Recent Progress for February

She's back! To write more personal stuff!

I haven't kept up with posting updates much thanks to a few factors. One of which was being sick the last few weeks. I lost a lot of time sleeping and being grumpy but managed to achieve a few things:

• Finished Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg and wrote a very short opinion on the book to work on my reviewing skills, and started Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
• Got to page 80 of LBW. If the ideas keep flowing and I keep up two pages a day then I'll be making sweet progress. Actually I'd be happy with just a page a day or four pages a week.
• Low standards? Nope, I'm just a slow writer with trouble getting ideas. Goal: page 90 by March 5^th 
• Started my first weekly critique after a short break. By the way, I recommend Critique Circle, great place.
• Finished the paper revision I was doing of Serpenttongue. Now I'm plugging it in and making slight revisions as I go. Still finding spots lacking something uncertain, but there's always another go-through. I haven't set any goal other than be past chapter 25 by month's end.
• Still working on a new short story featuring my vampire. It's proving difficult to write. I just don't know the story. Goal: just work on it!

I have uber faith I can succeed, especially if I spend more days getting up at three like I did Thursday. I went back to sleep of course, but I figure why not use that time if I'm up anyway.

What are your goals for the rest of the month?

Review: Writing Down The Bones

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I gobbled up the book. It was full of ideas and experiences that compelled me to sit down and write about something, anything, but just try writing again, and to feel less self-conscious about my work. It gave me ideas for writing and writing practice. I think the biggest takeaway for me was to get a journal and do writing practice, and to just write.

The book's zen feel is I think why it resonated so well with me, it was different from others I've read and inspired me.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is a writer and simply needs an encouraging and inspiring read, or looking for something different from the common how-to-write books.


View all my reviews

Review: Joe Vampire

Joe Vampire by Steven Luna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What would you do if you woke up one morning and found yourself among the living dead? Try to make the best of it? Tell your loved ones? Start a blog?

Joe Vampire is the story of an average guy and how his life is rocked by one small mistake that turns him into a vampire and his attempt to continue a semi-normal life in spite of it, told in blog format.

I liked Joe and his story. It's funny as much as sad as you read about his mini-misadventures and mistakes, often in bulleted lists. After I finished I wanted to find him and give him a hug and say "It's all gonna be okay Joe" but that would be odd...and impossible.

If you're looking for a read that's funny and easy to do in small increments, or a change from the glamor of many turned-into-a-vampire stories this is a good one to pick up.


View all my reviews

The Lips

Feeling chapped, despite the balm. 

Perhaps reapply, perhaps hold on?

Anyway, the latest physical attribute entry at The Bookshelf Muse is about lips and all the things they can say about us without ever mouthing a word. Useful stuff.

New Year's Eve / Make Up Your Mind Day

Hello, and happy New Year's Eve to those who celebrate it.

Today also happens to be Make Up Your Mind Day where you...make up your mind, obviously. I'm going to observe it by picking one of three short story ideas I started and working towards completion; I think it will be the short about a certain vampire anti-hero that I began freewriting a few months ago and never finished. Silly me tried to type it out first, and that's just not how my brain works.

It's the perfect day to set those resolutions too.

So happy Make-Up-Your-New-Year's-Eve-Mind-Day to you. Hope it's productive and fruitful.

Are You Ghoul, Revenant, or Zombie (Part II)

Welcome to part two of my rinky-dink series on what I've learned from brief research about ghouls, revenants and zombies. You can click here for the section on ghouls.

The Revenant

Having a revenant sounds cool, but Wikipedia defines it as a ghost or an animated corpse similar to a vampire* so not sold.

In some folklore, it's a person who returns to harass neighbors and family*. Nothing special, like another ghost there.

I do like the other definition it offers: a dead hero brought back by a wizard to go on some quest no one else would brave, under the wizard's control. It also referenced Jason (Friday the 13^th) as a revenant, and the protagonist of The Crow. Side fact: I have never actually seen that movie.

My experience with revenants has been through the Final Fantasy series, a stronger version of a zombie (causing life-drain when it attacked. Like a vampire, if I recall). They're mentioned as spreading disease among the living, which I could make use of.

I'm undecided on revenants.

*Taken from www.wikipedia.org

Happy National Chocolate Christmas Eve Day

Yes, I did just mash two observances together, but wouldn't it make the day that much better?

- "Happy Chocolate Christmas Eve Day! Here’s your gift."
"You shouldn't have." *gasp* "My favorite chocolate truffles! Thank you so much!"

This should happen. Everywhere. Because chocolate is awesome. In fact, I think my writing reward today will be some hot chocolate.

Spread the joyful day by enjoying some chocolate, or giving chocolate, in the spirit of the season.

