Writing – Page 5 – StoryTeller2, original fiction and so much more

Another Year

The day is coming to an end and I really needed to write here, to totally bring in my new year as a writer having something to say. My day did not begin with fanfare or drinks, it began the way that best reflects my style. Hot coffee – mocha flavored, of course – music channel on my TV – 80’s top hits – and my dogs by my side – huddling away from the fireworks outside. I read some stuff for homework and did some discussion replies, all is due by Sunday. I read the critique’s on my submitted chapters, agreed or saw merit in some comments, totally disagreed [honesty here, read that as got pissed off by] others. In fairness, the comments that pissed me off were ones where it was obvious the reader had no clue about previous chapters, and actually, were made by people who had read all previous chapters in our last class. Comments concerning the ‘sudden’ appearance of paranormal creatures… uh, folks, this is a paranormal romance and has been from day one. I never kept that a secret. Other comments/critiques that ticked me off were those that corrected grammar errors the character was known for. If it had been narrative, fine – I welcome fixes there; but, do not correct the way the character speaks or thinks!

M’kay, so I vented. I talked and texted with my daughter. I visited some websites – mainly to pay bills. Got about half of my bills for the month done, will tackle the rest tomorrow, I guess. Played with the girls a couple of hours, played some video games for a couple of hours, still need to get back to my laptop. My right palm has been itching all day – money would be most welcome! *laughs*

Still need to re-do my purple. Other than that, nothing actively going on; mentally, the brain is always moving and bouncing around. Don’t like that I’m basically only updating my blog once a week, still – I’d hoped once NaNoWriMo was over that I’d have more time and energy to get in here. K, so I am so outtie….

Bigfoot on History Channel

Okay, I have a problem with this. Now, I’m all for entertainment and I am a believer in a lot of things others do not believe in. I do happen to believe Bigfoot is real. [I also believe in Faery’s, Dragons, and a few other things some others might not believe in. But hey, it’s my belief system so who does that harm?] What I have a problem with is the History Channel putting shows on like Bigfoot: Captured or the one about a Mermaid being found [on Discovery Channel – another station I hold to high standards] as another example, filmed as a documentary with unknown actors claiming they are prestigious educators or scientists or researchers – i.e. experts, and showing it. These are mockumentories not documentaries! Advertise them as such, please, quit acting like they are true because that is belittling to your audience.

Let’s face it, folks… if a bigfoot had been captured, as this show is claiming, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HEADLINE NEWS ON ALL CHANNELS! I expect better from History Channel; I hold this station to a high standard. I expect facts. I expect it to be legitimate. If they want to boost ratings with mockumentories, that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with that in the least. I’d likely still watch the show and probably enjoy it more because I expect to be entertained. However, when they present it as a documentary, I expect to learn something. I expect facts. I expect it to be legitimate. When they continue to show programs advertised as documentaries and they are completely untrue, you have to wonder about the legitimacy of the rest of their programming represented as documentaries on other interesting – and often historical – figures and items. Can I believe the current show on Alcatraz? Or did they toss in a few [legitimate] facts and mix it with fiction in order to come up with new answers? Same with the show on Hitler – how much is the actual truth and how much is fiction? I’m very disappointed in History Channel. Just advertise the truth, you’ll still have viewers.

I’m outtie….

Fiction Thesis Part One – Update

I passed. *smiles* Got an ‘A’ on my final paper and overall ‘A’ for the class. Woo-hoo! I have a 3.84 GPA currently, so I’m happy; I figure I should graduate in February with slightly better than a 3.90 GPA.

I’ve started Fiction Thesis Part Two already, we’re in our second week but on holiday break until January 3, 2016. I’ve already completed my homework – which isn’t officially due until January 3, but it’s done and online and I’m planning on doing some extra work, as well.

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong with Scrivener – I had an issue adding images to my research area and knew it was a matter of me not understanding what to do and not a problem with the program, and I was right. I knew I just needed to have a chance to study the program when I wasn’t totally swamped with homework, NaNoWriMo and family matters, and that chance finally came a couple of days ago. And I was right. I figured out what I was doing wrong, inserted the images into my research area and have begun restructuring my paranormal romance within Scrivener. I’ll be putting the other novel in Scrivener soon, as well. I think it will be an extremely useful tool once I am more comfortable using it. Bottom line, I’m pleased I purchased it!

K, I need to update another area, so I am so outtie….

