Random Story Doodle

Tags

alien, confusion, flash fiction, Pinterest, short story

I got really curious about what would happen if my alien character Elere had access to Pinterest. There was no point to this musing, it doesn’t fit anywhere in any of the stories I have written or plan to write, but it was fun going off on a tangent and it turned out okay so here it is.

I’m In a Book!

Tags

anthology, between heroes and villains, just-us league, short story

I have some exciting news. I’m getting a short story published in an anthology, and this is what the cover looks like! I’m so excited. The book comes out June 17th, and (if I remember correctly) will be available on Amazon’s Createspace in paperback, and on Kindle as an ebook. The ebook is already available for preorder here:

Adventures in Writing Life

Tags

busy, dress rehearsal, typical week, Writing, writing schedule

I have/had a busy weekend coming up. The verb tense is confused because I wrote most of this post on Friday, and I finished it off late Sunday. So it got a little confused.

(How is it that I was preemptively exhausted for my weekend? This is not fair, I tell you.)

A Poor Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Tags

baby groot, characterization, movie, movie review, movie soundtracks

I like movies (which is nothing particularly revelatory, but it does establish a little context for this post). Ticket prices being what they are, there’s not a lot of chance for me to see many movies in the theater, so it’s telling that I saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 twice. I like this movie, for the soundtrack, the characters, the humor, and the story.

Picking up Random Knowledge

Tags

creative, Introduction, introvert, Writing, writing break

It’s good to have skills outside of writing to draw on. I looked down on such knowledge when I was first becoming a writer. “I am creative!” I thought. “All I need is sufficient imagination and skill at writing to be able to portray whatever I wish!”

Yeah. We all go through it. Doesn’t make it any less embarrassing.

Setting Reasonable Goals

Tags

changing target, goals, priorities, screaming into a pillow, Writing

Subtitle: I have a schedule now that only Google is capable of remembering and somehow I still expected myself to keep writing at the same pace as when I had almost nothing else to do.

This was mostly just a post about my frustration with myself. Or it was, until I remembered the fact that this struggle is hardly unique to me, so now it’s kind of an attempt at commiseration. Because all writers go through this.

Children are Crazy But They Know Their Stories

Tags

Babysitting, brevity, kids, stories, strange choices, Writing, writing lessons

I babysit a lot, which means I get to meet a lot of kids. Since I love stories, one thing that generally comes out sooner or later is me telling them a story, either to be acted out as we go or to be listened to in bed. Stories are good because they’re still engaged but they’re sitting down and I won’t have to chase them. And because there are stories involved, there are at least a few lessons to be learned.

The Opposite Problem

Tags

projects, writer's block, writing goals

I write plenty of words but I’m having trouble writing anything useful. Which at first sounds like the opposite of writer’s block, but it’s really just writer’s block coupled with an inability to sit still mentally. So I’m going to take a breath and find some new strategies to deal with this particular form of that cursed mental virus (since my usual strategy of “just write and it’ll work eventually” is already not working).

The Emotional Journey of Typical Writing Week

Tags

gifs, week, writer's block, Writing

I felt like writing a goofy blog post. So I wrote this. It serves no purpose and adds very little to the overall discussion about writing. It was just fun to do. (As told through gifs) (With two for Sunday because reasons)

Monday

Writing is work. I must plow through and write all ten thousand words of my goal or else the whole week will be ruined.

Tuesday

Writing is exhausting. I’m going to watch a video.

Wednesday

Writing is hard. And now I feel guilty about yesterday, so I’m going to stay up late and catch up.

Thursday

Writing is emotional. I have a headache, and I can’t even see straight enough anymore to properly procrastinate and watch TV, so I’m going to sit here and blindly type through all my feelings and thoughts about this character who is keeping me up at nights.

Friday

Writing is hard, exhausting, emotional work. I can’t believe I thought I could do this, but for the sake of consistency I’m going to at least finish this piece before I go hang out with friends.

Saturday

Writing is so much fun! I had the greatest idea after I got home from being social, and that writer’s block is gone just in time for me to write all weekend long if I want to.

Sunday

Writing is my happy place. Why no, I don’t want to leave the house, because I just have to find out what happens next and since I’m the writer I’m the only one who can make that happen so bye!

Bye-bye! Cave time.

Also Sunday

Writing requires naptime. Give me my computer back or so help me I’ll….

Here’s hoping this next week’s writing isn’t quite such a roller coaster as is represented here.

Descriptions Are Like Little Gifts

Tags

description, gifts, inspiration, Writing

Little things have meaning. I recently had a birthday, and I got some pretty great gifts. It got me thinking about descriptions, how the right one can be just as perfect for a reader as the family heirloom I got from my grandmother was for me. Or like how each one can be like a delicious little cake (I didn’t have any stock images of presents, I had pictures of cake. It probably says something about me that I deliberately chose to store such a picture on my computer.)

Now I get to make a metaphor!