NaNo Time, Kiddos, for 2022

It's less than a month away: Another round of National Novel Writing Month. 

I've been doing this regularly since (checks notes) 2006, off and on with some success reaching the 50,000 word counts certain years.

The problem, which bothers me but not to the point of obsession, is that I don't finish up.

I've had - past tense, because the flash drive I've been saving to is lost now - a stack of unfinished first drafts piling up that I found myself unable to finish either because 1) I hated the direction the novels were going even when I had plotted them first, or 2) lost track of how I wanted those works to end. When I found myself with about five of those unfinished drafts, I couldn't decide on which one to stay focused on.

This year, with something of a clean slate ahead of me, I will be making the effort to plot out a reasonably short work, nothing too elaborate, and find the motivation to stick to the landing on this stunt.

Wish me luck.

Again.

I Need Motivation to Write

Help a Witty out, peeps.

Writing Projects April 2017

There are at least three things on my writing agenda:

1) Camp NaNo, to finish a novel on SOMETHING.

2) Florida Writers' Association annual anthology, due April 30th.

3) A short story on the current political  climate, which might get me over my writers' block (yes, I am blaming trump for this).

Wish me luck.

Writing Notes March 2017 Update

Well, I did break that damned Writer's Block and got a story finished and submitted last night to a dark fantasy horror publication called Nightmare...

And the rejection letter came back this morning.

I actually feel more relief than despair. It used to be these rejections would take MONTHS. Thanks to advancements in technology, I can find out that my stories do not have enough sea monster in them.

Sigh.

I know, I know. Writing and submitting is 99 percent rejection. Just have to find the right story told the right way to the right audience...

Notes For March 2017

On a professional note, Bartow Public Library is celebrating its' 120th Anniversary this month! We're going to host all-day events on March 29th complete with cake and activities. To the eight regular readers of this blog, please plan out a trip to our fair library and join in on the fun.

On a personal note, I really need to get back to writing my stories out. I am coping with the wrong levels of anxiety and stress and depression. /headdesk

On a cat note, Mal has learned how to jump up when I toss snacks at him to snag the bite-sized bits with his mouth. A few more weeks and we can go on Saturday Night Live to show off.

I should post later about more library stuff.

KEEP READING!

Let Not This Year Be a Hard One With Writer's Block

Yeah.

I'm having a hard time focusing on any writing project right now.

Wanna know how bad it is?

I haven't taken the Christmas tree down yet.

I think if I don't get that tree put away by Valentine's Day, I need to see somebody about my chronic depression again. :/

Thinking About Camp NaNoWriMo

The thing about National Novel Writing Month is that not everybody can stay focused during November to do it.

Other months are possibilities to do some writing.  So the NaNo people started up these Camp NaNos in other months (I think April has one?) and they've got one starting up in July.

I'm signing up for it, on the hope that this will give me time and motivation to get over this damn writer's block and GET A DAMN NOVEL DONE.

I will keep you informed.

About Writer's Block... Again.

Hate it.

I've barely touched the NaNo novel.

I've got two... three short story ideas one of which needs to be done by tomorrow if I want it part of an anthology for local writers...

/headdesking

Needing to write and finding the motivation to write are two different things.

I know I have to be motivated... and I know I've got these stories in my head worth writing... but the transfer of thought to word is still slower than it ought to be...

I'd Like To Post About Skyfall Being an Oscar-Worthy Bond Movie, But Instead I Gotta NaNo

I'm falling about 5,000 words off the pace.  Ack.

What Does 2012 Have In Store For Me?

It's been a busy month regarding job-hunting for a librarian opening.  Brevard County interviewed me - twice, which is the really good news - and I did a phone interview with Rasmussen College.  Still and all, it would be nice to finally get a job lined up, get my finances stabilized, my life back on track...

With regards to writing, my mood and interests are distracted at the moment.  I feel the need to write but not the urgency.  Tis the pity.

I'll update here as best I can.  Happy 2012 to everyone!

Why I Failed NaNoWriMo This Year

Well...

1) Personal issues such as the loss of my poor Silly Kitty Page, whose cancer got bad enough to take her to the vet for one last visit...

2) Problems with my story's narrative, even with trying to correct some of the character introductions and opening action scenes.  Things felt heavy-handed or operating on poor assumptions.

3) Chronic Depressive Mood and growing stress from job-hunting as I close in on my third year of full unemployment... :(

All apologies.  I am thinking of getting some short stories or novella-type work done in the coming days.

Sticking To Deadlines

As far as the writing plans for the Labor Day Weekend panned out...  not so well.  In short, I'm scrapping what I did write (which wasn't much).  And focusing on getting a few other projects prepped for later.

Writers Block.  I hate it.  I have it.

