Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, Maya Angelou, persistence, quotes, short stories, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on September 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I’m working on a new project and looking forward to finishing it up and getting it out the door. It’s been a busy month so far, but there never seems to be quite enough time to get everything done. It’s still fun to try.
My mother had this wonderful Maya Angelou quote illuminated and framed. (And who is that amusing young girl in the photo?:) She knew a thing or two about adversity, and about persistence.
Hang on, I’ve got to go take care of a few more things. Something about life and lapels…
Posted in Writing, tagged #ThingsILike, creativity, equinox, fall, Fiction, inspiration, Motivation, persistence, pie, speculative fiction, summer, work, writing on September 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Nights are cool, maple leaves are touched with red, and while a mosquito recently gifted me one massive and very distracting bite, the pesky little blighters are all but done for the year. It is 46F as I write this, and this year’s fall equinox will take place on September 22nd.
It’s time to come to terms with the fact that summer is on its way out.
/insert brief pause for distraught handwringing… or not
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Actually, I think I’m ok with that. Why? Because fall is a terrific season. Because I love pie (mmm, pie:). Because if you were raised on fall as I was, its absence is missed. And because the nagging feeling at the back of my mind tells me that it’s time to get back to work.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t take the summer off. I’m still working, still writing, but I haven’t had much of a presence here. My schedule has been more erratic than usual, as fishing or family or other excursions called me away. And much of the writing I’ve done is tweaking, fixing, editing or otherwise sorting out existing material.
Fall is a great time to dig in and embark on new adventures. To make big plans. Use those extra hours of darkness to dream of the new, and on waking, make those dreams real.
I hope your summer was as fun as mine, and I hope that you, too, are ready for a change. It’s time to get to work.
Posted in Funny, Likes, Writing, tagged artists, awesome, creativity, Dolly Parton, Fiction, funny, inspiration, persistence, quotes, science fiction, sff, space pirates, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on June 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I realized that I have been trying to write a serious version of what is clearly a goofy, rollicking space pirate adventure. Obviously!
That led me to recall the following wisdom from a modern-day sage (who should know):
Figure out who you are. Then do it on purpose.
― Dolly Parton
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #dontquit, #ThingsILike, Cat Rambo, creativity, education, Fiction, genre fiction, Motivation, persistence, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, writing workshops, yay on May 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Today’s Thing I Like is an online writing workshop from Cat Rambo. Now, I’m not affiliated with her in any way except for the fact that I’ve just gone and purchased this workshop for myself. Go me, investing in education:)
I discovered the workshop thanks to my favorite submissions tracking site, The Grinder.* Mizz Rambo is this month’s site sponsor.
Here’s the workshop:
Description and Delivering Information for Genre Writers: How to Deliver Information and Build a World Without Slowing Down Your Story
Check out that detailed curriculum. In fact, go ahead and take a gander at the Introduction and Description previews too. The course goes in depth on a wide range of topics and is seeded with useful exercises throughout. Rambo even provides additional exercises for overachievers.
The course is also a steal at $29, particularly when you consider the source. Who is this fabulously-named instructor, you may ask?
Cat Rambo is a prolific writer and editor of sci-fi and fantasy, with 200 short stories and more to her credit (including a cookbook, most excellent). She studied with Octavia Freaking Butler and other amazing writers at Clarion West. I’ll cite a bit of her blurb to fill in the picture:
She has been nominated for the Endeavour, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award and is the former editor of Fantasy Magazine. Her own work includes over 200 short stories, several novels, and most recently a cookbook, co-edited with Fran Wilde, Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook. She is the current president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
I’m not a writing workshop junkie but I have gone through several. Now that I’m halfway through the Rambo course, I can say that this is the most useful one I’ve taken to date.
Cat Rambo has four online workshops available at the moment, including the Description for Genre Writers cited above, as well as Literary Techniques for Genre Writers, Character Building for Genre Writers, and Reading to an Audience. She also gives live classes if you’re interested in a more personal touch.
Most days I’ll work through a chapter, then apply the exercises to my current work in progress. Very practical and the writing does double duty. If I do the overachiever exercise I get a cookie. Win win!
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* Yep, I’m putting in another plug for The Grinder guys as well (I’m a donor and sometime beta-tester but not otherwise affiliated), because it’s a great project and always free free free. Yet another one of the #ThingsILike!
Posted in Writing, tagged #keepwriting, artists, creativity, failure, Fiction, finishing, genre fiction, inspiration, Motivation, nanowrimo, neil gaiman, persistence, quotes, rejection, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay on May 18, 2016| 1 Comment »
It’s a beautiful day today, the birds are singing, the clover is growing and I’m plugging along, making progress on numerous fronts and feeling fine.
