Tag Archives: writing

The hundredth day

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

I’m actually fairly sure this is probably day hundred and ten or something, but because I wasn’t particularly detail-oriented with all of my mobile posts they weren’t all properly filed. And so this marched along, a proud little soldier, until the very bitter end. My god this has been a long time. It was, if nothing else, a very impressive learning experience in what I’m capable of (and not capable of) as a blogger.

This was certainly a study in self-torment, make no mistake there, but it was really more of a study of myself overall. How I could, and would, handle daily posting despite work, a move, several major life events (I’m looking at you, journey to Chicagoland), and so on. It involved lots of pictures, a good few thoughtful posts, and a good few lazy posts to just meet the quota. And a fair bit of cheating by fudging the time-and-post-based rules. That last bit let me pretend to be something of a time-traveler, which I won’t let anyone take away from me (save for, perhaps, an actual time-traveler, but only on the condition I get to see all of time and space; ahem).

Coming up with consistently high-quality content is not my forte. Doing so on a daily basis proved quite impossible for me, especially given the number of other events life threw my way. Like the only semi-expected move that turned into an absolute shit-show for a number of reasons, the least of which being my rather sudden ankle sprain. Ultimately, the whole thing taught me I can’t force these posts to happen without some sort of eventual detriment to the overall quality of what I’m creating. Surprise.

This paragraph is starting with another word than however, because when it lined up the way it was with the WordPress post builder it spelled out BITCH and that seemed both hilarious and inappropriate.

Eventually, perhaps if only because of this intense and crazy hundred days, I will be taking a short hiatus from regular posting to recharge.

And partially because I am now embarking on the adventure of exploring the possibility of grad school. But that is a post for another day, I think.

Go out there, folks, set your goals and slay them like dragons.

Social media brings out the weirdness in people

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

I may have lied a little about the planned posts, if only because inspiration struck and I’m prone to whim decisions the same way my cats are prone to napping on tables despite being told tables are for glasses and not for kitten asses. Oh well.

There are plenty of commentaries on social media, and I’m almost entirely certain I’ve written posts on the topic before.

Let me make something entirely clear before I continue: I am by no means a master of social media, nor do I always behave according to whatever arbitrary guidelines are set-up to dictate the best ways to Tweet, Facebook, and so on. At no point have I, or will I ever out of self-respect and not being able to take such things seriously, claimed to be a social media guru (or maven or expert or whatever). Twitter is fun, it provides me with a platform to interact with other artists, and I’ve met some pretty awesome people thanks to it. I also live-tweet entirely too many shows far too often, but let’s not talk about that here. Continue reading →

Do good and well

Posted on by under General Bloggity Stuff

Okay, so this is a bit odd of me since I’ve not managed two posts in one day in a while. Accept it as it is and move along. This is a little something that just popped into my brain and it demanded attention, despite my needing sleep, and so here it goes.

I am very picky about language use and proper grammar, a statement that borders onto the comedic as I am prone to a number of errors and I nearly spelled grammar as “grammer” somehow. I’d like to blame it on a mistaken keystroke, but the real culprit is how tired I am and how frayed the important strands and strings and thingums and doodads of my brain have gotten in the past weeks. There are tiny, near-invisible creatures repairing those, however, so fret not. Back to the point, though.

At no point have I ever been particularly fond of acronyms. Deliberate misspellings and adding letters to words that don’t belong (the letter z has a long criminal history here) is irksome at best. There’s one grammar no-no that, for some reason, seems to have become more tolerable for me lately. It’s the pesky response of doing good instead of doing well when someone is asked how they are doing, and my mother is to blame for that being the case.

When I’m asked how I’m doing, I typically respond with a reflexive variation of saying I’m well (except when I say I’m feeling shitty or not doing well, the latter of which still a sort of echo of the point I’m aiming for here). I don’t do it to sound like a snobby grammarian (as I am far from one, despite what some behaviors may indicate at times). It just happens to be the way I speak. That being said, I grew up being told to have a good sleep instead of sleep well, that various people are doing good instead of well, and so on. It’s something that gets the brain a-ticking after time, or perhaps after great deals of stress and sleep deprivation have me wanting to drive my thoughts elsewhere. Or whatever.

I like to think someone who says they are well also have the intention of doing good and people who are doing good are also well. Perhaps this is a touch of optimism in place of dealing with a clear error in speech. Maybe it’s just accepting that language is weird and constantly evolving. I for one like the idea of simultaneously doing good and well without making jokes about putting on a cape and whooshing about.

Slowly, somewhat unsurely, recovering

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

There are plenty of ways I could talk about how this week has been off to a bit of a tumultuous start, which would be putting things in fairly mild terms to say the least, but I’m choosing to now focus on that. I’m instead choosing to focus on victories.

Here’s a big for-instance regarding victories:

Seen above: not the best track record, but it's still something

Seen above: not the best track record, but it’s still something

I’ve not done a lot of writing lately, and I know there’s still a very deep, ingrained fear of failure and rejection playing a decent-sized role in my stagnation. I logged onto Submittable to remind myself of a couple key things regarding creative writing. Continue reading →

Writerly woes: the frustration of stagnating

Posted on by under Uncategorized

WordPress didn’t feel like cooperating with me tonight, and I had a few other issues to hash out so I’m not about to penalize myself for this one being a bit late. Yes, that might be cheating a little and I would feel terribly guilty if I hadn’t posted something every day for nearly the past hundred days.

