So over the past 10 days, I’ve been nominated for 2 awards! I am going to take one post, smash them together, and express my gratitude to my fellow blogger friends who nominated me for these awards. Continue reading
Author Archives: Danielle
Snow Weekend
Today I got a snow day from work! Yay!
This is not a surprise. I work at a college where most of the students are commuting from as far as 2 hours away, so closing when we need to is no surprise.
Between Friday and Saturday, they’re predicting 18-24 inches of snow. Now, to some of you crazy northerners, that may not sound like a ridiculous amount of snow. However, I live in the south. I am in the 6 bottles section in the map below (though right on the cusp of 12 bottles, so…). And yes, when I’m not drinking coffee, I am definitely a wine-o. (A cheap wine-o though. Like no more than $15 a bottle.)
My fingers are crossed that I also get Monday off, but I won’t be getting my hopes up on that one. It just depends on how well the city/county does with getting it cleared out. (For what it’s worth, in the past, they’ve been pretty terrible about it.)
I’ve made myself a game plan, and it involves a mixture of catching up on my DVR shows, drinking coffee, drinking wine (I have 3 bottles, not 6. But I’m also not trying to get drunk like that one Saturday…..), playing in the snow, making a snow margarita, begging my dog to please go pee outside, and more than all of that combined, WRITING.
Because what better motivation than the beautiful, serene tranquility of a snow day. Not to mention, the view from my patio is AH-MAZING with the mountains in the background. I’ll share some pictures later! 🙂
So, short post today. Will update a little later with word counts, wine glass counts, and pictures of the snow. Gah. I LOVE snow days!
Happy writing!
A Writer’s Writing Tools
Everybody has their favorite method of writing. Some have a couple. Your preference is not the same as everyone else’s, and that’s okay! We all have our method of doing things. Do what works for you!
There’s desktop computers; laptops; iPads; smartphones; pen and paper; hammer, chisel, and stone. (Did I miss yours? Comment below!)
I think every option has its pros and cons. Let me highlight a few below. Continue reading
Monday Musings #7
On Distractions (hey! a butterfly!):
I sat down to write my Monday Musings post tonight (it’s 9pm on Sunday as I write), wrote a whole post, and then decided I didn’t want that to be my Monday Musings. So I finished that post, scheduled it, and then grabbed my iPad and pulled up Netflix. I told myself, eh. I wrote a blog post. I’ll write MM tomorrow.
And I probably would, but I prefer to schedule my posts early in the morning. When people flip through their readers or emails in the morning, I want my post to be sitting there waiting for them. If I wrote it on Monday, I would be lucky to have it posted by lunchtime. Because my Monday morning schedule is wake up at 9:00(ish), do yoga, eat breakfast, drink coffee, go to work. I try not to write blog posts at work, especially now that we’re finally busy again.
So, before I started finally watching Person of Interest season 4, I locked my iPad and picked my laptop back up. I was going to write this post. Continue reading
“Write Drunk, Edit Sober”
Ernest Hemingway said it best.
Is this sound advice? Probably not. But I guess that’s technically a personal preference. But what I discovered last night while reading through some old iPhone notes is that I should probably not write drunk, ever.
Let me explain why with a poem. Continue reading
WIP Wednesday: Where I Belong #1
So the first evening of NaNoWriMo this past year, I started to write Where I Belong from scratch, but realized I was too invested in the story, so I chucked that idea out the window and pantsed a new novel (read about that decision here).
I finally reopened the draft of Where I Belong that I started, and have decided to share the first chapter with you all, uncut and unedited.
It’s a little long, so I posted it on my Wattpad account. But upon realizing that you must have an account to view, I also decided to publish my G-docs document. The formatting is wonky on G-docs to me, but maybe that’s just my large computer screen making me feel that way.
Here’s a taste, and if you want to continue reading, follow one of the links at the bottom. If you have Wattpad (or want to create an account), select Wattpad. If not, select Google Docs. 🙂 Continue reading
I’m on Facebook!
I made a page for my blog! Yay!
Feel free to give it a like! I’m still adding posts and photos and info and whatnot.
I’ll also be doing lots of fun things over there (think GIVEAWAYS) when I reach milestones!
See y’all on Facebook!
THE CAFFEINATED WRITER ON FACEBOOK
PS — stay tuned, tomorrow is my first WIP Wednesday! 🙂
Monday Musings #6
On Screenwriting:
A couple bloggers that I follow have been posting recently about trying their hand at screenwriting. Which I, for one, think is AWESOME.
While I was in college – well, let me explain a little more detail about my college. I went to a liberal arts university (great experience, ouch on the wallet though) that ran a 4-1-4 schedule. The 1 was a separate term in January.
The January term (aptly called J-Term), was where students could either do a trip abroad, do a month-long internship, or you could take one seminar.
So, while I was in college, I used my J-Terms to just take classes. I had 2 jobs to work, thus no time for an internship or trip abroad.
Each year, I pretty much took a different variation of the same class – something that involved creative writing AND screenwriting.
Freshman year was called Flash: Short Forms of Literature and Film
Sophomore year was called Double Trouble: Texts and Films
Junior year was called Next Episode: TV as a Narrative Text
Senior year (my favorite) was called Writing the TV Sitcom
Sense a trend? LOL Continue reading
How (Not) to Write the Next NY Times Bestseller
- Don’t watch Food Network as “research” That Thursday-night marathon of Chopped will most likely not help you. (If you’re writing Food Network fanfiction, disregard this tip)
-
- Also, do not do dangerous stunts as “research” For real, just because you’re planning on being a bestseller and making moolah, medical bills suck. I’m sure someone else has made that mistake. Watch endless Youtube videos of them doing it instead. (If you live in a country where ER visits are not hundreds of thousands of dollars, disregard this tip)
-
- Don’t try typing the entire novel with your eyes closed. Sure, it may sound like a great idea to write as you envision the story in your head. But I guarantee that at some point, your fingers will end up on the wrong keys. And you will be sorely disappointed when you start reading a bovel qgwew tiue dingers qwew off. (If you are blind, disregard this tip)
Good Things Come From Sleep Deprivation
You know, I was going to start this post off with an image from Google Images via a search of the term ‘sleep deprivation.’ And you know what?
They’re all negative!
Now, I completely understand why the majority of people feel that way. Consistently not getting enough sleep is eventually going to screw you up. But I think a lot of writers don’t quite see it as being super negative. Not all writers, of course. Some of you weirdos (lol) are early risers. Get your best words in while the sun is still coming up.
That is not me, though. Me? I do my best writing when it’s way past my bedtime. And yes, unfortunately my day job means I need a bedtime. Sigh.
