the long-range forecast isn’t exactly promising summer temperatures, at least the temperature isn’t supposed to drop so drastically at night. So at the very least I’ll be putting in some gardening time.

I need to make a little more time for crafting this week. You know, once I settle on the overall design for the sampler. I’m actually starting to wonder how it would look if I alternated sampler squares with picture squares. Might be a little more cohesive looking. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.

I’d like to get a little more creative with my writing. I’m not sure yet if this is going to be the meditative writing, or maybe a prompt a week, or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe it can even be following the lessons in some of the writing books I have. Or, heaven forbid, accessing some of those courses I’ve paid for.

Here, again, is another reason to keep a writing specific list. I write down all these ideas for progress here, but then I promptly forget about them.

I can see the track and it’s getting closer, but there are still a lot of weeds to cut through before I’m able to step back on it.

Extraordinary Elements in Fiction

It's perfectly normal that extraordinary things happen to me. I'm an exceptional person. Oh, don't think I'm boasting. I mean to say that, unfortunately, I'm exceptional and that, unfortunately, I can't live by the rules. I must make my own.
― Cocteau

Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.
― Cherie Carter-Scott

It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.
― Jodi Picoult

Workshop #7, facilitated by Dimitri Nasrallah, was about introducing extraordinary elements into our fiction. And you know you’re in for a good workshop when it starts with Godzilla. :-)

Godzilla is actually a metaphor for nuclear weapons. It was a response to the incident with the Lucky Dragon 5. The Lucky Dragon was a tuna boat with a crew of 23 who became contaminated on March 1, 1954, by nuclear fallout from the U.S. Castle Bravo thermonuclear testing on Bikini Atoll. The boat was 14 miles outside of what the U.S. considered the “danger zone” and though the ship was not affected by the blast itself, it became covered in radioactive ash.

Godzilla exists as a metaphor of the pain and destruction caused by the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagaski and Hiroshima during World War II. In the Japanese 1954 film, Godzilla, it was explained that the monster was a prehistoric reptile of some sort who was mutated by radiation from a nuclear test conducted by the United States military in the Pacific Ocean. The large amount of radiation absorbed by the reptile caused it to grow to gigantic proportions.
- Screen Rant

Fiction writers of all genres employ the surreal, symbolic, or unfamiliar in their stories. There are several reasons for this, but unfortunately we weren’t given a lot of time to take notes so the only reason I wrote down is that it raised tension. I swear I’m going to take some kind of recording device to the next Writersfest I attend so I can transcribe the notes later!

Some of the considerations to keep in mind when using extraordinary elements are:
Motivation: what stimulates your characters to believe in the device?
Justification: How does the device fit into the fabric of reality?
Description: How is it presented and individualized – the fingerprint
Interaction: How does it move through the story, and how do your characters engage with it?
Balance: How much of this device can your world handle? How far can you push your readers’ suspension of disbelief?

We were then given a big chunk of time and the following prompt:

Write a scene that incorporates this one surreal element: A talking hand. To balance your narrative, use only people and places from everyday circumstances to fill out the rest of the story.

Here’s what I came up with:

“Talk to the hand ‘cause the face don’t care,” Grandma said with a snicker.

The hand was not impressed. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?” it asked.

“Do you have a name?” little Katie asked.

“Just Hand will do.”

“Katie,” her mother asked, slowly and carefully. “Where did you find that thing?”

The hand vibrated, fingers spread wide. “I am not a thing! I’m a hand!”

“In the Addams Family, they had a hand and they called it Thing,” Grandma said helpfully. “You any relation?”

The hand curled itself into a fist and refused to say anything further.

Earlier that day, Katie had been playing in the woods and followed the sounds of a commotion. Someone was crying for help as a big, shaggy dog was tossing something up in the air and then pouncing on it.

Katie knew that dog, it was Bruno, a well-known thief of toys. She also knew how to distract him.

“Here, Bruno,” she said, picking up a hefty piece of wood. “Look what I’ve got for you!”

She showed him the stick and tossed it as far as she could. Bruno abandoned whatever he’d been playing with and bounded after the stick. Katie crept closer and found the hand. “Thank you,” the hand said. “I was starting to feel sick from being tossed in the air.”

“You’re a hand,” Katie said in surprise.

“Bright child,” the hand said dryly.

Katie ignored its sarcasm and moved a little closer. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, as long as that dog doesn’t come back.”

Looking down thoughtfully, Katie said, “You need a bath. Maybe you should come home with me.”

