Tag Archive: writing


NaNo Update


Pixabay.com

Yeah, that is an actual picture of me around 10 when I wake up. NaNo, this time, is turning me into a night owl. I spend my day developing characters and plot ideas and write a little. But real writing seems to be happening after midnight. I was up again past 3AM.

So, drumroll. My new total wordcount is 4,058 Once I start typing the story comes alive. Trouble is new characters that show up that need to flesh out. I even need a town name that is in the middle of the woods that no one knew about that is safe from the virus. I’ll do without it as long as I can put up with [town without a name] replacing a real name. Meanwhile, it adds three more words to the count that would have been just one word.

Isn’t it funny how fictional characters can come in and steal your life? They are just names until I imagine them more. Sometimes, heck, most of the time, I pick the name from WriteItNow, then I pull out my favorite book: Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon and look up the characteristics I see for that person. Soon they feel real to me.

Well, time to get busy writing more story. So far, this one is fun!

 

Grammarly VS One-Liner


Well. There you go. It looks just like the corrections Grammarly gives me in my own writing. You all probably already see how I live on the run-on sentence. I try to fix it, but it is how I talk. I did not write the quote. That was a capture from a share on Facebook. And ‘is done’ is when the whole thing got underlined to be rewritten.

By the way, I used the Snipping Tool for that capture. I’m hoping others can see and read it better than my old eyes. Hopefully, you get the idea.


Found on Facebook:

That fencer-x does a spectacular one-liner!

Thanks Yve for the idea. And Linda G Hill for the prompt.

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

I have to admit that most of the day I felt like it was Saturday again. And the computer acted up. Am I the only one that keeps multiple windows open with lots of tabs on each window? I have one for YouTube tutorials and patterns, one of social-media like Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter, and one with email and blogs. So all that disappeared and I had to reset it all up.

That done it was time to edit more of last month’s book.

Then I wrote for the prompt for Writer’s Group. I do like meeting with the group and seeing how they are doing and what they come up with on the prompts. Oh, and that means it was actually Monday! Ha! I do know!

Do those of you that do Duolingo find there are days you do the bare minimum and other days you can’t get enough? Tonight I read a lot of the stories. I’m back to playing with Japanese, French, Esperanto, and still working with Spanish and German.

Oops, I still didn’t write my review. I don’t know if I have the chops for it tonight. I’d rather knit a while before bed. Tomorrow.

#WDIIA

What Day Is It Anyway, A2Z-W


What day is it anyway? Yeah, I’ve been starting with ‘W‘ every day this month of alphabetical soup. I wish I could say that I  have been writing furiously daily, too. That didn’t happen. I ran out of juice last week. My characters decided to take off in directions that seemed unconnected to my story. I knew the story still wanted to be told so I took time off to think. Then I decided to take the stress of the word count. I set a new goal to hit 30k by the end of the thirtieth. With nearly 28k I figured it was doable. Next month I will continue as I think the book is only halfway done. I still see a lot of adventures and dangers happening ahead.

Oh, Monday is my local Zoom Writers Meet so today I do know the day it is. It is so wonderful to meet with other writers and hear their take on the prompts. The same prompt can be taken so differently.

Wandering heart is playing in my head that it wants to use tomorrow’s 77 degrees for a walk. It is about time we get good weather. Everyone I know is telling me how hot it is where they are. When I’ve looked outside to decide the wind or the rain were my deciding factor.


How to Write a Novel: Advice and Tips from a Full-Time NovelistHow to Write a Novel: Advice and Tips from a Full-Time Novelist by Simon Haynes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was quite informative and not only ways to help write a novel more efficiently, but also great hints on how to use yWriter better.

It is fun to hear Simon Hayes’s voice. After reading a lot of his Hal Spacejock stories and enjoying them to the max, it is fun to hear the rhythm of how he speaks matches the cadence of his fiction.

I have written quite a few novels myself, mostly for NaNoWriMo (17?) so I highly recommend Simon’s methods to write. I am learning some things from this book, that I wish I could have had in my writing wheelhouse all along. It is a very helpful book.

I plan to buy the Kindle and perhaps paper version too so I can refer back to the books often. I highly recommend this book!

View all my reviews


The Storied Life of A.J. FikryThe Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Um. Yeah. What if Data wrote a book? The emotions and exciting adventure are missing. Lots of telling that seem to lead nowhere.

But if you love books and bookstores, you are hooked without mercy. You don’t want to quit because there has to be a reason for all the quotes and little notes that start each chapter.