There was a time when I spent a lot of it (time, that is) writing.  Mostly fanfiction, back in the Nineties during my love affair with the television show The X-Files.  Gossamer has an archive of most of what I wrote in terms of fanfic.  For normal writing, regular fiction writing, I was focused on short stories mostly for writing contests.  Eventually I coalesced the more coherent shorts into a smallish anthology Last of the Grapefruit Wars, which I published in 2003 through a Print-on-Demand service Xlibris.

And since then?

Most of my ambitious projects - actual novel writings, additional short story attempts for contests - don't go very far or very well.  I've tried the 3-Day Novel contests for years to no avail...  I've joined the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and while the last two years I've "won" the months by hitting the 50,000 word counts I've yet to complete either novel into an acceptable conclusion.  This year was practically a miracle seeing me get some stories - Welcome to Florida and The Hero Cleanup Protocol - self-published...

I could explain it away if I was distracted by work or by family.  But I've been unemployed full-time the last two years (going on three), and my family is mostly off doing their things while I'm struggling with mine (and family have never really been major motivators in my writing projects, to be honest).

The unemployment issue is what worries me most: when I was working, I was stimulated with library work - research, above all - and that stimulation helped with getting some works off the word processor.  Now, stressing out over each submitted resume and cover letter seems to dull my interest in getting writing work done.  Even suggestions that I go into freelancing work (for websites like Guru or Examiner.com for example) somehow don't appeal to me even though there's a huge part of me that does.  It's even part of the reason why I don't blog as much as I should: if I kept more active, I'd think I'd get more traffic here.

As for future projects... there's obviously NaNo in November.  I've been given a heads-up about a 24-Hour Comics contest, hosted this year on Saturday October 1.  I am/will be tempted to join in that.

Wish me luck.

In Lieu of the 3-Day Novel

Normally, this is the week I'd get ready for the 3-Day Novel Contest.

But not this year.

For one thing, you have to pay for it.  Ouch.

Second, I've found that having it Labor Day weekend makes some sort of sense... except that it's usually the same weekend as the start of college football.  And my devotions to USF, UF (and my family's devotions to the same as well as Mom's War Eagle roots) seem to take a full day out of my attempts to write.  This year, for example, I may have to babysit my nephews while my twin brother and his wife head up to Gainesville for the UF home opener, and while Mom & Dad are off at Selmon's for the Auburn watch party.

Third, that despite all my efforts and planning and outlining... well, what I come up with tends not to be well-written, well-organized... and nearly everything I've pounded out basically are works I've never re-visited.

So this year, I'm swearing off the 3-Day.

Instead, I'm doing the 4-Day Whatever-The-Hell-I-Write Self-Imposition.

The plan is to write something on each day of the weekend - Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday - that do not necessarily have to be novels.  I do, after all, have an interest in writing short stories, and I think my short story efforts can be done within a day.

Given the epublishing limits or lack thereof - that I can basically write a short story however long I want, well into novella size if need be - I could well get at least ONE thing done over this weekend that's publish-worthy.

Some of the ideas up for work are a story idea I've had for awhile about a wacky road trip to Vegas (the trickiest part is writing the whole thing in present tense, which is harder than you think); a humor story about teens planning a Skip Day; another story in my superhero 'verse; an unemployed insomniac getting wrapped up in an unusual criminal conspiracy; and perhaps revisiting an old story in my files that needs a rewrite.

So there goes, here goes, it will go, it may have went.  Shush, I'm working on tenses...

Kinda Decompressing After Extreme Blogging for April

So I apologize to the seven people following this blog.  ;-)

Future posts about summer movies, job hunting, getting a cover artist for a short story, and more to follow.

Things I Should Be Doing In Terms Of Writing

1) There's a story challenge to write for an all-dialogue short story.

2) There's that Jar of the Atlantic short that's been on the docket for 11 years.

3) There's the NaNoWriMo novel that's got 2 months to complete before the prize discount on getting a free copy printed by CreateSpace runs out.

4) The next Writers Association meeting in Wesley Chapel is the same day as Free Comic Book Day (May 7th)!  Damn.  The Wesley Chapel B&N better have comic book giveaways!

Before It Gets Too Late: NaNoWriMo Update Day 22

Just getting this in as of 11:55 PM on Nov. 22nd.  43273 words.

I've actually slowed down this weekend after the blind rush of Friday.  I am within 6,800 words of getting the 50,000 word count.  It's the novel itself.  I feel myself bogging down into fractal detail right now, creating a situation where I'm trying to leave clues for the solution I've plotted at the end... so I need to pick this up and get it going into the next set of chapters.  Grrr.

It is the time of NaNoWriMo 2010. And the cats are wondering why I'm crying.

Well, damn it all to (expletive).  I tried starting off a novel this morning... and this afternoon... and this evening.  And already two pages in I'm hating the story idea I've got.  And it sounded so good on paper.

The problem is, I'm not writing from experience on a story that is going to require some experience.  Operating on assumptions is a terrible way to go.

So I'm starting over.  I'm gonna try something else for the next 2 1/2 hours to get something produced for this first day.