The hand drummed its fingers in the dirt as it thought about it. “All right,” it said finally. “Lead the way.”

Katie watched dubiously as it began to drag itself towards her. “Maybe it might be better if I carried you,” she suggested. “You know, in case Bruno comes back.”

The hand gave a long suffering sigh. “Very well.”

It had reached her feet by this time, and quickly crawled up Katie’s leg. Katie giggled as it reached her side and kept going until it was clutching her shoulder. Then she started for home.

“Katie,” her mother asked again. “Where did you find it?”

“I didn’t, Bruno did,” Katie said. “I rescued him.”

“Rescued him,” her mother said under her breath. “A disembodied hand.”

“Yes,” the hand said, uncurling itself. “And I’m most grateful. But I do not wish to cause discord, so I’ll just be on my way.”

“No!” Katie pleaded. “Mom, look at him. We need to help him. You said, we should always help God’s creatures. He’s one of God’s creatures, isn’t he?”

“Well, yes. But—”

“You said,” Grandma snickered.

“Please, can he stay? Please?”

The mother looked from her daughter’s hopeful face to the somewhat bedraggled hand, and back again. “All right,” she said with a sigh. “But you’re responsible for him.”

“Yay!” Katie held her hand over the talking hand and it jumped to high five her. The she rested her hand beside it so it could clamber up to her shoulder. They disappeared down the hall towards the bathroom.

“Well,” Grandma observed, “It could have been worse.”

“How so?” the mother asked.

“Those woods are full of strange things. She could have brought home something really unbelievable.”

It was a fun exercise and there was enough time left over for us to read a few of our stories out loud. There were hands that grew mouths, hands that were still attached to people but worked independently, telepathic hands, imaginary hands, disembodied hands, and mechanical hands. But to my surprise, I was the only one who wrote about a hand that had no connection to a body.

Weird, or what? LOL

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Well, the good news is that I spent more time in my office last week. The bad news is that I still didn’t get much extra writing done. My focus still isn’t what it should be, but it’s getting better too.

And no, despite all my good intentions, I still didn’t get my master to-do list or my sub to-do lists made. I have so much I’d like to be doing, and I really think those lists would help, so I need sit down tonight and just do them.

I had a bit of an epiphany about why it’s so hard for me to focus, it has to do with the sheer amount of stuff I can do, but knowing why and fixing the problem seem to be two very different things.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts
2004+712+302+675=3,693
UP – 578 words from last week

Kittens to the rescue! When in doubt for something to write about on Mondays, write about kittens. :-)

As for other words . . . I caught up my journals and jotted down a couple of ideas, but I also found a couple of new games to distract me. But I’m happy to report that I reached the saturation point with the games and I’ve deleted the links to them.

I’m finding it easier to work in my office so I spent more time in there than I have been, despite it being a busier week than I expected.

And I pulled out one of my first, as yet unfinished, novels to see where I went wrong, and I realized I don’t like my main character. I’m going to have to figure out how to change that because I’ve already written the sequel (and I like that main character) and I’ve got the bare bones of an idea for a third one (really like that main character too).

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

EDITING:
2 ½ hours
This time was was editing on Element Fire, and I’m thinking I’m going to have to spend some time on the back story and the historic records to keep me from getting confused about what’s going on.

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

TECH & TRAINING:
Still nothing here.

Goal For Next Week:
If I don’t come up with up with something this week then I’m deleting this item off the list, like I did marketing.

POETRY:
Last week’s form, the Snám Suad, was a little tricky so it was all the more surprising I managed to create three examples of it.

Thursday afternoon I attended a seminar on the poetic device of Duende. I’m not sure that my grasp on it was one hundred percent, but I came away from it with the rough draft of a poem and the makings of another one. So it was time well spent.

But going to the seminar used up all my peopling skills for the day, which meant I had nothing left for the poetry reading that evening. But to be honest, I’m not sure I’d have gone to the reading anyway because they tend to be crowded and I just can’t handle crowds anymore.

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share and work on the poems I started.

CRAFTING:
I went to the stitch in at the library on Tuesday, and while I was there a few of us decided to check out what the art club was doing. This proved to be a mistake because it left me with the urge to pull out my art stuff and do some drawing or painting. I resisted the urge, but it did get the wheels turning.

I’m still dithering a bit on what my next project should be. I was thinking about doing a placemat and napkin set with poinsettias on it (from a kit) for the Christmas display we’re going to do late summer, but then I received this book I ordered a couple of weeks ago.

