You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

The wonderful thing I’ve found about writers is no matter where they are in their writing journey they are helpful to other writers.  Now, one local published writer will tell a completely different tale but that’s his version of events and it’s only hearsay.  My experience has shown no method works exactly the same from one writer to the next.  From time to time though it’s good to review some rules or tips that will make your writing better.

Here is some recent (within the last 3 years) advice from other writers about writing short stories:

JA Konrath on how not to write a story.
Jim C. Hines on workshop wisdom.
C.C. Finlay’s repost of Kelly Link’s advice to writers – be you and be interesting.

What writing rules or advice from other writers have you found helpful?

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

Crossed Genres has opened the polls for their Flash Fiction Contest.  Voting (just one per IP Address) is happening now until June 30th. 

There are 10 entries to choose from and just over 4000 words if you read them in one sitting.  All of the entries are different and by voting you might make a writer very happy.

Crossed Genres Flash Fiction Contest Voting.

Mirrored from Amber Stults - Book Reviewer and Author.

I've worked out two days in a row.  I feel like I should work out today but I'm not sure I want to! LOL  I alternate between the cardio and the strength training so I'm not using the same muscles.  Sammy likes to lie under the guest bed or lie on the end of the yoga mat. 

There's nothing "good" at the movies.  I have a few things waiting for me at the library but they were closed Sunday and Monday for the holiday.  I can pick up my stuff today.  :)

Found my NaNo2008 and read the first few chapters yesterday.

are gas.  Sammy is so gassy today!  The stomach bloat has gone away and he ate his dinner last night around 10:30pm.  I gave it to him at 7pm and he just looked at it, looked at me, and then walked away. 

We returned from our morning walk to a loud sporadic buzzing sound.  It was as though someone put a bug zapper in the living room.  The noise was from a bumblebee as big as my thumb trying to fly out a closed window.  Since there was only me to take care of it... I captured it in a plastic strainer and placed it outside.

Now if only I could find the print out of my last NaNo...

During Writo de Mayo is when nanoljers decide their writing goal for the month and strive to complete it.  Last year my goal was to write a new short story based on a writing prompt.  Every day.  :)

This year my goal is to finish up the 2nd draft of my 2008 NaNo.  So how did I spend my time this evening?

Procrastinating!  I thought, "You know... you really wanted to apply for The Columbus Literary Awards from the Thurber House and Greater Columbus Arts Council... and the application is due there by Monday..." 

It was something I was thinking of having as a goal for Writo de Mayo but I went with the other one instead.  I found the piece I'd like to submit but it needs a lot of revising.  I submitted it to my then on-line writing group in 2005 and hadn't picked it up since.  It has potential, though.

I just printed off my NaNo from 2008.  It's only 83 pages.  Is that possible?  The last one I finished seemed so much longer.  But then... it was formatted for publishing on Lulu.  I caught a peek at the last chapter and I didn't remember it ending with Halloween night.  It might actually be fun to read this!

It's been too cold for painting so our graffiti greets me each time I approach our garage from the left side.  I keep checking on it throughout the day to make sure nothing new appears.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow but then it's supposed to rain in the evening. 

Attended an online Character Workshop and it gave me the courage to face my last NaNo.  I was planning on starting to look at it again at the beginning of this month.  That sucker is getting printed off this week for rereading/review.

In food related news, I signed up for a knife skills/cooking and cooking class next month.

I guess I should have gone inside the library.  They had the author reading by candle light.  I'd mentioned to my husband yesterday that I thought candles would be verboten but apparently I was mistaken.

Tonight I set out to do some reading, some reviews and some writing.  For some reason I can't focus on any one task long enough to make a dent.

This weekend I noticed bird poo on the front porch which made me ask my husband if the morning doves were back.  Then a few days later I see Papa bird on the wire by our house.  A little bit later I hear cooing from the front porch.  She's probably trying to build the nest in the corner again.  Maybe fall of 2010 we'll get a nesting place put up for them since they seem to be returning.

Had lines for a poem going through my head on my walk.  There's an author talk I may go to tonight.  But I feel guilty if I don't buy a copy of the book.  Or I could go to my writing session.  Or I could just sit on the couch.

Made "potato slabs" last night that were really good.  Disks of spiced potato goodness topped with colby jack cheese and bacon.  Yummy.  Except for the bacon they tasted kind of healthy.

I woke at 5:45am to the sound of Sammy licking.  I nearly told him to knock it off and to wait an hour but instead I just snuggled more under the blankets.  Today is the second day of rain.  We're supposed to be back to snow on Saturday. 

Friday night hubby went out with friends so I began tackling the mess I've been letting pile up on the dining room table. Sammy went to the groomers for a nail trim. One of the ladies who work there was leaving work and recognized him. For dinner I had a bag of microwave popcorn. On bed. How decadent!

Actually the big surprise of the night was Sammy. He (like Zilla) goes crazy for popcorn. I had emptied the bag into a bowl and was on the bed watching tv, eating out of the bowl. Sammy was so well behaved. Granted, his nose was practically touching the bowl, but he did not grab any popcorn until I dropped a piece into the bowl. And then he zeroed in on the piece he thought dropped and only took that one. He listened to me and obeyed when I told him to back up.

Saturday I took the Christmas scarf off Sammy that had been there for almost two weeks. Now he has a little green ring around his neck. He was the butt of a lot of our jokes. Of course since Sammy only understands a few words he took it all in stride.