Fiction Thesis Part One

Class officially ended an hour and a half ago. Final class begins on December 14 and will factor in breaks for Christmas and New Year’s holidays. At this time, I’m precisely 4.5 points away from a perfect grade, with, I believe, three things left to be graded. Obviously I will be passing this class with an ‘A’ as well, so continuing with my fairly [I did have one ‘B’ class, after all] perfect educational journey. Whew, I am so humble! *laughs*

My story took some unexpected turns; it is still close to what I originally envisioned, but thanks to some awesome peer critiques and questions, some terrific ‘what if’ moments opened up and I learned some things about my protagonist and a secondary character that will be important in the next story. Yes, you heard my commitment. This story isn’t quite finished yet and here I am thinking about the next story to be written. Yay, me! The current story is darn close to being finished, however; and, the revision process I use allows me to add new stuff all the time and I do have a few ideas to flesh out Lynette’s story.

Speaking of processes, in class we discussed our personal revision process and many of my peers mentioned they liked some of my ideas… I don’t delete. That’s first and foremost. If I like the words but they simply don’t fit the story, I cut whatever doesn’t work out and paste it into another document I have that is nothing but unrelated bits and bobs and scenes that will eventually find their perfect home in some other story. I also utilize Words font color change ability for things I edit and revise, to alert me to keep my eyes open for continuity errors and flow. For instance, Lynette recently alerted me to the fact that she has daddy issues, which I didn’t know. That scene is a nice bright red to really draw my eyes to it because I’ll need to add some foreshadowing moments in earlier scenes to tie into her revelation.

This is the time I typically start really writing, but I’ve been falling behind on sleep. Enough that it’s causing problems with my creativity and gumption, actually. I’m actually heading to bed as soon as I post this, and looking forward to finally getting some sleep, I must say. I also want to get started on the latch hook rug I’m going to make for my bedroom, which will hopefully help Luna and Stevie move on and off the bed without slippage. Or as much slippage, at least. See what I mean? Scattered thoughts from sleep deprivation, odd things occur at odd moments.

*yawns* I’m tired, so I am so outtie….

Winding Down

M’kay, I didn’t reach the 50k word count for NaNoWriMo; the story is still not finished and I ended with 33,728 words when life kicked in. I know, I know, excuses, but it did keep my word count low – like less than 500 words a day, right around the holiday. Am I discouraged? Hell no! My story is close to complete, I didn’t make the word count but now I can relax and start on the revisions that have been bugging me.

See, since Mom passed away, I typically [extensively] self-edit as I write. When Mom was my critiquing reader, I counted on her editing skills, a lot. She’s been gone seven years now so obviously I had to rework my writing technique. I would write like crazy, then put it aside – it was typically short stories, so they were finished, unedited pieces. I’d allow myself to forget them, more or less; around a month or so later, I would go back and be able to read the story with ‘fresh eyes,’ reader’s eyes. I would be able to find any continuity errors and such, and fix them. Since I’ve been in school working on my MA in particular, I’ve been able to adjust that month long cooling off period to as little as a day, but I do prefer a three to five day break.

I greatly appreciate the peer critiquing review sessions in class! Thanks to some absolutely excellent questions, my protagonist Lynette has grown, considerably and has had a few extra adventures – mini-plots or subplots within the greater context, that I probably would not have thought of without those questions. I also feel I’ve improved on my setting descriptions; honestly, I’ve been confident concerning my dialogue pretty much from the start.

I’m in the last few days of my current class. I’ve written and submitted my discussions and responded to some of my peers discussions. I’ve also already submitted my final thesis paper – six chapters of Lynette’s story with some new writing and loads of revisions already implemented thanks to the critiques I received. Three days left of class and then a short break before my final class begins on December 14, 2015. I’ve already submitted all required paperwork petitioning for my degree. Whew! I’m trying to keep my head in the classroom more than the story, at the moment, make sure I respond to any questions or comments in a timely manner – but I am itching to get back into Lynette’s head, too.

I also purchased a new laptop and was setting it up right before NaNo ended, which is part of the reason I fell off on my daily word count. Transferring everything from my old Inspiron 15 (a 1545) to my new one (a 5551 with touchscreen capability) and the learning curve between Windows OS 7 and OS 8.1 gave me tiny headaches – my other new laptop that I purchased last July is running OS 10 and I didn’t want the larger learning curve between Windows 7 and 10 to interfere with school. Then I also set up old faithful – my purple Dell, the 1545, for my daughter as a gift. Right after I wiped it for her use, my new laptop crashed and I thought I’d lost all of my writing! Really, this thing was stuck on a green screen saying it was updating then it couldn’t update so was reconfiguring back to earlier settings, well that screen was on my laptop for a full day, a solid 24 hours! I did manage to use my desktop via my network and get my important writing off of the laptop so a second copy is there, and being paranoid, a third copy is on the silver Dell I bought in July! Hence, my submitting my final paper early – I was scared I’d lose everything. Sheesh.

But, black Dell (current 5551) is working properly; it’ll have the Windows 10 upgrade after I finish classes in February. I will make sure to play around on silver Dell (running OS 10 already) to familiarize myself a bit, too – and keep making backups of my writing to all three computers – desktop and both laptops, cause I’m a bit paranoid now. *grins* But that’s okay.