It isn’t always this way.
Some days I can’t get a thing done and nothing seems right no matter what I do. I’m not alone in this, as I was reminded by a recent discussion on one of my listserves. A member had finally had it up to there with the frequent failure to find editorial acceptance. Folks chimed in, discussions were discussed, and this particular writer hopefully left the thread more optimistic than when it began. I know I did.
What some call failure, I call pre-acceptance. Have I mentioned this before? I probably have, because it’s a fairly critical component to my writerly attitude.* No one is going to like everything you write, no matter who you are. There will be rejection.
And that’s ok.
That’s progress, that’s experience, that’s learning one more way not to make a lightbulb. All writers, all people, get rejected.
Let’s take words out of the equation for a moment. I’m on a cookie kick so let’s stick with that.
Are you handing out delicious cookies at work? Someone will say thanks, but no thanks. It may be that they aren’t keen on chocolate chip, or that they are lactose intolerant, or that their doctor just read them the riot act about Type 2 diabetes. You don’t know, and that’s ok.
This isn’t about them, it’s about you.
Do the best you can, of course, and keep bumping that line higher. Practice. Follow Angela Duckworth’s research and go on grit rather than talent. Go online, and find helpful pep talks like the one Neil Gaiman wrote for National Novel Writing Month:
One word after another.
That’s the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes into Chapter Nine, it’s the only way to do it.
Whatever it takes. Your goals are worth it.
* I should mention that I didn’t start out this way. It took some time to be ok with rejection, and if I can do it, you can too. The 350+ pre-acceptances I have accumulated so far helped a lot:)
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #ThingsILike, @MaryRobinette, artists, creativity, finishing, Habitica, Mary Robinette Kowal, Motivation, persistence, Thoughts, useful, work, Writers, writing, yay on May 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Today’s Thing I Like is a way to make productivity easier and fun. Also? Guilt-free rewards for writing and lots else, always awesome.
Let’s see, how to introduce this idea?
If the only part of that sentence that made sense to you was “Christmas” fear not! Explanations forthwith.
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Part the First: Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary is a terrific author and puppeteer with a string of quality novels and shorts under her belt. She’s the sort of person who suffers a puppeteering injury (yep, that’s a thing) and decides to get back into writing in her down time. And wins a Hugo. Then another one. And another one:)
For those of you interested in learning about writing, she’s also active in the Writing Excuses podcast (transcripts are also available for those who prefer the written word).
Part the Second: Habitica
This online platform helps you set up a to do list and rewards you in (fake, sadly, but still) gold pieces when you finish things. It’s free to join and while you can subscribe for things like avatar and quest extras, you don’t need to spend a cent to take advantage of the productivity options. There are lots of productivity and gamification platforms and apps and trackers out there, but this one is working for me.
This is my Habitica avatar, mount and pet, all decked out in rainbow fun.
Habitica lets you track what you need to do and, just as importantly, what you have already done. Then (and this is the extra fun bit) when you’re asking yourself if you’ve worked enough to deserve that double mochaccino half-caf* you’re craving, you can go over to your (fake, but still) treasure chest and cash in gold for a reward.
True, you still have to pay for that half-caf with real money, but! It is no longer a guilty pleasure, it is a well-deserved prize. Set up whatever rewards you like, from a trip to the cafe to a book-like object to dinner and a movie.
Part the Third: Ink Slingers
A Habitica guild or assemblage of people with similar interests, in this case, writing. You don’t need to join a guild but if you’re the sort of person who likes chat breaks with their productivity, consider it. If you’re the sort of person who wants to eliminate even the possibility of distraction on their way to accomplishment, well, don’t.
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How Does This All Come Together?
Now, I’m not usually into apps for this and groups for that. I tend to just forge ahead. Even so, this system works for me. Maybe it will work for you too, or maybe all you need is a handwritten list of your daily step count. Whatever works to help track measurable progress toward achievable goals.
I may still have a tiny touch of game/loot love left over from my time in Warcraft, and if it works for Mary, well. I asked if I could pretty please join Ink Slingers and then promptly became the walliest of wallflowers, but it’s still nice knowing that other people in my guild are working toward similar goals. It’s also nice to have a list that keeps me on track and lets me reward myself when I cross things off.
It’s even nicer to enjoy a tasty adult beverage (50 gold), guilt free. Now excuse me while I go check “blog post” off my list:)
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* Ok, I don’t drink coffee, but the great thing about this system is that it lets you pick your poison. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and Bailey’s, anyone?
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged artists, arts, awesome, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, persistence, quotes, Stephen King, Thoughts, usinterior, work, Writers, writing on May 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »
“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy… you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.”
― Stephen King
J.R. Johnson 
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