English: George R.R. Martin signing books in a bookstore in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Slovenščina: George R.R. Martin med podpisovanjem knjig v ljubljanski knjigarni. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Raise your hand if you are angry with Martin for failing to meet a television deadline.
Looks around.
No one?
Notices a lone hand in the back.
You’re not a writer, are you? No? Put your hand down.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the Game of Thrones television series. In fact, I made the mistake of watching the T.V. show before reading the books, and now I can’t get into the books (I’m weird like that.) So yeah, I haven’t read more than a couple of chapters of Martin’s series. But I still can’t get upset with him for failing to meet his television deadlines. Continue reading “Take your time, George R. R.”→
How often have you thought about quitting your day job and writing full-time? That’s what we are all supposed to be aiming for, right? Someday, we think, we will make enough money writing that we can tell our employers to take our crappy day jobs and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine. Anyway, that’s what we’re supposed to want. But what happens if it turns out that dream isn’t right for you?
Take this job and shove it.
I spent a few years freelancing, and let me tell you: It was not what it was cracked up to be. I had to really hustle to make a living, and then the self-employment headaches ended up being more trouble than they were worth. The line between my personal life and my professional life blurred to the point where I felt like I was working 24/7. Continue reading “What if writing full-time isn’t right for you?”→
REVENGE OF THE PENMONKEY: Wallpaper #2 (Photo credit: curious_spider)
Today I am participating in the TerribleMinds PenMonkey Evaluation. Here are the answers to my writing survey questions:
What’s your greatest strength/skill in terms of writing/storytelling? –>Dialog. The voices make me do it.
What’s your greatest weakness in writing/storytelling? What gives you the most trouble? –> Description. I touched on that just a couple of days ago here.
How many books or other projects have you actually finished? What did you do with them? –> Well, that’s a bit personal, isn’t it? Okay. Well. Finished? Can I count my one completed first draft that I’m still revising? I have several other first drafts that I’m still plugging away on, but that’s it as far as actually “finishing” a book. Unless you count my book of amateurish poems I slapped up on Kindle a while back. As far as other projects go, my blogs are doing awesome. Besides this one winning an actual award (as opposed to a Liebster or something like that,) I have been steadily gathering new readers each week. Continue reading “My PenMonkey Evaluation: Six Questions”→
What’s the worst thing someone could say to you when you’re suffering from writer’s block? | Writer’s Block 1 (Photo credit: NathanGunter)
As writers, we know how rare it is for our friends and relatives to really “get” what we do and why we do it. We know they love us and want to support us, but sometimes they make thoughtless comments that make us want to wring their necks. I recently asked my online writer’s group what was the worst “advice” they have received from well-meaning friends and family members. Here are some of the responses I received:
Getting to your best writing requires very little conscious thought. | Thinking (Photo credit: Moyan_Brenn)
Picture it: Sicily, 1965. Wait. No. That’s the Golden Girls. Remember them? But I digress.
Picture it: You wake before your alarm and lie in bed waiting for your alarm to catch up. You get an idea. A brilliant idea. You should get up and start writing immediately, but your bed is so warm and snug. So, you don’t. Instead, you lay there for an hour, waiting for your alarm to make you get up, turning the idea in your head. It’ll be okay. You can write it down after you get up. It will still be brilliant then.
Only, it’s not. Somehow, the words that slipped through the sieve of your morning mind refuse to maintain their original early morning brilliance. On the page, they are wooden and just not quite right. What happened? Where did you go wrong? Was the idea just not as brilliant as you thought it was? Continue reading “You gotta be you, I gotta be me”→
The topic of what to listen to while writing seems to be a popular one on writing blogs. Some writers set up entire play lists designed to get them in the right mood to work on a specific project. Others claim to listen to NPR while they write. I am sometimes embarrassed to tell people what I listen to.
It’s not that I don’t love music. The problem is, I love it a little too much. I have a hard time listening to music and writing at the same time because I often catch myself sitting back in my chair with my eyes closed, singing along to my latest favorite song (which right now is Counting Stars by One Republic.) This is not exactly the most productive way to write!
I don’t mind writing in silence when I’m at the library. If I write at a coffee shop (which I just realized I haven’t done in months,) I write to the background noise of clanking cups and murmured conversations at other tables. At the state park near my house, I write to the music of a breeze rustling through leaves, kids shouting down by the beach, and boats roaring across the lake. Continue reading “What do you listen to while you write?”→
After giving it some thought, it occurred to me that I am probably exactly where I should be in regards to my writing career. Although I have been writing in some capacity for most of my life, it is only in the past five years that I have put my full effort into it. Prior to that, I had taken a ten-year break while I was married because my ex didn’t want me to write at all. Continue reading “How long does it take to become a writing master?”→
Are you the Justin Timberlake of writing? | Timberlake performing at St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the venues of his first worldwide tour, FutureSex/LoveShow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Style is an essential element of writing that can take decades to master. Writing students are often confused about what constitutes their style. Sometimes it is helpful to discuss style in an alternate medium, such as fashion, to draw an analogy that students can understand.
Consider this. I have two sons, aged 7 and 14. They are both sloppy dressers. My 7-year-old doesn’t really think about his “style.” Sure, he has a couple of favorite shirts that he would wear every single day if I would allow it. He prefers elastic-waist athletic pants over denim jeans because they are more comfortable. However, his clothing choices consist mostly of wearing the first item of clothing he can get his hands on when he reaches into his closet. The only reason he wears matching socks is because I match them up for him when I do the laundry. The result is often sloppy, but he doesn’t look sloppy on purpose. He just doesn’t know any better.
At this point, I am not too concerned with my younger son’s wardrobe choices as long as I can get him to dress appropriately for the weather. We live in Wisconsin, and we’re heading into the final days of October. The time for wearing shorts has passed. Now, my main concern regarding his daily dress is that he makes it out of the house each morning wearing long pants, socks, appropriate footwear, a sweatshirt, and a jacket. He is still learning the basic rules of dressing himself. There’s no room for worrying about style at this point. Continue reading “What’s your writing style? Do you have one?”→
This is an adult version of a corn rootworm. I decided not to share any larva images in case you are eating while reading my blog. | English: Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) on corn (Zea mays) Italiano: Diabrotica su foglia di mais (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am so glad I decided to go for a walk this morning. For some reason, I always get my best ideas while I’m out for a walk. Today, my walk ended in a jog, as I was in such a hurry to get home to scribble out this new scene.
I grabbed my notebook and pen, then turned on the coffee maker and threw a slice of whole grain bread in the toaster. I wrote while making my breakfast because I knew I would lose steam if I didn’t get some food in my stomach and caffeine coursing through my veins.
Write on the World 