Luna is happy; she is in fly-catching mode and tracking the single fly in my house, protecting Mommy to a bunch of “Good girl!” comments. Stevie just wants me off the laptop and in bed, she’s ready to cuddle. So with that said, guess I am so outtie….

Oh sigh

So I’ve had a couple of ‘bad’ writing days… there was the day my electricity was shut off while utility workers did some maintenance, alarms blaring, dogs flipping out, yada yada. There was the night I got a good start going, but hit a small block – I was trying to move on to the next scene but the scene I thought I had finished wouldn’t let go of me… frustrated, I thought I’d stop and go to bed since it was 3a.m. And thunderstorms hit, with lightening hitting so close to the house it was lit up like all of my lights were on and you could feel a hum inside… naturally, both Collies had to potty, but were absolutely terrified to go outside, so they kept whining and moaning, and when I finally gave up and laid down in bed, they each competed with one another to be closest to Mommy and walked up my body to lay on my neck. It ain’t easy to breathe with a 50+ pound Collie curled around your neck, lemme tell ya. Of course, I know it was how close the lightening was striking, that was scaring them. Luna doesn’t like loud noises but Stevie is pretty stoic and could care less as long as she’s got the center of the bed and a pillow! But that night, she was scared, too.

So my daily word count average for NaNoWriMo dropped to 1424 and it estimated I wouldn’t finish my novel until December 9, 2015. *sighs* Not good and not how I wanted my first time entering to go. On the upside, I did have all of my homework done and one of my peers volunteered to read and critique what I had written, see if she could brainstorm with me to get past that blockage.

Fortunately, an idea hit me and I went for it and, I think, successfully wrapped up the troublesome scene. My peer just got the story two days ago, before my muse helped out, so doesn’t know about the changes I’ve already completed. Had a good writing day, today, although turns out it was a little under 1600 words so only bumped my average up to what I should have been doing all along, 1667 words a day. Trouble is, site says I need to average 1719 a day cause right now I’m scheduled to hit the 50k marker on December 7, 2015. M’kay, I’m pleased with the improvement, but I really want to successfully complete the challenge on time.

As for homework, it shouldn’t take too long to complete the required reading, and for my thesis draft I can submit my chapter’s seven and eight – for the required word count of 2500-3000. The combined chapters are around 2800 words. Plus I need to write my discussion piece, which should be okay since it concerns POV on the fiction I’m reading for class. [And it’s all about Sookie! *laughs*] Naturally, I’m trying to focus more time, energy and thought into my story and hopefully make up for the bad writing days.

A solid week of drizzle/rain has left my body fairly sore, as well – kicks in the arthritis-type symptoms I’m plagued with. Not to mention the ongoing wet dog smell – and naturally I’m done writing about werewolves for the moment, so don’t need the olfactory help – and the continual tracking in of dark red Georgia clay. My kitchen tile looks atrocious and the carpeting in the den is officially a lost cause and will be replaced when I can afford it. *sighs* So yeah.

‘K, I need to start describing Kenneth’s house in the story, and then I’m putting my semi-happy butt to bed. With that said, I am so outtie….

**EDIT** Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! I just popped over to NaNoWriMo and saw Charlaine Harris is scheduled to give us a pep talk, soon! Oh. My. God. Can you tell I am excited?!?

Repeat from NaNoWriMo Blog

Bad word count day, for the 4th. Only 502 words. *sighs* My electricity was off for the day, due to workers in the area. Battery back up alarms blaring scared the Collies, well, shitless. Otherwise, I would have crated them and headed to Starbucks for a day of writing. Naturally, I felt quite discouraged… I should add, I had spent the previous night pulling an all-nighter writing, so slept during most of the natural daylight hours with the Collies huddled on top of me which covered the noise of the alarms for me and kept me so warm I couldn’t even think of waking up!

Explanation out of the way, I found this nice tidbit on the NaNoWriMo Blog, written by Renée Watson and thought it extremely useful, so am sharing….

1. Do I have too many supporting characters?

I think of supporting characters as the inner circle folks. Either close relatives and friends or people who have the most impact on my character’s life. I only spend time thinking deeply about those people—not the teacher who only shows up in one scene or the stranger on the bus.

I try to make sure each supporting character brings something different to the story. If there’s too much overlap, one of them has to go.

2. What is the backstory of my supporting character(s)?

I don’t go into great detail, after all it’s not their story. But I do want to establish where they’re coming from.

Why do they have the dynamic they have with my main character? We bring the past with us, always. Either we’ve learned from it or we haven’t. I need to know a little bit about each character’s past so I can better write about their current circumstance.