It has 120 different stitches in it, plus amazing examples on what you can use them for, and I started thinking about doing a sampler. And then I got the idea to do it like a zentangle – section off squares and then fill them with three to five different kinds of stitches in random patterns. I think it would look kind of neat.

Goal For Next Week:
Better organize my needlework crafts; decide on next project.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox and I started reading The Book of Magic, by Alice Hoffman.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep reading.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

I’ve got a couple of appointments this week, but they’re on the same day so I’m getting the interruptions over with all at once. Oh, except I have a poetry group meeting Wednesday night. But then I don’t usually accomplish much in the evenings anyway.

I am definitely going to give the list making another shot. I even have a special narrow, lined, notepad to make my list on. One of my problems with lists in the past is that I over-think them. So I’m going to forget the sub-lists and just do one list of everything. I can cross things off as I do them, and add more when I think of them.

I think I need an attitude change for Elemental Spirit. I need to stop thinking of it as a chore and find a way to look forward to having it done. It might be a little time-consuming, but I also think I should start by figuring out the prophecy for the Illezie and then maybe more detailed historical records. That way I can use excerpts from them for my chapter headings. And as far as TraxTime goes, there’s no reason I can’t install it on this laptop too.

I have a regular stitchery guild meeting on Tuesday, and hopefully I’ll have decided on my next stitchery project. Believe it or not, there’s another afghan I want to make, but I’m also thinking I may start the zentangle sampler. Of course there’s also the half dozen “in progress” projects I could finish up, but they’re not exactly ones that are easy to take with me to a stitch-in.

My office is starting to look better and better for me to get some serious work done, it’s just a matter of dragging myself down the hall to use it. Even though there are more distractions, as in books and papers and the view, I sit at my desk and I tend not to check social media or play games as much. Good reasons to try and use my office more.

The track is out there, I just need to get back on it.

It’s Getting There

Fall down seven times, get up eight. — Japanese Proverb

The best view comes after the hardest climb. — Author Unknown

I didn’t come this far to only come this far. — Author Unknown

Well. As weeks go, I’ve had better.

The only words that got written (besides a couple of long emails and the start of a letter to my sister) were the ones for the daily three-minute word exercises. That’s it.

I skipped Monday’s post on the other blog, and Friday’s post was pretty much just seven of the exercises married up into the start of a story. And that was the only editing I did too – Friday’s story. Didn’t get much reading done, and I finished the afghan I was crocheting on Monday and haven’t started a new project yet.

So what have I been doing?

Well, I’ll tell you. It was a bleak and dismal week (mostly) weather-wise, which was singularly unmotivating to do anything, and what little energy I had was laser focused on getting my office organized.

As you can see, there wasn’t much space to work at my desk, was there? Under my hat is my four tier in-box, which is sitting on top of the mesh cart I was so enamored of.

That picture was taken at the beginning of the week. Now my desk looks more or less like this, so at least I can get at the lap top:

The cart area is looking much better too:

Unfortunately, the bookcase still needs some work:

Most of my time and energy was spent revamping my filing system. See that plastic file holder mid-way up on the right side? I have four of them, plus the two-drawer filing cabinet, a file drawer in my desk, and the file drawer in the mesh cart. The only one that wasn’t full of files was the one in the cart.

It took a lot of arranging, sorting, re-arranging, and more sorting, but I think I’ve finally got my filing system straightened out. It might need a little tweeking going forward, but for the most part I’m pretty happy with it.

Now all that’s left is the bookcase, and dealing with the stuff in my reading area:

The grey bin is full of blank notebooks, some of which have only a few pages left in them, others that have never been touched. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with them. And the bin under the stuff that’s under my hat is full of books that need to be shelved . . . somewhere.

I think I need a bigger office. :-D

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

As I said above, the only new words I wrote were on the three-minute word prompts, so there’s not all that much to report here.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 790+958=1748
Three minute words = 92+112+113+121=438
Total words: 1748 words

I’m not adding the three minute words to the total because they were part of Friday’s fiction post.

EDITING:
*sigh*

The only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post, and it was kind of a slap/dash job at that.

WHAT I’M READING:
On my downtime I confess I mostly played mindless games, but I started reading an anthology I was given for Christmas, Stop the World, Snapshots From A Pandemic, edited by Lise McClendon. It’s a wonderful idea for an anthology, offering a slice of what life has been like during the pandemic from a wide variety of points of view.

