Tag: Writing

Facebook Author Page And Prompt Update

I think I am jumping the gun. I just set up an author page for myself on Facebook. When asked if I was famous I clicked yes. I have the mental thought and hope I will be one day. I don’t have a book published or any book in the works to be published but it could happen. Maybe if I create this page things will fall into place. What is famous anyway? Right!

I was thinking I’ve been late on the creation of the page. This may have been a great place to post all the articles I had written when I was writing for The Celebrity Cafe and Joonbug. I had posted the articles written for these sites as public view but now with the many changes to Facebook they don’t come up on my public page. I can’t open my Facebook to the public. It is too personal for public consumption.

As a wanna be author I have to think about my own social media presence and public relations. I worked as an intern with a publishing house for a short time. When we reviewed queries one of the things we checked was the author’s social media presents. Obviously, this wasn’t the only thing I’m just clarifying it was one of the things checked. The number of followers was a possible calculation to a number of book sales. This is my logic for creating my author’s page.

If you would like to “Like” my crazy author’s page click HERE. Don’t expect much. I just started it and it’s very empty right now.

An update on the prompts. I have been doing well. Friday I completed a 582 word prompt. I could tell I am a rusty writer. The writing wasn’t very visual. In the begin, it was me telling instead of showing. As the writing continued I think my imagination was breaking down the wall and I was finding the words painting the reader a picture. Today I wrote 526 word prompt. I’m getting better. This time it took me a bit to get into the prompt. Once over the hump it was hard to stop but it was mostly descriptions of surroundings than story. I finally stopped when I got stuck on the ending. (Bottom of the page is always a good place to stop.) If you’re wondering what happen to the weekend prompts, I didn’t do any. I don’t often write on the weekends.

I have been posting my prompts and word counts on my Twitter page. If you would like to follow and write along click HERE. Be warned. My Twitter is not just writing prompts. I also participate in Vaginal Fantasy book club monthly and tweet what I find amusing, interesting, and funny.

The Plan With Prompts

I think I’ve come up with a plan to get back into my writing. I’ve been slacking lately and I can’t let that continue. Before I dive into my novel and short story ideas I think I will do a few days of prompts. I need to get my imagination and writing brain back into word shape. Even on this blog I’ve been really grasping for topics lately. Comparing hair and puppy training to writing. I can do better. (Unless you like that sort of thing.) I was thinking about taking a writing class. Writing classes were helpful when I was in college but I realized all the professor would do is use one page prompts as the homework assignment. The impending due date helped and having people to critique your work but I don’t think I need all the extras. I need a steady writing schedule.

It is always good to start off with a plan or an outline to organize my thoughts and know what direction to charge forward. It’s time to get my butt in the seat, my hands on the keyboard, and unlock a door the stories need to escape. These untold and incomplete stories have been driving me crazy. They’ve been trapped for too long. So wish me luck. I struggle with distractions and procrastination. I hope to find the motivation I had a year ago and start find writing schedule again.

Writing Fever

I write better at times away from home. Is it the clique atmosphere that makes the brain click and starts it running with poetic verse? Or is it the different location. The place that is not your own. New sensations? If it’s the nature noise and the city quite or the drown of the city’s loud buss and the stillness of the rural areas. Away, the words come. The mind loosens up. There is distance between your T.V. or fast internet and you can’t drift away from the page. The clock’s clicking doesn’t echo or count down but the word count increases.

A Poem By Me

I wrote this a long time ago. I have had it on my Writer’s Café account with very little feedback and since I haven’t posted here enough this month I will share this poem. (Sing song-y nervous). What do you think? General impressions?

Muse

I want to drown in my drink
Let the chilled murky liquid fill my lungs
Weigh my pockets with ice
Numb the fat tongue.

When it’s heavy on my mind
There’s no need to help me find the bottom
Just fill my empty glass
I’m drinking deep.

Hey Bartender give a tip
What was once sugary around the lips
Crystallized to a crust
I’m all tapped out.

How Writing Is like Training A Puppy.

Sunday, my Other and I adopted a puppy. She is a 3 1/2 month mutt and she now has a home with us. We named her Lana. She is gentle, sweet, and starting to get into trouble but we all keep teaching and learning. Even if it would make a good excuse I can’t give up my writing schedule with my new arrival. Instead, I’ve adjusted to writing when she’s napping. (Puppies nap a lot). While going through the puppy training steps I couldn’t help think it’s like the writing process. (Now, bear with me.)