3. Are my supporting characters competing with my main character?

I don’t mean competition in a way enhances the storyline. I mean am I spending too much time developing a side character, when really I should be writing about my main character. I try to be careful not to let my side characters outshine the main star.

4. Am I creating realistic relationships between my characters?

No one is always loving, always mean. Relationships are complicated—friends are sometimes jealous of each other, parents make mistakes, teachers don’t always have the answer. I try to make layered relationships that have both bitter and sweet moments. Even if I create someone who really is the “villain” I make sure I mention how they got that way (see question 2).

There are many more questions I ponder and other strategies I use when writing a cast of characters. But these are the ones I find myself going back to story after story. Answering these questions—especially when I’m revising—helps me fine-tune the story and better understand my character and her world.

Terrific words of wisdom and gave me inspiration – the scene I wrote during my all-nighter concerned a supporting character I’ve become quite fond of. M’kay, back to my writing, so I am so outtie….

NaNoWriMo and more

M’kay, working on organization skills somewhat, failing miserably, I might add – but that’s okay. ‘Cause I am getting things done. I entered NaNoWriMo for the first time, ever and have a three-day-word-count total of 5636 so I’m doing alright thus far. Just read a Pep Talk from an absolutely awesome writer, Diane Gabaldon – I read the first three of the Outlander series, haven’t caught up with the rest yet. [Oh shit, I just looked and see there are nine books in the series! I am so far behind….]

I’m keeping up with homework, pretty much. Have some reading to do, oh shoot – just remembered I have to read/critique the peer stories I grabbed – and have to write 300 words for my reflection journal. Okay, so I’m falling a bit behind on homework. *sighs* But I’m doing quite well in NaNoWriMo, keeping the house livable and feeding all critters… self, included… and even got some business dealt with today. No more Comcast, back to AT&T uVerse as of a few hours ago, with all Comcast equipment already turned back over and credited to me. On the upside, with the better network connection – albeit a tad bit slower – I can now turn my TV on to one of the music channels for writing purposes. Before, the connection didn’t properly reach my bedroom – where I write – and I spent more time aggravated and trying to get music playing, than I did writing.

‘Kay, paragraph two turned into a wee bit of a bitch-fest, so I’m gonna close and get back to my homework and writing. So, I am so outtie….

Progress, of a sort

Okay, first of all, my new bedroom outfit arrived yesterday and is quite lovely. Gardenia bedroom outfit (image) from Rooms to Go – only difference is my headboard is solid black and I do like the headboard pictured more. *sighs* Oh well. I have the bed, two end tables, the long dresser with mirror and storage on dresser… I opted not to purchase the tall dresser or media storage unit but do plan to buy another black bookcase for my room. I have a TON of books sitting on my floor, all that use to be on my old waterbed bookcase-headboard. And, my new mattress is suppose to be ‘plush,’ (i.e. soft, not firm) but doesn’t feel anywhere near as plush as the showroom model was… but, this was my first night sleeping on it, too.

But I do like the look and feel of my new room. So much so, that when I awoke this morning, instead of playing games while drinking coffee as per my typical routine of late, I spent the entire morning doing homework. Read three peer stories and wrote two critique’s – although I’ve not posted them yet. I decided to take a quick break and check my phone, log into Clash of Clans, and grab my household email, and a few other mundane chores that allow me to move about and circulate a bit. Figured I’d go ahead and post a quickie update to my blog before heading back to my bedroom and homework. Feeling pretty relaxed and more than ready to finish my homework – a day early. I might even get started back on my current novel – the paranormal romance.

Life is good, so I am so outtie….

So what now?

I get ideas and plan to write them down, but then something else happens that distracts me – and I forget what I originally wanted to write. I’m keeping up with my homework, pretty much… I don’t know, perhaps the nonstop travel during my break threw me off kilter, cause I’m having a rough time getting into the swing of things. It also seems to me something similar happened when I was at the last stretch while earning my BA degree; I have two classes to go and these classes really sound interesting! I mean, I finally get to read some fiction of my own choosing and write my own original stuff… so why am I having such a hard time getting into it?!?

On another note, I recently was approved for a Rooms To Go card and purchased my brand new bedroom outfit – a first for me, as my entire married life, furniture came from thrift stores or off the curbs. The water bed I’ve been sleeping on for the past 15 years, I purchased used… got my money out of it, but this new bedroom [arriving Tuesday, Oct. 13] is my first brand spanking new furniture. Oh, I’ve purchased desks and DVD towers and bookcases brand new, but this is my first full room, coordinated purchase, ever. I finally decided to put my old [extremely heavy] oak waterbed set in what I call ‘the gold room’ as a guest bedroom. However, I’m not purchasing a new heater for the bed – which is the reason I haven’t been sleeping on it.

Two classes to go, then I’ll have my MA. So what now?

‘Mkay, I’m so outtie….