When I found and signed up for my first online writing workshop, it was love at first yahoo group. I’ve already taken a TON of them this year, but for some reason it seems a whole bunch of good ones got scheduled for October. Presently I am taking (or will begin taking tomorrow):
Book in a Week by April Kilhstrom (more about this workshop next entry)
Finding the Book Ho in You
The Purpose Driven Scene
Character Journey workshop (Alicia Rasley)
Plotting for Un-Dummies
Magic, Monsters and Amour
Story, Theme and Vehicle
(Foreshadowing and Other Tricks ended as of today)
On top of that, next week starts the Muse Online Conference (which is free! But it’s way too late to sign up for this year’s if you haven’t yet, sorry to say)!
Usually I try not to take more than 3 (4 max) workshops a month, but as you can see I got a little carried away this month. I was actually lucky enough to WIN my way into the Alicia Rasley workshop from a comment I left on a blog post. The blog was giving away a free entry into the workshop and I doubted I’d win cuz I never win anything, but I did this time so that was way cool.
What about you, readers? Do you love online workshops as much as I do? Do you prefer the workshops you can attend in person? Or maybe you'd rather just read books or articles on writing instead of the whole “workshop” vibe? I’m curious to see if I’m the only one with this crazy addiction ;-)
Sunday, October 3
Thursday, September 23
Time is something you can never get back...
I’ve been “trying” to write a novel for over nine months now (technically many years longer than that, but I really started working towards my goal in Jan). For months I wished I’d get laid off from my job (or win the lottery, though I knew that option was much less likely) so I could stay home and write every day, but still afford to pay my bills. At the end of July, I finally got my wish! My job let me go, but I can pay still pay my rent (thanks NYS unemployment). Although rent is about all I can afford to pay right now, but that's another post...
Now you’d think the first thing I’d do after being laid off would be to start writing, right? Right. Except, no, wrong. Considering the company I worked for let me go on the Friday before my planned trip to FL for the RWA 2010 conference (nice place, right? Let’s let her go right before her vacation so she can worry the whole time about being broke when she gets back home!!!!), I figured I’d wait until I returned from my vacation (slash learning experience heh).
But then I decided to join the WWBC. For those who’ve read my previous entries, you know what I’m talking about. For those who haven’t, I’ll just say that it’s sort of like a critique group, except one person is in charge. Anyway, my intention for writing this post is not to talk bad about anyone, or to say “that sh*t sucked.” So I won’t trash talk it. But basically, it was a waste of my entire month of August, and most of my September.
Our first assignment was character profiles. I had to come up with an antagonist and write a background for him/her. I decided my antag was going to be my protag’s mother. I wrote up a profile. I sent it out. I was told that she didn’t make a good antag and I should come up with another. Hmmmm, I thought this was MY story here?... So I made a new one, an evil alien guy. Except, well, he wasn’t evil enough apparently. I revised him three times before I was told “ya know, he’s an okay antagonist, but how ‘bout you go back and work on the mother again.”
Hmmmmm.
I rewrite the mother’s profile a few more times. In the meantime I also wrote my protagonist profile, and my world-building profile (since most of the story is going to be occurring on an alien planet). Both of those I also rewrote three or four times (and each of these profiles is 9-10 pages btw). Not to mention I'm still working on making the alien guy more evil. By now, I am getting tired of this.
If I had simply filled out a character questionnaire (or something along those lines that you can find all over the internet), I would’ve finished my characters in a week or maybe less. But because between each of my profile rewrites I had to wait around for my next batch of “critiques” so I could rewrite my characters with everyone else’s opinions in mind, I ended up spending nearly 2 months just on my characters. No plotting, no scenes, no nothing else. Just three freaking characters (I hadn’t even gotten to the heroine’s love interest yet!!!) and a planet that was still a bit too similar to Earth.
Last night I decided to break free. I am no longer doing WWBC. I’m not waiting around for other people to tell me if my writing is good or not. ‘Cuz I know it is. You learn by doing, not by waiting. And if my writing isn’t “publishable” yet, I’d rather at least have written something than to say “well I’m waiting for the go-ahead from my crit partners.” Like I said earlier, it’s MY book. My story. No one else’s. If it sucks a-s-s, it’s mine. And if it gets published and people actually enjoy it, it’s - guess whose? - mine!
So now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do. I’ve got almost two lost months to make up for! ;-)
Now you’d think the first thing I’d do after being laid off would be to start writing, right? Right. Except, no, wrong. Considering the company I worked for let me go on the Friday before my planned trip to FL for the RWA 2010 conference (nice place, right? Let’s let her go right before her vacation so she can worry the whole time about being broke when she gets back home!!!!), I figured I’d wait until I returned from my vacation (slash learning experience heh).
But then I decided to join the WWBC. For those who’ve read my previous entries, you know what I’m talking about. For those who haven’t, I’ll just say that it’s sort of like a critique group, except one person is in charge. Anyway, my intention for writing this post is not to talk bad about anyone, or to say “that sh*t sucked.” So I won’t trash talk it. But basically, it was a waste of my entire month of August, and most of my September.
