Monday Musings #7

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Outback

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 →

WIP Wednesday: Where I Belong #1

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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 →

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 →

How (Not) to Write the Next NY Times Bestseller

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  1. 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)
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  2. 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)
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  3. 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)
    1.    Continue reading →

Good Things Come From Sleep Deprivation

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caffeine-addiction.png

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.

Continue reading →

New Blog Title/Tagline

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So I signed up for Blogging 101 this month, which is like a back-to-basics type of session for bloggers. While I’ve been doing this for a few months, I figured it couldn’t hurt to maybe learn some new stuff.

The assignment today involved setting up a title/tagline for your blog, which obviously I have had done for awhile now, haha.

BUT upon conversing with some other bloggers, I realized that my title did nothing to really pull a reader in, nor was it very descriptive to the subject of my blog. And my tagline was just kind of blah. So I did some searching and have come up with a semi-new identity.

I’ll decide in like a week if I like it or not. But for the time being, welcome to —

header5

 

Let me know what you think! (I’ll play around with the picture/font color later too. I know it’s a tad hard to read.)

(And I’m so not getting rid of or changing Monday Musings. It just won’t fit perfectly with my blog title anymore. But that’s okay.)

The Liebster Award

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Kind of like those old notes I used to do one Facebook! However, this sounds much better because it’s called an ‘award’! And I got nominated by people I don’t know in person!

A great honor was bestowed upon me by two fellow bloggers! Jay and Helen nominated me — or rather, my blog — for the Liebster Award. The Liebster Award recognizes blogs with less than a 1000 followers and strives to increase collaboration and recognize newbie bloggers. Think of it as a game of blog tag. Person A nominates Person B. Person B must then answer a couple of questions on their blog and then dish out some nominations.

The Rules:

  1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
  2. Answer the 11 questions your nominator gave you.
  3. Tag 11 bloggers with less than 1,000 readers.
  4. Think of 11 questions for the bloggers you have nominated.
  5. Let them know you have nominated them through social media or their blog.

Since I was nominated twice, I will answer all 22 questions! Because why not? It’s Saturday night and I am bored! And this sounds like a funner way to get to know me!

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 →