Tag Archive: writing


Right on the Money!


This never happens. I ended right on the number I should be at today!

Time to Kill the Cuties!


Since my characters seem to want to hide behind the boulders while the volcano erupts and the bad cops are shooting and no exploding Ebolic zombies are near as they should be, I’m being a bit of a NaNo Rebel. I’m adding the reviews I made today on my blog to the wordage. Otherwise, I will have to start being George RR Martin and start killing the cuties. Even at that, I’m two days behind. I know I will catch up and that I’ll be able to remove the non-story words, still it is frustrating!


The Writer's Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characterwriter's Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters SThe Writer’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characterwriter’s Digest Sourcebook for Building Believable Characters S by Marc McCutcheon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my go-to book for NaNoWriMo. It is great to set up characters for your book. I don’t know how others do it. I have a program called WriteItNow that is good for generating names. Other people use that program for everything. But I write in yWriter. After I have my names, I go to this book. I have tabs set up for different characteristics and I use a number generator on my phone to give me the characteristic according to the list of each page. I try not to cheat. If the character is very flawed it is easier to write them. Between the name and the characteristics, a story seems to emerge.

The beginning of this book has a character development questionnaire. I have found this handy, also. This is the best book to get me started writing and helps me keep writing unless my characters are stuck behind boulders and not moving. Then I need bigger help. Probably a sprint/prompt=sprompt will get my characters out. Or I’ll pull a George R.R. Martin on them.

If you get the chance to buy this book, you will be buying a treasure!

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Steady As She Goes


Tuesday Talk


Yeah, I have no idea what I am going to talk about. I just want to make sure I stay in the habit of blogging. No more A to Z. No more CampNano. I haven’t even done any knitting lately.

When my kids were little I felt like I was being followed by four tornadoes. Making a list of what I needed to do made me feel worse when nothing on the list got done even though I was busier than ever. So I started making lists of what I did get done, even if it was a repeat of the same things over and over.

So here’s the list for today:

Moved two chapters from Word into yWriter so that I could detail everything and get lists of items, locations, and characters in each scene.

 

Did a few minutes each of Russian, French, Esperanto, Japanese, Spanish, and German. Yeah, my list has grown on Duolingo but I find it fun to work on all of these. I may never be conversant with any but I may have a better understanding when I meet people who speak these, or when I find words in books of these languages.

Found out that I have a road trip with my Honey coming up. Unfortunately, it is to a hospital in Portland. Fortunately, the motel (hotel?) is covered so for this minor procedure. We just don’t have the kind of doctor he needs close by. Yay, Road Trip!

Unfortunately, I don’t think we can take Kali. Fortunately, there will be two people here to give her lots of loving while we’re gone. One plans to take her on long walks to wear her out. Maybe she won’t miss me? I will miss her.

For my background of the editing, I have been binging on Z Nation. It isn’t as good as TWD but there are moments that I am proud of the way they handle certain issues. And it is more humorous.

I guess that about covers it. What did you do today? How do you edit? How do you get things done? What do you do to improve your brain/body?


We Should All Be FeministsWe Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Look, I think of myself as a feminist. But I have read books about feminism that were the most BORING books ever written! This is not one of those! BUT the title kept me from reading it. Not because it is a bad title, but because it looked like it would be boring like those others.

It was far from long and boring. If you are lucky enough to get to have the audio version read by the author there is an extra treat.

Since I didn’t read the book along with listening I can only give my impression of what I think the tree-book is like. I think it is short essays on different aspects of the feminine daily life, especially the world Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie lives in. Her voice and accent make this a delight to hear. The stories/essays are enlighting to intellect and soul.

This is a short read. I read it in an hour before going to bed. So don’t look at it with fear like I did. It’s good and fast!

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We're Going to Need More Wine: StoriesWe’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories by Gabrielle Union

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always feel weird reviewing autobiography. It is somebody’s story about their own life. So I guess I need to review how it was told. I was able to pick up the Audible version with the author reading it. That made it feel like she was in the room just telling me about herself and her past.

Gabrielle Union’s story is unique. And while she is telling her story she covers her outlook on how it felt to grow up as a minority in the school year and as herself with relatives in the summer. She gave her views of feminism and how she went through various discriminating situations. And she told her ‘Me, too” story.

This was an interesting read. I think if I were younger it would have been even more so. I think teens and young adults would get so much out of what she shares.

I hope you get the chance to read/listen to this one to draw your own conclusions.

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Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear SugarTiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One day, in the last couple of months, my daughter kidnapped me so I could spend a week back in Reno. It was one of those serendipitous things that made me very happy. I got to spend time with her and with other family and friends.

My daughter loves to listen to podcasts on long trips. When she learned that I had read and watched Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, she pulled up the Dear Sugar podcasts and we enjoyed a long listen.

Once back at home I found the Dear Sugar websites and other books by Cheryl Strayed. I looked at the eBook/Overdrive local library copies. I found this copy but it was just an eBook with no text-to-speech and no audio version. I tried very hard to enjoy the book. There was wonderful advice given here.

I wanted to keep reading past the mid-point that I thought I got to, but with no way to listen it was hard to read. I will try to keep an eye out for the Audible or Kindle with TTS to read later. Besides, most of it was written for younger people. I played the kind of game I used to play with the Dear Abby advice column, see if I can give the same advice the writer does. I was pleasantly surprised that Ms. Strayed gave more personal answers and helped in deeper ways than Abby or her sister Ann Landers ever did.

I think this is a wonderful book for young people to have. I think Dear Sugar is a good podcast for those under forty. I hope to find this book again in an easier form for me to read.

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