IWSG: September 2024

 

Welcome to this month's IWSG blog hop. As usual thanks to our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and all the admins of IWSG. Find more bloggers who are sharing their news and giving support on this list.

This month's optional question:

Since it's back to school time, let's talk English class. What's a writing rule you learned in school that messed you up as a writer?

Excellent question. I struggled with 'never end a sentence with a proposition' bull when I first started writing. A few others that really don't apply to fiction writing like using complete sentences. People don't talk or think in completes sentences all the time. I can't wait to read what everyone has to say.

Some new TV is slowly being offered. The Rings of Power started off grim and dark as expected. I'm looking forward to the return of the second season of The Old Man on Hulu and the Tulsa King on Paramount +. We'll wait and see what the networks have to offer.

I'm still doing good on my exercising. My granddaughter and I spent a lot of time and distance on our bikes the last few weeks. Since she's mastered the skill, we've been doing about 4 miles a day. Not a big distance but her legs are still pretty little. Long walks on other days.

The writing is going well. I'm about 70,000 words on my latest. I'm also busy planning the 2025 Pennwriter's Conference which will be held in Pittsburgh next May. More details coming in the next few months. I've also signed up to be involved in two book events. More on that next month.

IWSG has brought up AI a few times. Here's an opinion from Chuck Wendig.  My other writing group had already been advising members to stay away from NaNo. I have to agree.

What writing rules have you been breaking? Have you heard about the NaNo scandal? Hope your neck of the woods is cooling off as we rush toward fall.

IWSG: November 2023

 

Whew, November already. Thanks to all the admins at IWSG and our founder, Alex J. Cavanaugh, we're still going strong with our monthly supportive blog hop. Please find the entire list of participants here.

This month's optional question:

November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

I have never participated in NaNo and likely never will. It's not how I write, with that hurried urgency to just get words on the page. I admire those who do and will cheer them on. I know many writers have written successful novels during NaNo. I won't be one of them.

I am working on new writing and getting work done of the books I received my rights back from the publishers who previously held them. Not all the books were published before I took back the rights, but most of them have already been through multiple rounds of edits.

My big news is that with the help of others, I've re-released First Dragon, Book One of The Morbunda Trilogy. 

Birthed in fire. Bound by family.
A fast-paced tale of a war smoldering for centuries and waiting for a spark to burn down the fragile peace. The foundling, Kerik, learns his true nature as war rolls over the land of Morbunda. Everyone he cares about is in danger and only he has the power to keep them safe. But can one dragon stand against an entire invading army?

Find First Dragon on Amazon in ebook and print.

I'm busy doing final line edits on the second book, War Dragon. And still working on my new stuff which is a change for me. Usually, I tend to only work on one project at a time.

Not that there's anything to distract me on TV. This week I'm going to try Bodies on Netflix. Nothing else interests me right now. But I've kicked my workouts into a higher gear and am back to jogging after almost two years of walking only. I'm sooooo slow, but it still feels good and I've lost some weight. I hope I can keep it going as cold weather creeps in to ruin my days.

I hope those of you in the USA have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. The family all comes to my house so I'll be busy and exhausted but also surrounded by love and fun. Everyone gets along and there's never drama. I wish that all for you also.

Are you doing NaNo? Are you dreading the cold like I am? Having Thanksgiving at your house?

Flying Friday

No, I'm not flying anywhere but time is flying by. This week has been hours and hours of writing. Fun but time goes by so fast when I'm writing the last chapters in a WIP. If things go well, I'll be typing The End within a few days.

In case you missed it, the new A to Z Blogging Challenge Team for 2015 was announced yesterday. I'm proud and a little intimidated to be one of those team members for the first time but also very excited. Expect me to encourage your participation when sign up time comes along in late January.

With my writing life so busy, I've been very particular about any hours I spend watching TV. The only show I even try to watch live is Once Upon a Time. Usually I catch up on demand of shows like Scorpion, Hell on Wheels, Person of Interest, Grimm and Sleepy Hollow. Add White Collar to that as that show starts its final season run of only 6 episodes. Doctor Who also will get my hour of time at some point. That averages out to about an hour per day so that's pretty good. The only new show that has caught my eye this year is Scorpion. I will add Hannibal to the list when it comes back on.

Wisdom for The Old Farmer's Almanac for this week:

People who live in big cities produce the most earwax.  Mmm. Noise or pollution, do you guess?

Hiccup cure: Sniff ground pepper to produce a sneeze.