On the Kindle I finished Touch A Dark Wolf, by Jennifer St. Giles. I thought the ending was a little abrupt, but I guess that’s what drives you to buy the next in the series, to find out what happened when the dust settled. After that I read Caged Wolf (The Tarot Witches, #1), by S.M. Reine. It was a little grittier than the books I’ve been reading lately, but the story called for gritty. It was the first in a series and as soon as I get my new Kindle I’ll be looking for the next one.

Yes, that’s right. It’s time to retire my beloved George. We’ve had a good run but he’s been getting crankier and crankier, and he has a hissy fit when I try to update him and it takes him days to get over it. So when I was on Amazon yesterday ordering a birthday gift for my granddaughter, I ordered a gift for me too – a Kindle Paperwhite. It should be here next weekend.

LAST WEEK’S GOALS
Last week’s goals were a bust, save for my daily three-minute words.

THIS WEEK’S GOALS
1. Continue with the three minute word, and continue the cave story.
2. My mother-in-law has a birthday coming up so I’ll be starting a new afghan.
3. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.
4. Look into online courses.
5. Write.

Happy writing.

Twenty Down, Ten to Go!

The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It's the lack of a deadline. Give someone an enormous task, a supportive community, and a friendly-yet-firm due date, and miracles will happen.
— Chris Baty

A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most kick-ass form. It's a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path. This is especially true when it comes to creative pursuits.
― Chris Baty

In the context of novel writing, this means you should lower the bar from “best-seller” to “would not make someone vomit.” Exuberant imperfection encourages you to write uncritically, to experiment, to break your time-honored rules of writing just to see what happens. In a first draft, nothing is permanent, and everything is fixable. So stay loose and flexible, and keep your expectations very, very low.
― Chris Baty

It’s the start of week three *whoops! that should be week four* of NaNo, can you believe it? Ten more days. Ten more stories. At this point it’s not the words I’m worried about – with my average story being 2,000 words long, I technically only need to write five more stories – but I really want to keep to my pledge of a story a day.

The novelty of writing a story a day is starting to wear off. At first it was kind of fun, you know? Now it’s more like a chore. It’s getting harder and harder to pick an idea, and I need to pick them earlier and earlier in the day so that I have time to think about them for a while before I start writing.

And it’s taking me longer and longer to get going once I start writing. I flounder around for the first five, six hundred words and then about halfway through the story I finally figure out where it’s going. Story eighteen I was almost 1000 words in before I figured out what I was doing.

So far, I’ve been sticking with the prompts I cherry picked from the Writer’s Digest prompts archive. I copy/pasted them into a single, ten page document and I’ve been picking them at random, highlighting the ones I’ve used. Lately, I’ve been going back and picking prompts I originally rejected.

I keep having to remind myself that nobody really needs to see any of these stories unless I decide to let them. I just need to write – to get the words down, any words. They don’t have to be good words or even make any sense, they just have to be words.

That doesn’t really work though, I don’t listen to myself. I’m making it harder than it needs to be because I like stories to have a point, to make sense. And with some of these prompts that’s a little hard to do. Also, some of the prompts really don’t lend themselves to a story that’s at least 1667 words long.

So far, I’ve written a couple of stories I really like, and some that I really don’t. The first story I wrote was supposed to be funny but took a serious turn. I can’t wait to edit it because I think I’ve got a winner there. And the aforementioned story eighteen – now that I figured out what it’s really about, I think it’s going to be a keeper too.

But there are more than a few stories that are real dogs, like story nineteen, which was a prompt about waking up in the body of a baby. Or the story written from the prompt where you go to bed wishing to wake up as someone else, and you do. Not too sure about yesterday’s story either, which I attempted to make funny but I’m pretty sure I fell way short. LOL

One thing most of these stories have in common though, is that they’re mostly written in the first person. I don’t know if it’s because the prompts are geared that way, or that’s just the way I’ve been interpreting them, but the weird part is, I don’t usually write in the first person. Could a first person novel be far behind?

God, I hope not! *shudder*

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

NEW WORDS:
Flash anthology – 14,822
Blog Posts – 1226+776+634+1383=4,059
Total = 18,881 words

Still ahead of the game over all. But the bloom is off the rose now and I’m beginning to struggle.

EDITING:
Yeah, who am I kidding? When this is all done I hope I’ll find some editing mojo again, but right now it’s all about the NaNo words.

WHAT I’M READING:
Doing even less reading than last week. I read one chapter of The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the book, I just don’t seem to find the time right now. Too busy writing, I guess.

