One Writing Assignment Can Help a Couple Others

Friday, I handed in a homework assignment and somewhere by the end of the weekend I had my entry for Father (paternal) at FaithWriters completed and posted. That was definitely a fun memory. I can't link it yet, but I'll start linking my stories here for you to check out after the winners are announced for each.

I did a thorough critique on chapter one of a novel recently posted by a new member over at the Christian Writers Forum. I find that the critiquing helps me figure out my own weaknesses. Of course, the more I get into critiquing and studying writing, the more I find myself doing it when I sit down for a leisurely read.

So if I'm noticing things, how come when it is time to actually go find an example of an error for my homework, I never find it immediately? I definitely did not find the scene and POV issues asked for in the past couple of lessons in the Lynn Austin book I'm reading. She has it in first person from the point of view of a 20-year-old trying to figure out her lot in life. As she tries to find her mother, she suddenly has all these options she never dreamed of and some pretty interesting adventures. It's so fun to read, I probably would miss a mistake anyway. The book is "A Proper Pursuit" and is quite the intriguing historical novel that happens in the summer of 1893 in Chicago. Anyway, I wound up picking on poor old Isaac Asimov for a couple of assignments because I knew I could find examples in his writing style. I just can't seem to find them in very many modern day writers and especially the Christian ones. Not that any of them are super perfect, but oddly the style of writing these days takes way more care with POV than older styles.

In the end I did get about 75% of my current homework assignment done in one sitting last night. To hit on the point of the subject line, in doing so I took pieces from two works in progress. One, is my completed and mostly edited sci fi novel and the other is my rough draft start to a young adult adventure. In both I found better ways of fixing my wording due to having to rewrite scenes in multiple versions from varying point of views for my homework. Nothing like homework helping works in progress, too. It seems to be leaning that way with several of the assignments out of the fiction section I'm now going through.

This inspires me to try my best at these assignments in order to get the okay to plunge into the journeyman level class for fiction. So far it is proving to only improve my writing right along with FraithWriters writing challenges, critiquing, studying various books about writing, and just simply doing it. It's both easier and harder now. Easier due to knowing the rules of writing better. Harder because I know the rules better. ::laughing:: I'm sure I broke some rules in this post.

Spring is Really Here

I've slowed down a bit on my writing since that mad dash of trying to fit in fifty hours of novel editing in March without stopping anything else that I had to do. My brain is going through a recharge. However, I have an inspirational article revision and a short story posted for critiquing. I also got an entry into the first challenge of the quarter over at Faithwriters.com. I have several ideas of what to write for this week's challenge. I have a writing assignment due tomorrow and have it done already.

Reading all that sounds like a lot, but it's been pretty leisurely paced. I've even taken some time to read a little more in a Lynn Austin novel and read further through "Getting Into Character" for the Missing Pages Book Club over at the Christian Writer's Forum.

Writing and reading have always been a huge part of my life and I actually missed it when I didn't plug away at it like I have since Christmas week. I got too wound up in computer games which wasted a lot of time. I easily played for 20 to 30 hours a week. Now that time goes towards my writingand reading again. I've felt like I've found the right path to be on for this season of my life since Christmas. Do I know exactly where I am going? No, but writing is definitely involved.

To help the spirit and emotional side all the more, it has been sunny all week and the last snow I saw was Saturday morning. The neighbor's domesticated goose decided the stream in our backyard was better for a nest rather than her owner's. The grass is starting to turn green. There are buds on some of the trees. Today is supposedly the nicest so far, so I didn't go outside while at work. I would have run away instead.

Our living room, minus a few odds and ends, is setup. I had access to my exercise equipment and used it for the first time in months. That felt really good. I know at least half my issues is the lack of exercise and the other half are things that exercise will help, but they will be with me until I die. I need to keep this up and to do so I need to organize my schedule to allow for up to an hour for whatever exercising I chose to do for the day. This really helps for after work because it allows me to unwind before I step into my writing. It releaves a lot of stress in various forms that I may acquire while at work. Now to keep this all in mind as my marshmallow of a body complains about the muscles I'm starting to workout again.

Things are not entirely easy, but I'd be scared if they were. Even when it seems hard to get my writing done for the day, I'm definitely enjoying the journey. I have plenty still to learn and as I network I'm finding more ways to test out my writing.