Sunday was a day of culinary disasters. I was going to make ricotta pancakes but the ricotta had gone bad early and I didn't have the ingredients to make it from scratch. Of course I found out about the ricotta after I'd separated the eggs. Jamie Oliver to the rescue! His pancakes were quick to make compared to the coffee cakes that I could have made. They were only slightly better than the last time I made them - they still tasted a bit eggy to me. Then I made my mother's friend taters which are quartered, fried in oil and topped with paprika. They are so unhealthy I have them once a year or every other year. And of course I burned the skins and cut parts while the insides were perfect.

My mind has been all over the place the last day or so. I think it means it is time to start writing again!

As of December 1st, Issue #6 of Niteblade became available! Inside is one of my book reviews.

Rhonda Parrish, the editor, has a special offer for five bloggers right now. The ad free .pdf version of Niteblade is $2. The first five bloggers to leave a comment with the address of their blog in the Niteblade News post titled "Issue #6: Oh, Christmas Tree" get a free issue. The only catch is that the blogger must promise to blog about it and send Rhonda the link.

So I began writing at midnight and stopped around 1:30am. Went to bed, had breakfast, and began writing again at 11:30am. Had a break for lunch in the late afternoon but mostly wrote with short little breaks here and there until 6pm. Then there was panic and tears. I saved my novel on my USB drive and did an update of my word count on the NaNoWriMo web site. I was at 46k. Then I could no longer access the file.

Seriously. I checked the USB drive and it was no longer there. No Word document existed beyond a review I sent out last week. I then tried to paste the information into Notepad since it should have still been in the clipboard. No dice. So I rebooted. Each time I tried to access it, I was given a message that the file was corrupt or had a virus and was locked by the antivirus program. The USB drive was clean of viruses like I thought it would be. The last backup I had emailed to myself was from 11/20/08. I had 29k at that point. My obvious choices were to (1) start over at 29k or (2) copy and paste words until I hit 46k again then pick up the story at that point. I went with the least obvious choice. I searched my USB drive for *.tmp files and found one at 5:45pm. When I opened the temp file in Word it was only missing the last two paragraphs. I could rewrite a few hundred words without any problem.

My daily word count for the 30th was 8270 words. My total word count ended up at 50015. That was painful. Oh so painful. I do not want to do this next year playing catch up, get ahead, fall behind, catch up, get ahead and then fall behind. With an hour and 5 minutes to spare I validated a winning word count. And I even wrapped up all of the plotlines in the novel.

Still writing!  Daily Word Count was 3127 words.  Total Word Count is 41745.  I am 8255 words away from getting to 50,000.  There is a write-in tomorrow.  I know at least one person plans on being there.  I hope to be done before then, but we'll see how things work out.

I did not let myself go see a movie until I had words written for the day.  Total Daily Word Count is 1972.  The Total Word Count is 38618.

For today, I did start writing in the evening but things are moving along!

On the 26th I wrote 737 words. I finished making the pumpkin cheesecake. Sammy's barking at the food processor was a big pain in the behind. Hubby took him for a walk. :) Total Word Count is 35604.

We were at Thanksgiving dinner for a long time yesterday. The pumpkin cheesecake was a big hit. The daily word count was 1042 for a Total Word Count of 36646. I have to be a writing fiend over the next few days to get to the 50,000 finish line.

On Sunday I went to Weilands, Kroger and Giant Eagle looking for sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins to make pumpkin puree for the cheesecake.  I struck out.  Finally found some at the North Market that I had put on hold yesterday and picked up at lunchtime today.  I did not know it would take me about 30 - 45 minutes to deseed them and scrape all the stringy stuff out.  So writing began a bit late.

But I wrote.  :)  Got down 298 words for a total word count of 34867.  I probably won't get to my write-in tomorrow since I will be baking the cheesecake (takes an hour and a half) but if I use Write or Die to do sprints I should make more progress.  The really odd thing... a character mentioned in passing several chapters ago suddenly sprung up again and I think she knows something about the fairies that are about to visit my main character.  Eeek!  Or Hurray?  :)
 

NaNoWriMo Day #23
I went to the "official" write-in but it was a bust.  I got there late, the Panera community room didn't have room for anyone else unless writing on a notepad.  (Writers like to spread out so one person takes up 2 - 3 seats you know.)  Wrote outside the room for an hour then did the rest of my writing while at home. 

Daily word count 3394.  Total Word Count is 34569.  Only 3772 words behind!

NaNoWriMo Day #22
Daily word count 614.  Total Word Count is 31175.

NaNoWriMo Day #21
Daily word count 941.  Total Word Count is 30561.

Another rejection came last night but I didn't see it until today.  I had high hopes for it this time.  I guess the market just wasn't right even though most of the comments were on the positive side.  Usually I begin with the paying markets and then move on to the non-paying ones.  Maybe I should just go with the non-paying ones on this piece.  I don't know where, but I'll get it out to somewhere else before Monday.

Didn't write as much as I would have liked.  Daily Word Count 1761.  Total Word Count is 29620.  After being awake since 6:15am I could not push myself to write the other 380 words to get to 30,000.  Sammy, the corgi in my novel, got into a fight with another dog that turned out to be... the boyfriend of the protagonist's sister that had been shot with the crossbow in Chapter One.  Dun... dun... dunnnnn!

But I will get them tomorrow!

My goal was to get to 30,000 by today.  I spent more time focused on Heroes than on actually writing.

Daily word count is 252.  Total Word Count is 27859.  Bleargh!