What reading I’ve been doing is on the Kindle. I’m about halfway through a book about an Alpha werewolf who’s falling in love with a cop. The complication is the fact there’s a demon who’s going around raping and killing and causing mayhem, and they’re both after it.

GOALS
Once again I got two out of three. My NaNo is still progressing well, even if some of the stories suck. But I got all my blog posts up on time, so there’s that.

Did not get out to enjoy the sunshine, not that there was a lot of sunshine to enjoy. If it wasn’t raining it was windy, sometimes both. Cold and windy just doesn’t appeal. Maybe I’ll get out there for a walk come spring. LOL

THIS WEEK’S GOALS
1. Keep pushing forward with NaNo.
2. Keep up the good work on the blog posts.
3. Start working on my after NaNo plan. You know, the one for developing a better work ethic, like writing every day, doing some editing, maybe *gasp* try a little marketing.

Write on.

Things I Learned at the Retreat, Part Three

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.
— Sarah Caldwell

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.
— Abigail Adams

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
— Albert Einstein

I suspect this will be a rather long post because not only will I be talking about my last day at the retreat, I have actual words to report. :-)

So, Sunday the rain actually let up for a bit, and since I was a much earlier riser than my cabin mates, I took a leisurely walk along the lake shore, hoping to get some pictures of the sunrise. The sunrise wasn’t that great, but I got some interesting silhouette shots and I really enjoyed the walk.

For our last session together, we discussed ways to write every day. That seems to be an issue with a lot of writers, especially those working full time jobs or taking care of family, or both. Some of the suggestions included: using a pen and paper (easy to take with you so you can fit in a few words whenever you get a chance), block out a section of time every day (and make your family understand you are not to be disturbed), try just five minutes at a time (you’d be surprised what you can accomplish in just five minutes).

This was followed by our Freefalling, in which we were to focus on a sound during our meditation, and then to step into the sound. We were to start with the phrase, “When I hear this…” My sound was water:

When I hear this… I think of walks in the woods beside a lake. I think of my childhood, driving up to Owen Sound, standing on the precipice of Inglis Falls, or watching the fish jump at the mill dam. I think of waterfalls, big and small, the feel of the spray on my face, the smell of the moisture laden air. The rocks are slippery, don’t get too close. Voices are raised to be heard over the cascade of water. Make your way to the lake where waves are lapping at the shore, crashing if the day is stormy. I think of rain, pitter-pattering on the roof or pounding down during a storm. The fresh, earthy smell of the woods after the rain has gone. The soggy feel of the earth under my feet. The drip, drip, drip of the water returning to the earth.

And for our final lesson in creativity, we turned to a page in our work books that had seven boxes on it with seven different labels: Expressions, Characters, Events, Food, Words, Colours, and Clothing. And under each of these seven labels were seven cues: the Food box included lemon, chili, bread, chocolate, red meat, coffee, pie and the Colour box included yellow, blue, white, grey, green, tangerine, and red. You get the idea.

So then we had fun picking random cues from different boxes and combining them. For instance, taking a cue from Character and one from Events you might end up with a ‘teacher’ at a ‘fire.’ Or a cue from Colour and one from Expression might give you ‘green’ and ‘look before you leap.’ Again, you get the idea.

It was both fun and interesting. You could use just a couple of boxes, or several boxes to create your own prompt. The possibilities were endless. And the best part is, you can totally create your own boxes with your own labels and cues, tailored to your specific needs, like characters, settings, conflicts, obstacles, scenes, escalating conflict… And to fill your boxes the possibilities are endless.

If I run into trouble with my NaNo, I will totally be turning to the boxes to get my creative juices going. But so far I’ve been doing good on my own. I downloaded a whole pile of prompts from Writer’s Digest and I’ve only had to go back and find a new prompt once. And of course because I’m doing flash fiction instead of a novel, it’s no big deal if your idea doesn’t work out and you have to start fresh.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Woot! I have actual words to report!

New Words:

Flash anthology – 14,031
Blog Posts – 943+594+427+273=2,237
Total = 16,268 words

Not only am I ahead of the game with the words on my NaNo anthology, I managed to get all my blog posts done too.

Editing:

No editing yet, it’s not allowed during NaNo LOL, but I’m kind of looking forward to editing my anthology when it’s done. The first story needs to be expanded, while the second one needs to be condensed a bit.

What I’m Reading:

I haven’t taken much time for reading. I think I’ve only progressed by a chapter or two in The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman. I started reading a book I picked up at the retreat called Lichen. I’m not quite sure whether it’s an anthology or a paperback magazine, but it’s full of stories and poems from a variety of authors. I’m finding it a very interesting read, very thought provoking.

