Category Archives: Musing

Monday Musings #11

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On Inspiration:

Outback

I’ve had a pretty crappy month, not gonna lie. But what I’ve learned in the process of that is that sometimes when things suck, you’re opening the door to yourself as a writer to find some pretty good inspiration.

Now, let me tell you about my Friday night:

Once I knew that we were in for the evening, I popped open the bottle of wine I had just bought (funny story, while buying it, I made the cashier sad because of how young I was. Apparently she graduated from high school the year I was born. Can’t harsh my mellow though, I was already in a bad mood ha!). ANYWAY. Opened the wine, drank it and another bottle (this is not a common occurrence, I promise).

Started trying to read a book (do not recommend), and then decided that I was just going to watch TV. Normally I turn to the Food Network, but I needed something different.

Open up my DVR screen and BAM. Grey’s Anatomy was back!

I don’t know if any of you saw it, but I sobbed (no shame) and after watching it, I didn’t even delete it. I rarely watch things twice, that but episode was everything I love about thriller/drama genre type of stuff. That episode was my favorite, even beating out the Superbowl episode with the bomb, and the two-part plane crash episode, and the ferry crash episode. (I think we can sense a theme in my favorite episodes haha!)

I kept it on my DVR to use as inspiration. After I watched it, I wanted to write something so bad, but I was quite inebriated and even though I’ve written a post called ‘Write Drunk, Edit Sober‘, it doesn’t mean I’m necessarily going to DO it (not yet anyway). Continue reading →

Monday Musings #10

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500 Words or Less:

So there’s this writing contest that I’m trying to enter. The challenge for me? A captivating, complete story in 500 words or less. I’m not always the most wordy person, but there’s a reason I have more novels (finished or not) than short stories in my personal portfolio.

To me at least, writing short stories is harder than writing a novel. Especially 500 words or less. Flash fiction I guess you could consider this?

I did take one January-term seminar on flash fiction, and it never got easy for me. I hardly ever feel like my story hits its potential in 2 pages.

I did write one piece to try submitting, but I had 3 people read it, one who was also an English/CW major, and two who aren’t, and got some interesting feedback. Confusing too, because everyone has a completely different opinion about it. Everyone read into it differently (although that was intentional). And everyone thinks it’s a different stage as far as being turn-in ready. Gah! What am I supposed to do now? Hm. Continue reading →

Monday Musings #9

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On Procrastination:

Yesterday I read a post by Bryn Donovan titled “Stop Procrastination and Unleash Your Full Power… In Writing and Everything Else” and boy did it make me remember the good ole days of college (like they were so far back, my goodness haha).

I’ve always been a master procrastinator. If such a degree existed, I would have it for sure. Maybe it’s not a good thing to have, but oh well.

In college, I was terrible. We’d get a syllabus at the beginning of the semester with deadlines. We’d get the actual assignment for papers at least a month before the due date. Some classes scheduled library research days where we would learn (for the millionth time) how to use the library resources, find good articles, etc. This class day got incredibly old come my junior and senior year. Just because we’re taking a 100-level class does NOT mean we need to learn how to do research, my goodness. They’d make us turn in an outline or an intro paragraph or whatever.

No matter how hard they tried, I wrote papers the night they were due. Even if they required a rough draft ahead of time, that was written the night before, and then the final paper was rewritten/edited the night before as well.

Some funny (terrible) college procrastination stories: Continue reading →

Monday Musings #6

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Outback

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 →

Monday Musings #5

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On Excuses and Inconvenient Truths:

My musing of the week is going a little deep, but that’s because I need to give myself a good swift kick in the butt.

I recently followed someone on Twitter who posts a lot of what I like to call Inconvenient Truths.

  • Excuses or accomplishments?
    The choice is yours.
  • If you have a true passion for writing then you’ll never have to discipline yourself to finish a novel.
  • If you need motivation from someone else then you’re not passionate about writing.
    • @jaxon_wolfe 

There are several more, and I picked the ones that aren’t quite so harsh to highlight here.

This guy doesn’t joke around. He’s been successful in the industry just in the last year. (At least he claims that) He has apparently even turned down a book deal from a publisher. I believe him anyway. When I first started following him, he I noticed he handed out a lot of advice to people who asked for it, but recently his feed has turned into pieces of “advice” posted often to the world.