Cold rice and cold tea are bearable, but cold looks and cold words are not. Japanese proverb

The wind from the northeast, neither good for man nor beast. For those of us suffering the Polar Vortex

I saw so many emotional videos and blog post honoring veterans this past week that this quote is for the comfort of all of us.
In valor there is hope.
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian

I really have to make sure I get the same kind of planner next year. It really entertains me and is very roomy for me to scribble all my notes into. I'll be shopping for it as soon as the 2015 planners fill up the bookstores.

Good luck to all the NaNo participants as you reach halfway tomorrow. Go get 'em.

Do you use a planner? Do you have a favorite? Have a favorite cure for hiccups? Do you live in a big city and suffer earwax buildup? What are you working on in your writing?

Glad I'm Not....

As I make my rounds of blog friends, Twitter and Facebook, I see tons of posts and tweets about NaNoWriMo. November is almost here for those participating. Writers are offering advice, requesting advice or sharing their exciting plans. They're getting their plots ready, making outlines and setting other things aside for a marathon of writing. And I'm glad I'm not participating.

I have so many things going on now, both with my own writing and some self-imposed deadlines and with other obligations I've been asked to take or have volunteered for. I feel a little left out of the NaNo excitement but I know my limits. I have too many other things to work on and prepare during that month of November. With Thanksgiving thrown into the month, I see no way I could commit to writing that much. I do expect to write 30K during November but it is to complete a book I've already started. My contribution to the spirit of NaNo will be to cheer on and encourage those participating.

My husband and my sons are going south for a golf holiday in November. I could go along and do come beach time but I'm glad I'm not. I'll have the entire house to myself for writing, reading, sleeping in and eating lunch and dinner in front of the TV. I'll do some Thanksgiving preparations but mostly it will be a stay-cation all by myself.

Most of you know I retired from teaching a little more than a year ago. Recently I ran into some of my former students at a football game. They were so happy to see me and assured me that they missed me. A few hugs later and I felt a little melancholy but I'm glad I'm not teaching anymore. The job gets tougher every year though those teenagers are still wonderful. Most parents wouldn't say this, but the teenage years were my favorite for raising kids.

Please visit IWSG blog today and meet a special guest. And here is a link to a cool calendar to keep track of your NaNo progress.

What are you glad you're not doing at the moment or anywhere in the near future? Do you feel about teenagers like I do? Do you enjoy being home alone? Is NaNo your November goal or do you have an alternative one like I do?

So You Call Yourself a Writer

I've mentioned before that I'm not above cruising the writing magazines in the bookstore and skimming articles before I decide to invest. There are lots of them out there, just check out the links on the Publication Page of IWSG. But I also gather ideas for my blog during those peeks between the covers.

Recently I skimmed an article about a man who had quit his teaching job, took off for a remote village in Europe and sat down to write the next bestseller. Should you quit your day job? Check out what others say about quitting the bill paying job.

I don't remember the genre or even the author's name, but he lived in a falling down cottage for six months until his money ran out. He was so proud of the 100 pages he wrote during that time, what he consider a great start to his book. Really!

Now that I'm a full time writer, I spend lots more hours in my comfy office than when I held my full time teaching job. I still have lots of things that keep my busy. We have a six bedroom house and lots of outside area that needs care. My husband and I, now that our children have or are preparing to take flight from the nest, are fixing up here and there in preparation of selling the homestead. I'm glad I have time for that and to visit my elderly mother, but I still consider myself to have a full time job. Would I feel that way if I wrote one hundred pages in six months?

If one is working at a full time job, writing in the evenings and on weekends, one hundred pages could be pretty good. If one is in the midst of child rearing, one hundred pages is quite an accomplishment. If you think you're busy when they're infants, wait until the teen years. But if I left everything behind and had nothing to do except feed myself, do occasional laundry and walk on the seaside, would I be thrilled with one hundred pages in six months? I don't think so.

Are writing retreats good ways to get the creative juices flowing? Is surrounding oneself with nothing but the book the way to get that novel done? I'm sure it is for some people. I've read other stories of writers who retreated to quiet and isolation when creating their jewels. As NaNo approaches for many people, not me, I'm sure lots of the participants will be pounding the keyboards at lunch breaks, while fixing dinner, in between loads of laundry and perhaps even while working on the treadmill. And some of them will produce jewels, maybe still unpolished, but rich just the same.

If you had the chance to isolate yourself and write without any distractions, how much would you expect yourself to produce? Have you ever taken a writing retreat? Where did you go and how much did you get done? Have you ever considered taking the plunge, quitting the day job and trying to make it as a writer?