AND I’ve been showing my Kindle a little love lately. I read Inferno, by V. Vaughn, book one of the Smokey Falls Wolves series. I just love me a good werewolf story and this didn’t disappoint. I don’t know the name of the one I’m reading now, but it’s about bear shifters and it’s got me really curious about how the hero is going to fix things with his love interest, because he screwed up pretty good. LOL

Goals

Seeing as my only goal for the week was to stay on track for NaNo, I’d say I aced it. I was hoping for 1667 words per story, maybe a few more, maybe a few less, and I cannot believe every one of them has been over 2,000 words. Go me!

For the most part, the stories never end up being what I think they’ll be, which I guess is a good thing. I think doing flash stories instead of a novel has taken a lot of pressure off of NaNo. You only have to think of one story at a time, and who cares whether it’s any good or not. They’re going to need work when I’m done, of course, but I think they’re pretty much all keepers so far.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work on NaNo.
2. Keep up the good work on the blog posts.
3. Try to get out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.


Here’s to a new week ahead.

Stand Firm

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
― Franz Kafka

I’m up to level 500 and something in Solitaire Garden, I don’t know for sure because they’re experiencing technical difficulties and the game won’t open for me. At least I’m hoping it’s temporary. I’ve been finding solace on a hidden objects website, but ever since Microsoft stopped supporting flash, they’re not as much fun.

After a lot of back and forthing on the laptop issue, I finally decided to go for it. And after spending several days (it seemed) looking at various models, I finally decided on the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5. Only it’s temporarily unavailable. Rumour has it they’re not even making it any more. *sigh*

Maybe this is a sign from above that this whole lap top thing needs some more thinking. I made a short list of what I want in a lap top – finger print security, backlit keyboard, extra long battery life, lightweight – so maybe I should check out the option on the Lenovo site to build my own.

There was a link on Facebook last week from Writer’s Digest for a series by Robert Brewer giving plot twist prompts. It looked really interesting so I started following the back links to see how long the series was and it was pretty lengthy. Then I was delighted to find that the prompts were gathered into book form. I ordered three copies – one for me and two to give away to friends. Imagine my surprise when I received my receipt and it had a link for an electronic copy. There was no shipping charge, and I can only surmise that I paid three times for one download. I’ve emailed them to cancel the order of two of them, but I haven’t heard anything back yet. I have not accessed the download and I can only hope I won’t end up in a buyer beware situation.

I’m still plugging away at my mandala poem, but it’s slow going. I’m not sure if my idea for how to present it is going to fly or not, but I’m going to keep trying.

I have officially started the next round of edits on Blood Ties. I saved a second copy of it just as a backup in case I mess it up because I’ve changed the whole beginning. Originally I had a prologue dealing with Anakaron, the bad guy, and opened chapter one with Jessica’s friend Howard.

Now I’ve removed the Anakaron scene (saving it for possible later use) and made the Howard scene the prologue, opening chapter one with a Jessica scene, which is as it should be. There are a couple more scenes in the beginning that’ll need to be removed or reworked, but seeing as the book is running long I can afford to lose them.

Still managing to stay out of the Nora Roberts black hole reading-wise. I picked up a copy of the Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable and I’m about halfway through it. It’s very different, but in a good way.

The Week Ahead . . .

I made a little headway in the cleaning of my office last week. I reorganized the bookcase and got a bunch of stuff off the floor. I also got a pile of shredding done, which wasn’t as big a job as I thought it would be. It would be nice to finish the job this week.

Now that I’ve started, I don’t want to lose my momentum on the edits for Blood Ties. Maybe there’ll be a chance to have it out by Christmas after all.

The mandala poem has been dragging on for too long. It’s just a poem, for crying out loud. I wrote a completely different poem in one sitting on the back of one of the pages of research I’d printed out. I also need to get off the fence about picking out a book to take with me to the retreat.

So . . . what will you be up to this week?

Write It Down!

If I don't write down a thought - or an image or a line of poetry - the instant it comes to mind, it vanishes, which explains why I have pens and notebooks in my pants and coat pockets, the car, the bicycle basket, on one or two desks in every room including bathrooms and the kitchen.
— Floyd Skloot

Early Saturday afternoon I had a great idea for the title of today’s blog post, but by the time I got around to working on it I couldn’t remember what it was. It was like three words long and I couldn’t remember a single one.