Still Unraveling

Unraveling from what, you ask? Actually winning NaNoEdMo on Monday and finishing off the organizing of the monstrosity bookshelves.

Okay, there is one shelf left for the husband's remodeling and woodworking books. Though we did have a great laugh over one he found published in 1970. Still do the basics the same, but the style doesn't cut it with either of us. It supplied a good laugh even if it supplied nothing to help with a bathroom remodel.

I need to keep working on the den so I have more room in there. Unfortunately I know some of this includes a better way to organize some of my scrapbooking stuff and all them pictures still not properly organized. I think I can write the first draft of a novel before I could get all these pictures in scrapbooks. Of course, I have great fun with it and journal like crazy in my scrapbooks. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a few added on to direct the viewers mind as to why the picture is there definitely helps. Like a picture of a flowering sage across the dirt path from a tree and how the shadow plays may be cool, but if I didn't add that it was at Sunset Crater National Park, no one would ever know that.

Julie even commented she doesn't know how I get so much done. Some days I wonder myself. It can be challenging, but after this week of also working a different shift, I'll be back to normal without EdMo timing haunting me. I plan on continuing the editing, submitting some writing, and picking up on doing more critiquing this month.

I think I'll be adding walks to the agenda (not just the treadmill) and I can find my TotalGym again. Look out, I might find a way to become a lean, mean working machine, but I'll always be verbose!

The Developement of Ideas

It never fails that I'm working on one project, that another idea comes along when I'm not working on my writing. Then things will come up that remind you of the idea. They will either help enhance it or squash it.

You can't always trust what your brain is doing while you are playing with stain and polyurethane, even if you open windows some and crank up the ceiling fans. However, one idea might be fun to play with in the future.

I've been reading a lot of historical novels based on the late 1800's recently. I'm even critiquing one over at the Christian Writer's Forum. While staining the shelving system my husband built for our living room, I had one of those 'what if' moments that geared into the late 1800's society.

What if the values and some of that way of life survived all the changes of technology to exist today? A far fetched alternative reality, don't you think? Well, I kept mulling this over during my staining times and here and there.

Then I get reading Julie's post from yesterday over at the Christian Writers Forum Blog and also on her blogspot at TheSurrenderedScribe. It's about how media has affected how Generation X'ers see marriage, but it can be applied to most anything. Media plays a big part in our lives and it seems that each generation takes it to the next extreme, but then asks, "Why are kids the way they are these days?" It isn't the kids shoving the media at them, but the parents. Maybe not directly, but people the age of the parents are making this stuff and some are parents.

This brought me back around to how we lost those values from the 1800's generation by generation. Some may really be outmoded, but others are timeless and should have never been lost. So what if they did not change as technology advanced? I'm right back to my 'what if' I started with, and without the stain fumes. I may not write about this idea this year due to other projects and ideas in the works, but this is one that will be mulled over and at least played with in my idea book. Who knows, it might bloom into an interesting alternate reality book or it might stay forevermore in the realms of ideas only. Time will tell.

Editing Takes Time

I did manage to spend a couple hours editing last night. It included the joy of taking all the red marks on my hardcopy and putting them into the computer. I also had to break down my chapters into new files, since most of the chapters were too long. The original manuscript was single spaced which really isn't good for editing nor is it the format publishers want it in for submission.

After two hours, the first two old chapters were done and printed out as the four chapters it turned into. These first few chapters of my book were the easiest due to the least amount of editing. The big edits start in chapter 5 of the old manuscript, so I honestly can't say how many hours I'll log for NaNoEdMo for acquiring a clean and properly formatted copy.

Once I have that all organized, I have the fun of doing one more big edit. This edit includes more dispersion of the information leading up to the finale of the novel. Some is dispersed, but not enough. The ending is more like an info dump even if it reveals an interesting twist. I want to lead up to the twist while leaving it a mystery. This will prove an interesting editing phase.

Then I do the knit-picky editing of wording to polish it up. I have a tendancy, as many do, of throwing in extra words like 'that', 'really', etc. Good ole passive voice loves to rear its head when active voice would give far more punch. When you work as an engineer writing technical documents all day that use passive voice, it gets rather entertaining reading a manuscript to find you couldn't leave ole passive voice at work.

This novel will turn into something publishable soon enough, but some days it needs to come after my writing homework assignments. Or some short item comes up wanting attention like an inspirational article I did print all the critiques for when I do sit down to polish it.