Have a safe place. For Lana, it is her crate, under a table, or behind a Christmas tree. I am happy to report by day three her safe place is her pillow, carpet, and crate. And this shy dog just needs a few minutes to adjust to new situations. For me, it’s my desk, the living room couch, or Starbucks (I like the hustle). I find my distraction is less in these places but it took me some time and experimenting to figure this out. I remember trying a local library once and it was a waste of time for me. One time the librarian working knew me and wanted to chat. I tried to explain what I was doing but it leads to more conversation. Another library I happen to run into someone who remembered me and wanted to catch up. Trail and error but we are finding where we are most comfortable.

Set a schedule. It’s best with a new puppy to set schedule for walking, feeding, and playing/training. With writing it is best to set a schedule, for writing, editing, and story outlining. Maybe morning you write best, and after lunch, you edit the piece from three months ago. Great! Keep it up. You’ll start to notice you write or edit most those times with speed and ease. Both schedules teach the puppy or brain when it is time to do your business.

Be consistent. My puppy is improving every day with her daily schedule of walks, encouragement, and training she has learned her name and where to pee/poop. I constantly struggle with being consistent with my writing schedule but I have been improving. I know I need to keep up writing five days a week (for you maybe writings every other, after or before work) but I seem to do that for a month and stop. But I keep trying and I’ve seen improvement. Also, I see what my writing is like after a long dry spell. Less description and imagination. It is best to keep writing so your brain knows when it’s time to turn on and get those creative juices flowing. Don’t wait for inspiration. Your work will be few and far between. Write every day and inspiration will come more often and when there is paper and pen.

Don’t overdo it. Lana training has gone far in the few days we’ve had her but we have tried to limit what we teach and for how much time. She’s not going to learn anything tired. We try to not train for too long and try to notice when she is tired. A tired puppy won’t learn anything. Don’t want to stop all the good writing vibes but your brain needs time to rest and reboot. Sometimes when I finish writing a scene I put the story away. If I have more ideas in what direction to take the story I’ll write a next section outline and step away. Be patient. By letting my brain rest I find the next day I can write that scene longer and with more excitement then if I kept going. This is not always true. I have written two or more scenes in a row but after many writing sections, I have learned to listen to my writing brain and sense if it’s getting tired and if it can go the distance of the next scene. It’s exciting but remember, it takes time. Don’t want to give up completely because you’ve mistaken overwork for writer’s block.

The puppy is waking up and it’s time for my writing brain to rest. Below is a picture of Lana (the real reason you’ve been reading). Enjoy and continue writing.

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Lana: The New Addition

Struggling

I want to write but when I sit down all that fills my paper is tears. The pen cuts deep. It skips past the words I need and leaves me alone with scribbled mess. No character comes to mine. No scene with the scent of nature or city. No story.
Just tear it up and toss it out. Another useless day. Glassy eyes with mirror reflection of failure. The fight is gone.

Work in progress….general impressions.

The Disappearance Of The Clock

I woke by springing upright in bed. The screeching sound first coming from my dreams then somewhere in my room. The glow of my cell phone reflecting erie shadows onto my walls. Thank you NYC emergency service alert for the potential flood advisory in the area. My warning: I am awake. With this extra time I thought I would be using for sleeping I figure it was time to write on this thing.
I’ve been slacking on updating this blog. First, I thought I had nothing to write about. Second, I been procrastinating with the help of Skyrim. That game has a way of wasting hours without me even knowing they passed. The fighting and finding items in quests suck in my attention. Even the slow activities (black smithing, enchanting, and selling) seem to fast forward my clock. The true time suck, the new cable box not displaying the time. Before the disappearance of the cable clock I was focused on the game and the quest but always with an eye on  the time. Now, my line of vision has no clock to nag me with how much time I spend playing. It’s true for my writing too. When I put up the full screen document view and I have a supply of words I know I need to get down, time is not an issue. Cover the computer distractions (mostly internet browsers)  along with the clock and I’m writing. I realized, typing this out, the clock may be my enemy. I wonder if it’s just the digital clock or would the same time hover happen if I had a analog clock over my desk or T.V. A theory to test one day with my game play not my writing. 

Wattpad Or WritersCafe?

I have an account on both sights and I was thinking of using one and deleting the other. I been trying to cut down the number of social site’s I’m a member of and two communities where I can post my creative work seems excessive. Which to keep and which to throw away?

