Have been unavoidably detained by the world. Expect us when you see us.
― Neil Gaiman, Stardust
Posts Tagged ‘work’
Brain on Holiday, Apparently
Posted in Holidays, Writing, tagged creativity, funny, neil gaiman, quotes, Thoughts, work on May 25, 2016| 1 Comment »
I Like… Learning Stuff!
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!
. . . . . .
* 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!
Keep Writing
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:)
Productivity Through Gamification
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?
- So, last year around Christmas Mary Robinette Kowal opened up her Habitica guild, Ink Slingers, to the public.
If the only part of that sentence that made sense to you was “Christmas” fear not! Explanations forthwith.
•
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.
•
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:)
……….
* 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?
Getting Happy
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
Yum, but Not Now, Later. Later!
Posted in Food and..., Likes, tagged #damntasty, #fuelforwriters, #ThingsILike, dumplings, food, home, Motivation, Thoughts, work, yay on April 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
It’s lunch time around these parts and I have a serious dumpling craving. I picked up this recipe when a grad school friend brought these dumplings to our weekly Friday afternoon get-together. I’ve always been a dumpling fan but I particularly enjoy the light, flavorful texture and warm tang of this version. Perhaps I’ll make a batch later as a reward for getting my work done.
Enjoy!
Jaouza, or Dai’s Chinese Dumplings
Dough:
2 1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cold water
1. Add boiling water to flour, then add cold. Knead well, then let stand 15 minutes, covered with a damp cloth.
Filling:
3/4 lb. ground beef or pork
2 small cans mushrooms (your choice, I usually use a healthy handful of fresh shiitake)
2 tsp. salt
1 scallion, chopped fine
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. sesame oil
10 oz. Chinese cabbage, chopped
1/8 tsp. ginger
2. Mix all filling ingredients together.
3. Flatten small blob of dough into a round circle. Place a spoonful of filling in center of dough and fold over. Pinch edges closed.
4. Repeat until all dough and filling have been used.
5. Steam and/or fry dumplings.
6. Dipping sauce: roughly equal amounts of soy sauce and rice vinegar or lime juice. Add sesame oil and chili sauce to taste.
Lovely Libraries
Posted in Writing, tagged #allsignspointotyes, #LendTheFuture, #NLW16, access, books, community building, free, innovation, inspiration, libraries, public infrastructure, quotes, ray bradbury, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay on April 20, 2016| 1 Comment »
Last week was National Library Week in the U.S. I’m coming to it late* but as far as I’m concerned, most weeks should involve a library:) Why, you may ask? So many reasons! And for those of us North of the Border, stay tuned because October is Canadian Library Month!
Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.
— Ray Bradbury
* I blame a hectic work schedule but mostly the glorious backlog of library books on my shelves, just waiting to be read:)
A Comfort to the Lost
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #redwoods, artists, inspiration, JK Rowling, Motivation, persistence, quotes, rejection, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing, yay on April 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Life is not supposed to be neat. And it’s a comfort. It’s a comfort to all of us who have messed up. And then you find your way back…
— JK Rowling
Fail Gloriously!
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged Bruce Lee, creativity, failure, inspiration, persistence, quotes, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on March 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Don’t fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
— Bruce Lee
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