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.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, April 4, 2008
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!
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!
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