When they started to get harsh, some of them struck a nerve. Especially like the last one that I quoted above.

Continue reading →

Monday Musings #4

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imageOn Coffee:

Let’s us talk about coffee for awhile.

The nectar of the gods, y’all, I swear.

I gave up caffeine a few months ago for a couple of weeks. I avoided the whole detox thing by popping Advil every 6 hours I was awake for, for 3 days. On the 4th day, I went without and miraculously woke up feeling great.

I grew up with a dad who worked for Coca-Cola. So to say I was raised on soda is an understatement. For the longest time, the position he was in meant free Coke products all the time. When he switched positions, not so much, but we still got them at such a deep discount, it’s all we ever drank!

Continue reading →

Monday Musings #3

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On Christmas:

Today is the first official day of my Christmas vacation. We are closed for two weeks, and I get to sit at home drinking coffee, cuddling with my dog, catching up on my DVR shows (woo, Masterchef Junior!), and getting myself into the Christmas spirit!

I’m done Christmas shopping, most likely. I’m pondering getting something small for Brad’s sisters but they have expensive taste and I have no idea what to get for them. I’ve wrapped all but a few presents for Brad’s family. My gifts for my side of the family went out via the USPS on Saturday.

I’d mentioned in a previous post about how hard it’s been to be excited about Christmas this year. The holidays are about tradition, and for the past 23 years, I’ve spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family, and Christmas day with my mom’s side. This year, Christmas is with Brad’s family.

I think I’ve finally reminded myself that growing up means things are going to change. I’ll be married next year, and eventually we will probably have a family of our own. One day, the new tradition could mean Christmas at OUR house!

When traditions change, I like to think that it’s a measure of progress. My life is on its way up! And for right now, while I will definitely miss spending Christmas with my family, I have to remember that Brad’s family will be my family too. And everyone has family members where they just kind of have to grin and bear it. Maybe one day I won’t have to do that. That’s my wish this Christmas.

On a happier note, this is my favorite time of the year for television! Everywhere you turn, it’s Christmas movies!

My top three Christmas movies:

  1. Elf! I can quote almost the whole movie!
  2. Home Alone Seriously, that movie is hilarious.
  3. The Santa Clause Funny, but also a feelgood kind of movie.

I’m also a big lover of Christmas music, though I’ll be honest. I prefer the more modern renditions of the classics. My go-to this Christmas has been Casting Crowns’ Christmas album Peace on Earth. It’s my absolute favorite!

I got an idea for a Christmas story that I might write while I’m on vacation about the holidays. The good, the bad, the ugly. I’ll share it here when I write it! I also really want to get some stuff done with my novel, Cover Up. I haven’t edited the document in 11 days now, according to G-docs.

Gasp! I know! I’m on a timeline for myself. And I need that thing done by the end of January! So I’ve gotta get some work done. Guess I need to make some rules. Like 2,000 words before I can go FINALLY watch the last Hunger Games movie tomorrow.

So here’s a toast to Christmas. 

I hope yours is as stress-free and as good of a time as possible. If not, well, you can hide vodka in a water bottle.

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Monday Musings #2

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On Rejection:

After I got engaged last year, I bought some small trinkets and these boxes at Michael’s and made gifts to ask my bridal party to be in my wedding. They looked like this:
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I made 6 total. For my 2 best friends, my 2 sisters, and my 2 future sister-in-laws.

I mailed all but the last two, because I live in the same town as my fiance’s family and I figured I would just give it to them in person.

But I kept leaving them on my kitchen table for months. Finally, we were going Christmas shopping with them yesterday and I remembered to bring them along, when my fiance let me know that they would probably say no.

“Why?” I asked him.

“Because my mom probably told them to say no.”

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Well. Let me preface this by saying that it is well within anyone’s rights to say no. I get that a primary concern of being a bridesmaid is cost (though for the sake of his sisters, they won’t be in town soon enough to join our bachelorette party, and all I ask about their dress is that it’s navy blue. They can spend however little or much they want. So I don’t think cost is an issue here) or the responsibility (but my mom and sister and best friend back home are doing just about everything. We’re getting in married in Texas. I live in Virginia right now. There’s only so much we can do from afar).

Regardless of my opinion, though, they can say no.