It just reinforces the idea that you should keep a notebook and pen beside you at all times to write stuff down in. No matter how good you think your memory is, it’s never good enough.

The really sad part is, I was sitting in the living room when I had this brilliant idea, and I had easy access to both pens and papers, and I didn’t use any of them. It was such a short, simple idea that I figured I could easily remember it when I opened my laptop to work on my post, only I got distracted and by the time I sat down at my lap top I only vaguely remembered I even had an idea.

Honestly, with me it’s not enough to have notebooks and pens all over the house, I have to actually use them. How many brilliant ideas have been lost because I didn’t take the time to write them down?

It happens most often with blog posts. I have a bad habit of “writing” them in my head – I think about them, work out the details, and then when it comes time to sit down and physically write them my brain is an empty void of despair.

I think the worst are dreams. Dreams are such a great source of ideas, but you have to get into the habit of writing them down as soon as you wake up or they’re gone forever. Sometimes it’s like getting an idea in the shower. You just have to keep repeating it in your head until you can get to some writing materials.

I can still recall one dream I had where I was explaining to my father this idea I had for a story. It was such a good idea that when I woke up I didn’t bother writing it down. To this day I can remember my father telling me what a great idea it was for a book, but I can’t remember the idea itself.

I read an article once that said while it’s good to think about ideas and talk about them, the process of writing them down is what really lets you develop them. Once an idea is written down you can step back and look at it objectively, see ways you could develop it that weren’t obvious when it was just stuck in your head. Or you might see that it wasn’t such a great idea after all.

But you’ll never know . . . until you write it down.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

New Words:

Driving Into Forever (rewrite) – 1,815
Blog Posts – 1,062+496+711+1,253=3,522
Total = 5,337

DIF words were down, but I did all my blog posts so those words were up. Unfortunately, the overall total of words was down.

Editing:

TraxTime tells me I spent 7 hours and 47 minutes editing Blood Ties last week – about an hour less than the week before.

What I’m Reading:

I’ve gone from one extreme to the other with my reading. I wasn’t as close to the end of Cordina’s Crown Jewel, by Nora Roberts as I thought, and other than finishing it, I read no other tree books.

As for e-books, I finished Janaya, book two of Alien Shenanigans by Shelley Munro and have started book three, Captured & Seduced. I’m enjoying these so much I’m even sneaking in a little e-book time when I’m not on the bike.

Goals

Once again I met all my goals last week. You’d almost think I need some more challenging goals. Almost. ;-)

I had a couple of really good days editing Blood Ties, but then I got all caught up in getting those last couple of bins of kitchen stuff emptied. But the kitchen is pretty much done now, so I won't be able to use that as an excuse anymore.

It’s a good thing I like Driving Into Forever so much, otherwise I’d give up. Which would be a real shame considering I have the sequel already written. And no, I couldn’t have the sequel as a stand alone because it uses secondary characters from the first one.

This Week’s Goals

1. Keep up the good work editing
2. Work harder on Driving Into Forever
3. Keep limiting my reading time.
4. Switch up some of my gaming time to crafting instead.

Sounds like a plan to me!

Too Good to be True

As I type this, I’m two days ahead on NaNo, which is a very good thing because there’s only a week left and for the first time I’m thinking I might not finish.

I believe I mentioned in the first NaNo post I did that one of my handicaps this year is the kitchen renovation we were planning on. The renovation has gone as far as it can without the counters, but at least I’m able to start putting stuff back into the cupboards. And surprisingly it hasn’t really interfered with my NaNo word count . . . until now.

After a shaky Wednesday (words wise) I had a stellar Thursday (4,000 words!) so Friday I figured I figured I could phone my sister to wish her a happy birthday and maybe work on getting rid of some of the bins in the dining room so the hubby could start installing the new floor.

One of the sets of dishes we have for every day use is stoneware. Guess what? Turns out stoneware is as heavy as … well, stone. I tried to pick up the bin of dishes to move it into the kitchen to put them away and wrenched something in my shoulder. Pulled a muscle? Pinched a nerve? I have no idea. But it hurts to type. Even doing this post hurts.

So the home stretch of NaNo is going to be an interesting. I knew my steady progress was too good to be true.

One of the common pieces of advice for doing NaNo is “Don’t stop to edit.” This year I’ve had no problem following this piece of advice. In fact, a couple of times the story wandered off into parts unknown and I just stopped and started the scene over again. And I’m making notes as I go along, which should make editing easier.

