Category Archives: Writing

A Strong Finish

Posted on by

Strong Finish

I took a really long hiatus from my writing and from ROW80 (a fabulous, self-directed, ongoing writing challenge–you should check it out). I thought I’d jump back in for the final round of the year, but right when the round was starting I had some major life upheavals, so I postponed it.  But now the end of the year (and the round) is approaching, and I want to finish out the year with some writing accomplishments under my belt.

I’m going to jump in on the current round starting today, so for the mid-week check-in I will set my goals for the rest of the round.  I just have two goals:

  1. Finish a complete outline for Inheritance using K.M. Weiland’s fantastic outlining and structure books, especially the new workbooks that came out this week. I want to be ready to write this story, with a good idea where I’m going, by the end of the year.
  2. Do writing practice from prompts or just freewriting at least three times a week to get my words flowing again.

That’s it.  Two straightforward goals to finish out the year on a high note.  I may not do both weekly check-ins for the challenge, but I will check in at least once a week.  Looking forward to seeing what I get done in the next few weeks.

 

The Weekly Geek, October 30, 2014

Posted on by

Tissues
Not a lot to report this week as I’ve had some sort of horrible crud and have been sleeping a lot.  I’m going to do a short list of what I’ve been into this week.  What have you been reading, watching, playing, loving?

  • Reading: Richard Gleaves’ take on the Sleepy Hollow legend.  I finished SLEEPY HOLLOW: Rise Headless and Ride (Jason Crane Book 1) and am currently reading and very much enjoying the second book, SLEEPY HOLLOW: Bridge of Bones (Jason Crane Book 2).
  • I’m continue my marathon listening to the StoryWonk Sunday podcasts.  Right now I’m listening to them discuss the most recent Star Trek movie, Star Trek Into Darkness, and I love how they pinpointed what was wrong with it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on (Episode 80: Crewsicles, if you want to listen).
  • I’m working on plotting my story and resisting signing up for NaNoWriMo this year even though it feels really srange to me to not be doing it.
  • Watching: lots of tv in the background as I’ve tried to nap away this bug, but I have been watching Scorpion.  At first I thought it was going to be too cheesy, but the more I watch it the more I like it.  I hope it’s catching on with others so we can keep it for a while.

That’s it for me for the moment.  I’m going to go off and nurse this cold-thing.  See you next time, hopefully with a progress report on the novel planning.

The Weekly Geek, October 22, 2014

Posted on by

I know everyone’s using the word “geek” these days.  Also, this may not be a weekly feature.  But I’m really liking the feel of the name, so I’m keeping it.

Woven Newspaper

I’m not one of those deep-into-one -thing sort of geeks.  I’m more of a dabbler, with lots of love for a variety of geek-leaning things.  And I’ve been wanting to use this blog to keep track of some of it.  But I kept thinking I needed to have a plan for organizing it all, and so I never got started. Then I realized, I don’t need to have a fancy, shiny, perfect plan at all.  I just need to start writing about the things that thrill me, right from where I am now.

What you’ll see here:  lots of talk about TV shows and movies, especially horror and sci fi stuff, about books and writing, ghosts and ancient ruins and haunted houses and archaeology and cemeteries.  Pretty much anything that I love I’ll be sharing here.

So, jumping right in, here’s what I’ve been into the past week-ish:

  • Went to see Evil Dead the Musical, because how could I not?  I love Army of Darkness and have been known to quote it too many times, so I couldn’t resist a live-action musical, and I was not disappointed.  Campy and fun and a great way to spend a Friday evening.  And there’s one song that ran throughout that keeps popping into my head.  “Look who’s evil now!”  Catchy, infectious little tune.  If you see the play, don’t say I didn’t warn you!
  • Attended the annual Time Travelers’ Ball and Market Faire.  I didn’t have time for a new costume this year, so I pulled out my faithful Italian Renaissance garb from my SCA days and had a great time.  I love going to costume events–Renaissance, Regency, Steampunk, mixed like Time Travelers’ is, but I don’t sew and so often don’t quite manage to get good costumes together.  But I can dream.
  • Lots of TV watching: a Tremors marathon, Sleepy Hollow, Gotham, Children of the Corn (the original), and Pumpkinhead (What? It’s almost Halloween.).
  • Doing a lot of catch-up listening to StoryWonk Sunday, my favorite writing and story podcast.  I’ve started listening in the car during my commute, which has made said commute much more pleasant.
  • Listened to the first episode of Dusted, a StoryWonk podcast about Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Worked on assignments from a writing class I’m taking, Sufficiently Advanced Magic, from Alaistair of StoryWonk (I’m a huge StoryWonk fan–you may have guessed).  I’m writing a classic-style haunted house story, and the planning so far is lots of fun although I find myself really wanting to travel to New York State to research the area.  I’m trying to appease myself with lots of online pictures and tourism websites.
  • Finished reading Crane (Legends Saga Book 1) by Stacey Rourke.  An extreme amount of grammatical and word-use errors made it really hard to enjoy, but I did finish it, and the story itself was a fun take on the Sleepy Hollow legend.
  • Discovered Smart Pop Books, anthologies filled with essays about all sorts of pop culture geeky goodness.

That’s what’s going on in my world right now.  Some weeks won’t have all of this stuff.  It’s just been a pretty full week of enjoyable distractions.  Next time will probably be mostly about writing and reading, but we’ll see.  What about you?  What are you loving right now?  What are you reading?  Watching?  Is anyone else loving Gotham a lot?  Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.