Don't do chocolate? Okay, we'll make an exception. You may substitute with butterscotch candy :)

National Look on the Bright Side day

Today is National Look on the Bright Side Day, where you take a not-so-positive event and give it a positive spin.

Your submission didn’t get accepted? On the bright side, you have more time to look over your work and find that one publication that’ll adore it.

Dogs woke you up early? Look on the bright side: not only did you not sleep in, but now you can get up and get more done than you originally planned (and there’s always power naps. I survive by power naps).

Today, simply try to find positives in all the negatives you encounter. It sounds cheesy, but it’s pretty neat how something so small can affect your mood for the better. I’m a compulsive complainer and epically pessimistic, but today I’m going to try and counter that so I can have one less exhausting day in my week.
Encounter your spin-worthy occurrence. Share with someone or even just in your own journal.

Here’s to the bright side!

Are You Ghoul, Revenant, or Zombie? (Part I)

I wanted to write a short story, recycling the beginning of a novel idea I once played with, and realized the idea I had for the main character's disposition, I guess you'd call it, would do better with some kind of explanation or at least a reference to other monster types.

Originally, she was to be a zombie. However, my experience with zombies (and urge to do something a bit different) led me to find another species she fit into. My search led me to explore three: ghoul, revenant, and well, zombie.

The Ghoul

I considered using the ghoul based on their folkloric origin of undead creatures that feed on flesh. They actually originated from Arabian folklore as shape-shifting demons, most often appearing as hyenas, that led travelers into the desert or abandoned places to eat them.* It also eats the dead and takes the form of the person most recently eaten. I found the relation to a Jinn interesting, but while interesting, my story wouldn't take place in a desert, and I don’t require the shape-shifting.

Their depiction varies a lot in fiction, from the flesh-eating horrors of The Dresden Files (first encountered in Summer Knight. Little trivia from a fan), the slightly-stronger vampire-like creatures of Final Fantasy games, to even the unseen, ghostlike inhabitant of the Harry Potter world that lived in old homes (its name escapes me, but it lived in the Weasley's attic in book two).

It's an alternative to the mindlessness of a zombie, and possibly a bit more unique and different, however I'm not sure on a being that also shape-shifts. Not my plan.

It's back to the dictionary.

*Taken from www.wikipedia.org

photo credit: Earl - What I Saw 2.0 via photopin cc

Testing

Just trying out the Blogger app I downloaded. Here is a picture for your trouble.

Restless in October

Jerking, twitching.

Too restless.

Racing, spinning.

Too anxious.

Aching, burning.

Too much distraction.

Buzzing, whizzing,

Too many whispers,

And too much white page to fill.

Random, yes, but accurate. Halfway through October my trudging train of progress chugged right into a ditch that silly conductor me has been trying to trudge out of instead of stopping to reassess the cause.

I probably should have used the metaphor of an RC car with a dying battery trying to drive over a speed bump or something. Oh well.

I've still got no clue what caused it, all I know is whenever I sit to do any work on the novels or the short stories I get uncomfortable and anxious, jittery and-–well just see above. Maybe it's time for a new chair, one that actually began with cushion. Maybe I need to rearrange my desk and relocate it again.

(God I hope not. There's limited functional space in here as it is.)

Or perhaps I need to drop two projects and focus on fewer stories.

Possible, but this anxiety feels deeper somehow, and doesn't quite address the jitters (No, I don't drink coffee and haven't had a soda in over a month. Just not my thing.) Maybe I should think about breaking tasks down to amoeba-sized steps.

Step one: Divide writing tasks further to designate one day to one story until you get your head right. Must ponder this one.

So if I accept it's my workspace (it likely is; this chair was never meant to hold anyone for such long periods of time over two years of use), I must hunt out a replacement of ergonomic quality likely requiring self-assembly, not beyond $100 if that chair exists. Meanwhile, I've picked up a lap desk to work away from my flimsy assembly of kindling; it looks like it should suffice for short sessions on the couch or on my bed.

Does anyone have experience with a good ergonomic (or just very cushy) desk chair they're willing to recommend me? I think armrests might be nice, but they aren't the necessity.

Happy Halloween should you be one to celebrate it.

(I totally forgot to get myself candy pumpkins this year.)

New Project

I woke this morning with uncharacteristic energy and motivation to get things done, my main goal shall be to handle this clutter. A lot of it is the same information, or useless.

A part of me is considering washing down those doors. I have a few other things to do so that probably should wait.

It's too easy to build clutter and not notice as it saps your mood and motivation in miniscule increments. I'm a tidy and organized person (okay, okay, I'm obsessive) but it catches me all the time.