I’m putting a lot of effort into my character’s training as a mercenary, which I thought was just going to get cut during the edits, but now I think it could stay if I scale it down. Right now it’s like a Hogwarts for mercenaries, but that makes it way too big. For now I’ll just get on with the story.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

My best day last week was 4,068 words, the worst day was 720 words. But I had enough extra words built up that even on the 720 day I did not fall behind of where I should have been. Thanks to the 4,068 day, even if I can manage 1,000 a day until my shoulder’s better I shouldn’t fall behind. Guess we’ll just have to see how motivated I am.

Goals From Last Week

1. Book flood stories – I picked out 14 flash stories for this year’s book flood.
2. Blog posts – got them all done, but not on time (unless you count this one).
3. Firestorm – this book is probably going to be my longest book yet, when it’s done.

Goals For This Week

1. Start edits (if necessary) to the book flood stories.
2. Keep up the good work with the blog posts.
3. Push through the pain for more words on Firestorm.

Week One and Still on Track *knock on wood*

If you’ve been reading this blog (or even my other one) for any length of time you’ll know my usual strategy for NaNo is this:
Day one: Try to talk myself out of it
Day two: Cave in and scrounge around for an idea
Day three: realize I’m already three days behind and start scrambling to catch up
Remaining days: catch up, fall behind, catch up, fall behind, pull ahead, fall behind, cross the finish line with a handful of words to spare

But this year’s NaNo is pretty much like the rest of 2020 has been – surreal. Give or take a few words, I’ve been right on target. FOR SEVEN DAYS IN A ROW! *knock on wood*

Is it because I’m older and wiser and know how to pace myself? Is the idea I settled on conducive to a steady pace? Is it because I finished Blood Ties in a flurry of words and I’m still in high gear? I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care as long as it keeps up.

Now, a lot of people talk about play lists of music to accompany their writing. I never much thought about it before. The first NaNo I won was basically accompanied by all things Star Trek. I’d sit in front of the TV late at night and watch various Star Trek marathons as I wrote.

Lucky Dog I listened to mostly Celtic music – specifically a lot of Loreena McKennitt, but a lot of miscellaneous recordings as well. Blood Ties, however, especially the last 30,000 words or so, was written mostly to the Sounds of Nature we get on our TV, which is just what it sounds like. It’s birds or rain or crickets (or whatever), sometimes with music in the background, sometimes on their own. Don’t ask me why, but listening to the sounds of nature never failed to put me in the right mindset for working on Blood Ties.

The sounds of nature does not work, however, for Firestorm. I did try in the beginning, thinking because it was also a fantasy story it would be appropriate, but it wasn’t. What I have found works well is Two Steps From Hell. I don’t know how many CDs they’ve put out, but I have a lot of them. They’re mostly instrumental – think epic soundtrack – but it just seems to go with my story.

This is one of the reasons I’ve been spending a lot of time writing in the living room – it has a CD player that holds five CDs at a time, whereas in my office I have to get up every time the CD ends (unless I want to listen to it over again).

Anyway, the story is moving along nicely, even if it’s starting out in a different direction than I anticipated. But that’s just one of the joys of being a pantser (someone who writes by the seat of their pants instead of using an outline). My main character (who needs renaming badly) is a little different than I expected. He’s not as angry for one, although that may change. Or it might change during editing. You know, a few years from now. ;-)

Meanwhile, the story started meandering down a side path I didn’t like, so it being NaNo and all I just stopped and started the next scene back a few pages and sent it where it should have been. It’s still not perfect, but it got the story moving again, and that’s what counts.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

As I mentioned above, I’m pretty much on track to where I should be. As of the typing of this, I’m at 13,322, which is only 11 words shy of where I should be by the end of the day. And I think it’s important to note that during this time we’re having our kitchen renovated, so I spent a good part of last week unloading the cupboards so they can be ripped out. Who knew such a tiny kitchen had such a lot of stuff in it??

Goals From Last Week

1. Edits on Blood Ties – I actually did get some editing done, not as much as I’d hoped to, but you have to start somewhere.
2. Blog posts – even though this one is kind of late (I spent yesterday afternoon up in Peterborough so the evening was spent on Firestorm instead of this post) I still got all my posts done last week.
3. NaNo – so far I’m feeling really good about this year’s NaNo (*knock on wood*)

Goals For This Week

1. Continue working on edits for Blood Ties
2. Get all my blog posts done
3. Try and pull ahead with words on Firestorm

Two Steps From Hell - Never Give Up On Your Dreams