More than anything, my feelings are hurt because of what my future mother in law said. I’ve never felt like they don’t like me necessarily, but I don’t feel very welcome either. Brad got lucky with my family. I guess someone had to get the short straw.

Image result for mother in law meme

We’re probably moving to Texas next year, so this applies. (No kids though!)

I’ve never handled rejection well. Usually, if I think I’m going to be told no, I just don’t ask. It’s why I didn’t even try to join my family in Florida this summer. It’s why I didn’t use one extra vacation day to spend with my family for Thanksgiving.

Heck, while we’re reflecting on rejection, maybe it’s why I don’t do anything with my writing anymore. I think I’m afraid to let people read it. Because if it sucks, I would want them to tell me. And I can take criticism. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting just a little bit.

I got past it in college (because I mean I had to for creative writing seminars. We had a turn in every week), but it was always short stories. Bigger works that take months to finish, they’re my babies! I don’t want to be told they’re not good enough!

Image result for your writing sucks meme

Fear of rejection is one thing I never really grew out of. I’m working on it. I know though that it’s the best way to grow. To face rejection of all sorts, be it not getting spoiled with every toy you ever wanted, or being told that your writing isn’t good enough. I do believe that it shapes you as an adult, or as a writer.

Doesn’t mean I like it though.

I did not ask Brad’s sisters last night. I kept the boxes in the truck. We’re going back over next Sunday (and Christmas) so I will reevaluate my opinion and decide before then if I even want to ask. I just don’t want them to say no just because my future MIL said no. They’re both old enough to make their own decisions (at 16 and 19, I would hope so anyway).

Image result for rejection meme

I’m a work in progress myself. I’ll figure it out eventually.

Monday Musings #1

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16

I’m starting a new segment of my blog, titled Monday Musings, where I write about whatever is on my mind that day. Sometimes reading/writing related, sometimes not. You never know. Here is MM #1.

author-quote-3.jpg

You know, I started reading a book yesterday off my Goodreads list (a review will be coming soon!), and I’ll tell you — reading books just makes me want to write them so much. But never the current project(s) I’m working on. Nooooo. I always want to start something new.

I get lots of inspiration from what I read. That’s why I tend to read only the genres I enjoy writing in.

The book I’m reading is a thriller of sorts. A man gets abducted after being held up at his work. His life is thrown off schedule. It’s one of those books that makes you think about your life.

While reading this book, I started to think of my own abduction story (I have written one before. It was self-published through Createspace, and it does still exist on Amazon. But I’m not telling you anything else about it haha, because I was a senior in high school, and it’s not good). A basic plot started to form in my head. And I had to catch myself before I got too interested in it.

I already have two projects to finish, brain. Stop it. The worst thing I can do is to have so many projects going at once that I’ll never finish any of them. I’m on a schedule now. I have finish date goals for my two WIPs (see my new page!) and I need to stick to those.

It’s so hard though for me to shelve ideas like these. I’m excited about them now. How do I know if I’ll still be excited about it later? Maybe that’s the thing though. If I don’t love it as much then as I do now, was it not as much a priority as I thought?

What I’m telling myself right now is that I need to finish Cover Up. And when I can sit down and read through it, I can see once and for all if it can be salvaged at all, or if it needs to be completely redone from top to bottom. Currently, that’s what I’m thinking, but I haven’t actually reread any of it yet, so who really knows. If it needs to be redone completely, I can shelve it for awhile. Work on Where I Belong and then MAYBE pick up a new project along the way.

I guess this is all so foreign to me because ever since I graduated from college (May 2014), I took a hiatus from writing. I was reading during the summer while job hunting (I waited tables 4 nights a week. I had so much free time!), but putting my own ideas down wasn’t a priority. My major was English, dangit. I guess I just got exhausted from being forced to read and write for 4 years.

When I picked up on NaNo again this year, it was the first time I’d written since my last semester. Almost a full year and a half. Whew.

And now here I am, every idea swirling in my brain. I pick up a new book, love the plot so much that I want to write my own rendition of it, but then lose interest when another new idea comes to fruition later on.

I guess what I’m going to start doing is writing down my ideas. As much plot as I have in my brain at one time. Keeping them in a notebook full of all my other ideas. And when the time comes to really start a new one, I’ll have a book full of plotlines and characters. And I can choose which ones still get me excited about writing it.

So tell me: What do you do to keep the plot bunnies at bay?