-Some unasked for advice: set at least a day aside every week to really look at your workspace and consider tidying up. Or washing surfaces down. A fresh smelling, allergen-free workspace is wonderful, but simply returning books to their shelves can be just as revitalizing. Setting a schedule keeps you from forgetting, so you deal with it before clutter takes effect.

I should probably go handle my clutter now.

August in Review

August is concluded. Pretty sure I completed most of my goals, or enough of them to be satisfied with myself considering three weeks of crushing frustration about writing and plotting.

I have discovered the timer is my friend. With the help of the yTimer program*, I've managed to get more done this month than in past attempts, and I'm only doing 30 minute intervals.

The reasons (in a bullet list!):

• Forces me to focus on one thing at a time, and not worry/consider/daydream about anything else because I have a limited amount of time to work before the obnoxious buzzing occurs.
• Allows me to focus on task at hand because I know that I only have to toil at it for 30 minutes before I can fly from my chair and forget about it for a while instead of staring at a page blankly until I nod off.
• I don't stare at a blank page until I doze off. Somehow, actually having a timer cut back on the frequency of dozing off at my desk, and proceeding irritation of trying to translate what I wrote down right before sleep struck. It wasn't cool in high school, and it isn't cool now.
• Hand-in-hand with the previous, the 30 minute timer buzzes before boredom swoops in and I start playing with fonts in the editor or embellishing letters and doodling in page margins.
• The short breaks between force me to get up and handle other tasks, like preparing for the next day of work, getting more water, or just stretching (which helps with that whole falling asleep issue – who knew?)

Don't ask me why I didn't take to this strategy sooner when I've read and printed so many articles about it already.

I still have the impression of time missing in my week. I've been using methods to track my hours, but still haven't found all those missing minutes. Maybe they never leave bed when I get up in the morning.

Writing

1.      Made it to the end of the first scene of the new short I'm working on. Haven't devoted much time to it.

• Sketched a brief outline for the short.

1.      Still struggling with outline for LBW, but stumbled across a blog, Do-It-Yourself MFA(DIYMFA), with helpful articles, and through playing around with a mind mapping app to make character sketches I surprised myself by finding more ideas for back story, and a few for the plot.

• I also played around with free form character interviews of two characters, and dug up some more back story.

Revision

1.      The short in revision is, well, still in revision. It's one of three stories I've ever done that began right in the middle of the action, and not before. It feels cheesy for that reason, but maybe it really isn't.

2.      ST is so close to being done its 2^nd revision. Goodness, it's been a chore. Call me Madame Treeslayer.

I'm working to take the advice of numerous writers and break writing tasks down to the smallest goals possible. I do it all the time with my daily chores, but never tried with writing. I'm thinking it might help.

Hmm...I should probably decide what my goals for September will be too.

*yTimer by Spacejock software. Free to download and use. I am a fan of his yWriter program, which is how I found the timer.

Otakon 2012

And now I shall detail my four day vacation/journey to Otakon, where creativity runs like sweat from the skin of an armored cosplayer. I got to experience the smelly glamour Friday and Saturday in my own costume, an assortment of items I threw together to get the full Otakon experience. Worked out nice though. I even ended up on Wikimedia, somehow.

End of the Month Update

Goodbye July, and hello August. Yet another month has come and gone already.

I tried hard, but my birthday was not to be resisted. It bowled me over, leaving an achy 27 year old me in its wake. I would have let this atrocity go without complaint, except the cheesecake I brought for my birthday was beyond mediocre, and there are some things I just can't let go.

Turns out I did not accomplish my writing goals for the month, because of personal oversight, as is usually the case.

Fireworks, Flame-grills, and Fantastic Fabrications

July, here again, hot and heavy. Tomorrow will bring fireworks and smoking grills, and my least-favorite question to be asked, “What are you doing for your birthday?” That question never gets easier to answer.


I do have plans to get a fair amount of writing and revision done during this yucky month.

Techno-Fail

June was a month of epic failure for me. The spontaneous, ironic, computer kind of failure. More than once I imagined smacking a few people over the head with my dead net-book.

Darn thing didn't even live long enough for me to give it a stupid name, reflect on the stupidity, then rename it.

Reflection on Another's Post

"If a flawed novel entertains, it has done its job."

That is my biggest takeaway from the June 27th post over at The Business Rusch (Yes, I'm late, I've had a bad week of techno-failure that's kept me busy). Don't get me wrong, it's a good post, that line was the emotional face-slap for me. The whole post deals with the idea of perfection.

Do You Mind, I’m Trying To Study

Once upon a time, there was a place you could go for peace and quiet, where everyone sat with their head bowed over book or paper, or scanned shelves of books soundlessly. You could even hear the pages flipping in this sanctum of silence. We called it a library.