I didn’t care for A.J. Fikry. The author doesn’t paint him in any kind of good light. The other characters around him are equally yawn-producing. But BOOKS and a BOOKSTORE! Keeps the engine running, the reader reading. Weirdly, at the end I found tears flowing. How did the author do that? I even found myself wondering how the next book would look. I wanted more of the characters. (trying not to spoil here.)

A friend recommended the book. I’m glad she did. I recommend this for readers who love books. I will look into other books by this author. I may reread this to see if I can figure out how the author wrote this intriguing book in the dryest of fashions, throwing ‘show-not-tell’ and other rules of writing out the window.

View all my reviews


I’ve been busy but have been inspired by some of these prompts. When things settle down a bit I will start working and sharing what I’ve done. For now, maybe this site and some of her prompts will inspire some of you!

How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story? Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward! The Prompt WRITE IN A GENRE YOU DON’T USUALLY USE It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Writing in a … Continue reading “2019 Day 6 – A Fresh Genre”

Source: 2019 Day 6 – A Fresh Genre | StoryADay

Chicken and Coyote


I am trying to make sure I write a little more each day. I liked to write nearly two thousand words a day. But suddenly I don’t know what to write. Maybe I should write about the abduction of Clucky (All five chickens look the same and have no idea who is who). By the way, I wrote this yesterday.

It was early morning. Master David came out just after the sun to feed us. I thought it a bit early and I squawked it, but he doesn’t understand squat! We assumed he knew that it was okay to go outside. I thought it shivery. But around here it is hard to tell. So I decided to go out to the dust bowl of the front yard. I love to take my bath out there. It is easy to get caught up in the bath making the dust fly every which way.

Suddenly, something has me by the throat. At first, I thought it was too much dust. But no. I couldn’t breathe or even let the others know I was out there. I was dragged across the street. I know we aren’t supposed to go there but I was being dragged, no choice. It was just too much.

Finally, that chicken quit wiggling! Can I help it that my pups are hungry? I saw the open driveway and the dust flying about. No one saw this sweet chubby hen out there. She looked like breakfast to me. My pups won’t go hungry today. Can I help it that the Master didn’t shut the gate? Can I help it that the chicken lost feathers along the way? Not my problem. Pups gotta eat.

***
So a semi-true story in that I really don’t know what the coyote and chicken were saying, but I’d swear it if I needed to. The photos are from Pixaby. But the chicken looks like our chickens and the brush looks like our area. I didn’t see the coyote. I have seen them walking down the street. But didn’t witness this. It is all my imagination. Unfortunately, a chicken was killed. 😦

A2Z, Z, CampNaNo 20190430


Zero to 51,365 in thirty days. CampNaNo has been fun for me this month. I love it when characters and story seem to be using me as the typist. Most of the time with this latest novel that was how it was. Just type as fast as the story comes to me. It was like reading a book in that I didn’t know what was happening next until the muse told me.

The hardest part of this month was the A-to-Z Challenge and combining it with my story. And even that was okay until the first Sunday when the challenge wasn’t in effect. That made the writing harder. Only because I did want them to reflect each other. The rhythm of the writing got a bit of a hiccup. So for that reason, I don’t think I will combine them again.

In fact, I think I won’t do it in April ever again. I will do my own rebel challenge in February. At day twenty-six I will be done and save the last two or three for something else, who knows.

As for the writing, I am determined to keep working on my novel from this month, editing and lining it up with the rest of the series (that also needs editing), But I think I will keep writing. I don’t know what. I just know that this habit of writing 1,667 words a day is so helpful and mostly fun when I stay with it. It is horrid when I have to reestablish the habit. But I say this every time. Let’s see if I can maintain. I will probably report here my word count or in some way use this to keep me honest with myself. I guess this will be a journal of the writing and other parts of my day. I write my reviews because I needed to keep track of what I read and what I thought about the read, and what I was doing at the time that influenced how I felt about the read. Well, this will be the same, just for writing. That was my original thought about blogging.

When I had four children using up my day I found lists were not only unproductive but depressing. At the end of the day, when I was so tired from adulting and parenting, I would look at a list and think, I didn’t do a thing all day! My husband would come into the home after work and see me exhausted and the house a mess. He, too, wanted to know what I did with the day. I decided to keep a journal of what I did. Surprise, surprise I wasn’t sitting and watching soaps and eating bonbons! That list went on and on. My husband’s day ended when he left work. I never left work. Anyway, listing what I’ve done has always helped me feel better. Accomplishment is what it is all about. If organizing by the future works for you, good. I just need to keep working and it shows in the long run without extra stuff done, I don’t need to do.

You know the neatest part about zero? If you put then next to any other number it grows or shrinks. I hope I’m on the right side.

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