One of the key reasons I’ve bowed out of the yearly torture-disguised-as-working-on-my-craft known as NaNoWriMo is because I seem to have hit a brick wall. A quick about-face and I discovered another wall. The short of it is I, through some weirdness that happens to comprise part of my creative whims, have found myself quite thoroughly stuck. It’s not for lack of ideas or lack of motivation so much as it is a complete lack of want to write while still wanting to write.

It’s just as annoying as it sounds, and it should be something I can push past…but no luck. So each day I try again with renewed resolve. For now, it’s time to get some sleep. I need to actually post something of substance tomorrow or I’ll be damning myself up and down.

The 2014 NaNoWriMo decision is…

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Tonight is surprisingly devoid of Halloween-related goodness. No scary movies until tomorrow, as Brianne has coursework to focus on. Trick-or-treating happened last night ’round these parts. I’m not feeling particularly motivated to dig out any scary video games or read any spooky stories. Oh, and I’m starting to feel sick but I think that’s mostly thanks to this awful warm-and-cold alternating weather (get your shit together, Mother Nature). I’ll chalk it up to the stars being in a funky alignment or some witch putting a particularly unimpressive hex on me and move on.

It’s NaNoWriMo Eve after all, and there are thousands upon thousands of writers all over who are currently full of anticipation and anxiety for the next thirty days of self-torment under the disguise of writing. After a fair bit of consideration, going back and forth on the topic, I’ve decided to not go for the crazy glory this year. If I’m not doing a great deal of writing already, I can only imagine how much additional stress and frustration this will produce.

Best of luck to everyone who does participate.

Attention span versus modern epic storytelling

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

I am one of millions of people who can say I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy (plus The Hobbit; no Silmarillion for me, however) from start to finish. It took over a year, what with school and life-related distractions obligations. This isn’t something I say with pride, pushing my glasses up as part of the standard act of nerdy superiority that accompanies such statements. They were some really magical books, and the way Tolkien built such a rich and elaborate world populated with many interesting characters has stayed with me since. Yes, I did see the movies. Yes, I loved them, but I’m also one of those people who really questions the need for The Hobbit to have been split into a multi-film event. That’s a topic for another time, however, when I’m more drunk and willing to draw great and terrible ire from fans. Continue reading →

The question of NaNoWriMo revisited

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I hesitate to admit this, but apparently it’s almost November already. I’m fairly certain it was mid-July just last week, but perhaps time has gotten away from me. At least I didn’t somehow miss Halloween. Yet.

November means NaNoWriMo, which I’ve brought up relatively recently(ish). It’s that special kind of self-inflicted torture writers endure/enjoy for one full month, attempting to produce a 50k word novel before November wraps up. This is only appropriate as The Thanksgiving Food Coma usually spells doom for writers who have failed to maintain a moderate to intense level of daily writing discipline throughout the month. Nothing about NaNoWriMo is easy, from balancing writing against other obligations to fighting against the madness-inducing 50k final word count.

This begs the following question: why in the Hell am I thinking about throwing all caution (and reasonable thought) to the wind and giving it yet another go? It would be in the shadow of the ass-kicking, brain-draining Hundred Days of Blogging (which is so close to being over but still so far away). The holiday shopping season will be upon us too soon, and I still happen to work in a retail setting that is going to get absolutely stampeded. There’s also the small matter of my birthday happening at some point next month, which I imagine will involve plenty of its own distractions as well. I’m still considering it, though. Not a damn clue why. Brianne posed a reasonable question in response to me voicing my interest in tackling NaNoWriMo: “Do you want to torture yourself?”

Perhaps? On one hand, it could be a good way to really kick-start my currently-unnamed novel project. On the other hand, I know too well that working under pressure usually doesn’t make for my best creative moments (although, to be fair, it’s hit or miss because sometimes it lends to me producing my best work). I think the answer will have to wait until November. Around midnight, November 1st. We’ll see where this ends up from there and then.

Justifiable character homicide?

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

There are few easier ways to really tug at a reader’s heart-strings than by killing off one of their favorite characters. It’s a pretty common practice, and something any fan of Game of Thrones is far too familiar with: the sudden, perhaps unexpected offing of a beloved character, or a not-so-beloved character. The important difference here is that loved or loathed, these now-deceased fictional folks had names and families. Above all else, they had plot relevance, and so such deaths are tailored to have tremendous impact. It could be to push the plot forward, to give a protagonist that extra push towards heroic deeds, a means by which to turn a could-be villain into a fully-fledged monster, or a number of things.

Regardless, there are an awful lot of characters who seem to be marching right into the grave. It raises a curious question for writers, really. When, if at all, is it really necessary to kill off one of your darlings? At what point does such a play cheapen the story instead of strengthening it? Are there worse things for characters than death? Continue reading →

Hundred days? Not quite yet.

Posted on by under One Hundred Days of Blogging

I’m almost certain I hit one hundred days worth of daily blogging about a month ago. Maybe a year ago. Probably decades or millennia or even eons ago. The official count for posts in this category, however, sits at eighty-eight, which I find peculiar since I swear a couple weeks ago it said eighty-three. Or perhaps I’m mistaken. I probably mislabeled some of the mobile posts (way to go, past-me).

However, in the spirit of following the post-count, I have twelve more days. Eleven after this post.

And now to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be better, albeit still somewhat sleepy I fear.