I have posted one poem on WritersCafe and receive a few comments. I was thinking about posting the same poem on Wattpad and see if I get more advice but the “Are you sure you read the terms” pops up and it makes me jumpy. When posting on the net there is always that fear your hard work will be stolen, hated or lost but why is Wattpad making sure I’ve read them? Is there something buried deep in lawyer language saying I’m selling my first born? (Trying to be funny here but seriously is there?) Also, does anyone really ever read the terms and conditions? (Eddie Izzard joke.)

But what to do? Have you experience on either or both writing sites? Which do you like and why?

Just Don’t Quit

Who is participating in National Novel Writing Month? I’ve been thinking about partaking but sometimes I feel maybe I should be working on my own novel then just race writing. Some have said I should try to speed write my next novel but I don’t think NaNoWriMo should be used with something I care about. But some seem to be taking this month to work on the story they’ve been putting on the back burner. I always figured NaNoWriMo is a time to try anything. Stuck? Aliens land or a time machine or cab with hot celebrity. I’ve done that kind of writing now I think I want to focus on my story.

I’ve been working on my outline and now I’m reaching a wall. I’ve been figuring I’ll write what I have. I hope, as I get closer to the end of what I’ve outlined, I’ll have more direction where to go in the story. I don’t want some race or daily word count decide or pressure where my story goes.  NaNoWriMo could be a good way to step away from my story and just have stressful fun on something I don’t fuss over. Knowing me I’m thinking NaNoWriMo is just procrastination. I still have a few weeks to think it over before I choose. To the ones that have decided, I read a great quote the other day. For writers and wanna be authors out in the world:

“Don’t quit. It’s very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it’s very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can’t get fired if you don’t write, and most of the time you don’t get rewarded if you do. But don’t quit.”
– Andre Dubus

It’s a First Draft Not A Finished Novel

It’s a First Draft Not A Finished Novel

I’m very proud of my accomplishment. I wrote 45,000-word first draft of a science fiction novel. I’ve told a few people since and I am quite surprised by the majority response. I think most believe I wrote a finished completed work of fiction. The number one reply is, “Have you given it to anyone to read?” They think it’s my number one mistake of why I’m nowhere near publishing. I then have to go into a lengthy explanation that my first draft is a complete mess I never edit as I wrote. I started thinking; do others believe a book, magazine or newspaper article they read is some genus one-time attempt?

The friends who want to read it even though it is not in a ready state. I’m ecstatic to have the support except they think I’m being shy and overprotective of my “baby”. I make note of their names and tell them when I’m ready I’ll send them a copy. To try and bring the point home, all I request is a, don’t worry about hurting my feelings evaluation. In spite of that they want it now.

I recently had to tell a group of people my still developing writing habit. The habit of putting the first draft away for an amount of time, so I can step back to my piece with fresh eyes, and continue to work on it. The retort was still someone can do that for me. I found it hard to explain that I wasn’t nervous about someone reading my work. I love good and bad criticism. Well, perhaps love is the wrong word. Makes it sound like I haven’t had bad criticism that didn’t make me recoil, wince, or shrink. On the contrary, when I stop being emotionally involved in my piece, some of that critique helps me work the story into a stronger quantity.

The other confusing question is, “will I self-publish”. Self-publish? First, I have to explain I’m not writing to publish. I’m writing for myself. There was a time I tried to write for a future famous novel and my writing was non-existence. Now I just try to work and see what comes from the mind. I get strange looks. Next I explain, “I will try and publish a book one day however, that is a step I’ll think about when I get there”.

Second, I express my dream to try going the traditional route before the self-publishing way. Everyone seems to know someone who has self published and has done well. That’s great but it’s not my first move. I think it would be nice to say some publishing house sees brilliance in my work and wants to help support me. Show me the way. I expect generic, mean, or suggestive dismissal in my inbox. Be like the writers I’ve read with their own stacks of rejections before hitting it big.

There are always the suggestions of what I should write. It is a memoir on their life, or a book about crazy women and clueless men with their help. I have to look at them and say, you don’t need me. You sit down and start writing your story, your idea. I may say I’m a writer but it is not limited to me or that person you see on the book covers in the bookstore. It’s your brainchild. Still people think it’s not what they can do.

I’m happy people are proud of the work I accomplished and they want to see me succeed except there is a lot more labor than just the first attempt at writing.