Monthly Archives: March 2011

It’s so crazy, it just might work!

It’s so crazy, it just might work!

I just happened upon a link on twitter for DIY MFA. And five minutes later, I have registered. Do I know what I am getting myself into? Not in the least. Am I excited about being challenged to write and joining others writing on purpose? Heck yeah! The idea is to sharpen your study of writing and simulate the MFA experience with your own independent writing plan.  The goal is to put together your own custom-designed writing plan to help you get many of the benefits of an MFA without going back to school. I don’t know about anyone else, but I could sure use a boost. I’m feeling out the chasm between fanfiction and original fiction and it is WIDE. I’m IN! Wanna jump in? Join up!

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#WipWednesday and Catching up

#WipWednesday and Catching up

Hello, world! It’s WiP Wednesday  (or in my case, writing Wednesday. Or, not writing Wednesday…whichever fits) again! I don’t have a WiP this week… I promised myself I’d take a break through the end of March and start planning out something new on April 1. I’ve been mulling and thinking over characters and story lines, though, and how I’m going to put things together. I still don’t have a complete story in my head, which is kind of scary because that’s where I sat with Caged Bird for 2 years before I gave up. I’m hoping this new venture turns into something and doesn’t go over like a lead balloon. I spent last weekend in New York, which was, in words that don’t even begin to describe the experience, AMAZING. I had a blast from the time the plane landed until I arrived at the airport to leave. I had never been to New York before so it was an eye opening experience. I can’t WAIT to go back… already planning my return trip. Since I spent so much time out and about and sight seeing, I didn’t get much reading time in. I had hoped to unwind with the Nook every night, but the Internet won… had to catch up with my writer friends and everyone else! I’m back, though so I need to get back in the old reading saddle. Tonight I’m Ultra excited to be meeting author Kathryn Stockett, who wrote The Help. She’s speaking at Savannah College of Art and Design’s Ivy Hall Writer’s Series. I can’t wait! Well, that’s all I’ve got for this Wip Wednesday. Hope everyone is doing great with their novels and stories!

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Six Sentence Sunday 3.28

Six Sentence Sunday 3.28

It’s another Sunday! Time for another Six Sentences! I’m still enamored with my recently completed piece called Nowhere Man. Here is a blurb: He walked around the perimeter of the long, strip-mall like row of rooms, counting the numbers. 618… 619… 620… at 621 he stopped, took a deep breath and rapped his knuckles on the door twice. It opened almost immediately. The warmth of the room and the scent of something—soup maybe, rushed from the room in a blast of domestic comfort and hit him head on. In sweat pants, a t-shirt and bare feet, the girl stood in the doorway. “You never told me your name.” The full text of this piece is located here at my archive. It is nowhere near perfect, but I liked it and my goal was to finish it. Check out the other Six Sunday authors here!

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WiP Wednesday 3.23

WiP Wednesday 3.23

I find myself WiPless today, since I’ve finished my open project. I have a few things in my mind, rolling around. I am going to start a new project, original fiction, based loosely (in idea form mostly) on a group of ladies that I brunch with monthly. I still also have Mama Said, which has been at a standstill for awhile. Maybe around Mother’s Day people will feel generous with their stories and sayings for Mom. I realized it was going to take much more work than I could dedicate at the moment to get Mama Said off of the ground, so it’s been simmering for a bit. I am deep in the throes of getting ready to fly to New York tomorrow. I have my list of places I really need to go, like The Strand Bookstore and Word and MoMA and the Met. I’m not much of a touristy kind of person… I don’t need to see Lady Liberty and all that but I do like neat, interesting places. I’m pretty excited. And hopefully I’ll get inspired to do some planning on the new project. Or ya know, think up a new fanfic story. *shrug* I can’t help myself.

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Not so much a rejection as…

Not so much a rejection as…

…not winning. I have reached a new level as a writer… I have joined the ranks of the “not selected”. Yay? Back in January I decided that I was going to submit my writing to a publication. I set my goals mighty lofty and since I’d been circling the Glimmer Train wagon for awhile, I decided to submit a short piece of historical fiction called “Hero” for the Very Short Fiction Award and also the Standard Short Story (March 2011). I just read the announcement from Glimmer Train that they have announced the top three (of the Top 25) winners for January 2011. My piece was not on the list. I did not expect to win, so it’s not a huge disappointment.  I plan to read the pieces chosen when I receive my copy so I can see my competition and what I came up against. And of course I’ll write again and submit again. I am still up for the Standard Short Story– they won’t announce those winners until March 30, but I’m expecting the same result. I guess this means that I can shelve the piece or submit it elsewhere. I’ve yet to decide if I’m going to do that and if so, where I’ll send it. I need to do more research on Duotrope but I’m so overwhelmed by that site. My mom liked it. So… there’s that.