Now to head out so I can work on some of this for the evening.

Life Interrupted

I was on a good roll with writing, but then I let other life needs interrupt. In the end it worked out fine because I did something else I love to do.

I did a lot of writing/editing at the end of last week knowing I would spend Saturday doing things with my husband and getting out of the house. It turned into a great day together with a lot of shopping for things we needed and splurging for a few things we wanted.

We acquired a piece of molding, stain and polyurethane for finishing the bookshelves my husband has been working on for the winter. Since he had to work overtime Sunday evening, I decided to start the staining. I had no desire to sit down, which ruled out any editing I had planned to do. I cranked up "The Message" on XM radio and set out to see how the staining would go. Setup is always a little tedious, but once I got on a roll, I kept on going. Next thing I knew it was nine o'clock and I had everything assembled thus far stained.

I decided to continue with the polyurethane on Monday after work. Three hours later, the glossy shine and the oils of the polyurethane had made the grain pop out all the more on the oak wood. The golden oak stain with the glossy polyurethane finish had proven a good choice.

Of course, this led to my husband trying to tell me I was in a hurry for my book shelves. I told him I had a lot of fun doing it, so figured I might as well go to the end before cleaning up. I think he felt more upset due to not accomplishing as much on a work day as I can. I had to remind him that he gets up with me at breakfast after only five hours of sleep and then he needs to go back to get the remaining 2 or 3 after I leave. If he didn't do this, we would really feel like ships passing in the night with our different work shifts. This leaves him with 2 or 3 hours to put into a project before work around everything else. I usually have 5 to 6 hours straight to use after work.

So I may have some nicely stained bookshelves, but I had to just chill last night. I need to do some writing tonight. These past four days put me behind the insanity of NaNoEdMo and accomplishing 50 hours of editing in the month of March. I also want to finish another homework assignment this week. After looking over the critiques of my inspirational article again, I feel inspired to crank out the suggested changes I feel would work for my writing style and submit the revision for a final critique.

Now, I did manage to critique three more chapters of a novel for a member over at the Christian Writers Forum. That is just as important to me as getting my own writing done. It actually helps me look at my writing differently knowing what a critiquer should look for.

Crazy me also has the next writing how-to book for our Missing Pages Book Club and I need to read some of it for tomorrow night's discussion. I could not make any sense out of it last night, but I think my brain is recovering from whatever had it sleeping last night.

This all proves writing is a huge part of my life now and it feels weird to take some time off from it to do something else.

Getting Out of Isolation Mode

Writing causes a great deal of isolation because it is a solitary job. For the best writing time you will find yourself alone. If others are in the house, you are probably writing while they work on other things or sleeping. I know if I'm home with my husband and I manage to do writing related things it is because he is doing other things. If you let it, your writing can reduce you to only seeing your family and people at church (if you don't have a full time job).

I know I need to get out and be with people now and then. There is the need to be connected. How will I write about people if I don't know people?

It still does not prove easy, but I've become the secretary/treasurer of our Women's Ministries at church. With my crazy need to write, spend time with my husband and hold down a full time job, I find my desire to go out and do extra things squelched most days. I have taken this knowledge of myself and working on getting more interest in the ministry. I've set the goal of getting way more literature out in advance for what we are doing in order for the women to actually see what we are doing and what will happen next. If I don't at least try this enticement, then I won't know if it will actually help gain more involvement. I do understand that schedules don't always workout and many with teenage kids have after school things that block out even a once a month women's ministry meeting.

Will it work? Who knows. Maybe some things will get going on different days to actually accomplish some projects.

In the long run I know it will help me. I am enjoying fellowshiping with the women of my church and getting to know them better. I'm learning more about who I am as a person and what causes me to get irritated and what does not. Then I can learn how to change my feelings or at least redirect them in a way that solves my internal issues while accomplishing something with a team. It's a trial, so there will be learning. Hiding from people just to do my writing will hinder my growth as a person and hinder my understanding of how people tick.

Besides, doing things as a group can be quite enlightening and entertaining. You can accomplish more and in the end you still have plenty of writing time around the group activities. So get out there and live and see how it can enhance your writing along the way. Don't believe me? I find that I can still get in 20 hours a week of writing/editing with a full time job, women's ministries, church, family and friends.