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A Thanks and Writing Update Post

First of all, THANKS to all of the people who commented on my Sunday Six post! I am going to make it a point to get around and read the entries from yesterday. I am not writing tonight because I finished my story! Yay. It ended up being a little over 40,000 words. It is posted at the Fiction archive and also at my archive here. I’ve also updated my word count for March, since I don’t plan to do any more writing this week. I ended up at 105,742 words so far for the year. My goal is 350,000 for 2011, so uhm… I have a lot more writing to do. I’ll be getting ready to fly to New York tomorrow and Wednesday! So excited! I hope I can make it to WORD in Brooklyn– I just really want to go there. Until then, I’ll be mentally prepping myself for my next adventure. I promised my writer friend that I wouldn’t write any more fan fiction until I wrote something original. SIGH. So I am going to spend April mapping things out and trying to start something new.  Original never comes as easily to me as fan fic does, but I have to get off the easy train. No one is going to publish my fan fiction.

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Six Sentence Sunday 3.20

Six Sentence Sunday 3.20

Here are my six sentences for today! Check out the official Six Sunday posts at SixSentenceSunday He shouldn’t have been, but he was thinking about her. She threw him off and it unnerved him. It was her voice. The way she knew so much about living on the street, but obviously had a place to go at night. Her unusual offerings and naïve generosity—she’d given a homeless man her address. Who did stuff like that, these days? I’m hoping to finish this piece before I head out of town Thursday. Hoping!

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Tonight’s Writing Session brought to you by OmmWriter

Tonight’s Writing Session brought to you by OmmWriter

I read about this writing application/program  called Ommwriter via Fuel Your Writing. It’s supposed to eliminate all of the distractions of writing by giving you not only a blank space, but an artistic background and pleasant sounds to accompany them. The sounds are keystrokes that don’t sound like keys, but are audible, if you wish them to be. The music is very Zen, meditation-like, and it can be turned off as well. I’m all for something useful to help writing, so I decided to download and try it. Screenshot courtesy FuelYourWriting.com I tried the inauguration run of OmmWriter tonight, running full steam with the music and the sounds and the background. I ended up turning the sounds off. Way annoying. I’m a music-while-I-write kind of writer, but not that kind of music. Maybe piano music, but definitely not whatever that was. The keyboard sounds were amusing, but after about 500 words, were also annoying. I could have handled the background as well, except the program itself was just slow. It couldn’t keep up with my typing and I had to wait for words to show up. I don’t know if that’s the program or my laptop, but it doesn’t happen when I use Word. Verdict? Nah. My distraction killer of choice, actually, is Write or Die by Dr Wicked. You set the period of time and the goal you want to hit, press start, and start typing. Nothing but blank white space nothing fancy– BYOM (bring your own music… or motivation…) If you STOP typing, after a set amount of time, the screen goes all stupid– turns red and starts honking and blinking until you start typing again. It’s actually pretty motivating for just getting words out to get started when you’re staring at a blank page. It also totally kills your inner editor. No time to stop and edit and rewrite… JUST WRITE. Tonight, I hit my 1000 word goal, but Ommwriter wasn’t very motivating so I haven’t added […]

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#WiPWednesday 3.16 & other stuff

#WiPWednesday 3.16 & other stuff

It’s Wednesday again! Just  quick update on my WIP. I hammered at it some last week and spent a good amount of time pushing the story forward past an important point over the weekend. I sent it to a small group of people to check out and give some feedback and plan to work on it some this week. I don’t know if it’s the time change or just general fatigue but I’ve been getting home around 5:30 or 6 and I just feel like passing out. Like a lot of writers, it is my “night job” or my hobby. I can’t write all day as I’m at work, so by the time I get home I’ve already had a full day. Then I try to read a little– it gets me in the writing mood, then I settle down to write by 7 or 8pm and I’m already yawning. This happens at the beginning of the week, and maybe it’s beceause Monday and Tuesday are my hit-the-ground-running days. Wednesday- Friday tends to be less taxing, so I’m not as tired when I get home. So  I said all that to say that I haven’t worked on my WiP since Monday, but I’m not feeling bad about it because I pounded out some words over the weekend. Last week I was at 18,500 or so words. As of right now I am sure I am over 27K. I wanted to keep this story short. I guess I am just incapable of that. Ha! The other night on twitter, it must have been last weekend, I wrote about 6K words on a Sunday. Not a huge deal for me as I was on a roll and in the meat of the story. Someone responded that it was ‘amazing’. I added the caveat that I won’t likely keep all 6k, but I write them and count them. In editing, I cut a lot back, rewrite a lot, rephrase and prettify. What started at […]

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