Our first assignment was character profiles. I had to come up with an antagonist and write a background for him/her. I decided my antag was going to be my protag’s mother. I wrote up a profile. I sent it out. I was told that she didn’t make a good antag and I should come up with another. Hmmmm, I thought this was MY story here?... So I made a new one, an evil alien guy. Except, well, he wasn’t evil enough apparently. I revised him three times before I was told “ya know, he’s an okay antagonist, but how ‘bout you go back and work on the mother again.”
Hmmmmm.
I rewrite the mother’s profile a few more times. In the meantime I also wrote my protagonist profile, and my world-building profile (since most of the story is going to be occurring on an alien planet). Both of those I also rewrote three or four times (and each of these profiles is 9-10 pages btw). Not to mention I'm still working on making the alien guy more evil. By now, I am getting tired of this.
If I had simply filled out a character questionnaire (or something along those lines that you can find all over the internet), I would’ve finished my characters in a week or maybe less. But because between each of my profile rewrites I had to wait around for my next batch of “critiques” so I could rewrite my characters with everyone else’s opinions in mind, I ended up spending nearly 2 months just on my characters. No plotting, no scenes, no nothing else. Just three freaking characters (I hadn’t even gotten to the heroine’s love interest yet!!!) and a planet that was still a bit too similar to Earth.
Last night I decided to break free. I am no longer doing WWBC. I’m not waiting around for other people to tell me if my writing is good or not. ‘Cuz I know it is. You learn by doing, not by waiting. And if my writing isn’t “publishable” yet, I’d rather at least have written something than to say “well I’m waiting for the go-ahead from my crit partners.” Like I said earlier, it’s MY book. My story. No one else’s. If it sucks a-s-s, it’s mine. And if it gets published and people actually enjoy it, it’s - guess whose? - mine!
So now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some writing to do. I’ve got almost two lost months to make up for! ;-)
Friday, September 17
Do you believe in psychics?
This Monday night, my friend and I went to see a psychic. It was my third time seeing one, and I was a little nervous. I’m very shy around total strangers for one. Then there's the fact that I was going to listen to someone I'd never met tell me things that may (or may not) happen to me in the future. It’s kinda freaky, if you believe. And I’m not saying I believe that all psychics are right about everything they tell you. Obviously some psychics are full of sh*t, and have their manipulative ways to figure out what the right things to tell you are.
I do believe that some people have a power, though. A sixth sense maybe. They can’t predict the winning lotto numbers (or there’d be a hell of a lot more rich psychics out there!), but they can get a feeling for future events. That’s just my opinion of course. I know many people have many different thoughts about psychics, but fortunately that’s not what this post is about lol.
The psychic told me a lot of things on Monday night that really rang true. He mentioned my financial trouble. (Yes, I know the economy sucks and almost everyone is having financial trouble now. But I have over 10k in credit card debt, which not everyone else can say.) He said starting next year things will get better and I’ll slowly start to claw my way out of it (fingers crossed). He told me that he sees a lot of doors opening for me in the next few months. He said I have a lot of things going on that I need to focus on.
He told me I have a big decision to make soon regarding my career. (For those who don’t know, I was laid off from my job at the end of July. I’m still unemployed. I did some research into freelance writing full-time, but I don’t think it’s for me. Now I need to teach myself Quickbooks so I can hopefully get a job in bookkeeping, b/c I don’t want to go back to being a lowly administrative assistant.) He also said that he sees angels watching over me (that part I’m not so sure about but who knows).
The best part of this, of course, was that he said my writing is going to work out. He said he could see me at a book signing. He asked how old I was (32) and he said he thinks I will be either 35 or 37. He described the cover of my book to me – black with swirls (like dust swirls from rings around planets) and a big red star right in the middle. He also said he saw me writing paranormal and sci-fi, and I admitted I am working on a sci-fi romance at the moment. Pretty freaking cool.
So whaddya you guys think? Think there might be a spark of truth to what he told me? Or do you think he was full of dog crap? If any of you reading this have been to a psychic before, I’d love to hear what you thought of it. (Even if you hated it and felt the person was a total rip off.) Let me know your thoughts!
I do believe that some people have a power, though. A sixth sense maybe. They can’t predict the winning lotto numbers (or there’d be a hell of a lot more rich psychics out there!), but they can get a feeling for future events. That’s just my opinion of course. I know many people have many different thoughts about psychics, but fortunately that’s not what this post is about lol.
The psychic told me a lot of things on Monday night that really rang true. He mentioned my financial trouble. (Yes, I know the economy sucks and almost everyone is having financial trouble now. But I have over 10k in credit card debt, which not everyone else can say.) He said starting next year things will get better and I’ll slowly start to claw my way out of it (fingers crossed). He told me that he sees a lot of doors opening for me in the next few months. He said I have a lot of things going on that I need to focus on.
He told me I have a big decision to make soon regarding my career. (For those who don’t know, I was laid off from my job at the end of July. I’m still unemployed. I did some research into freelance writing full-time, but I don’t think it’s for me. Now I need to teach myself Quickbooks so I can hopefully get a job in bookkeeping, b/c I don’t want to go back to being a lowly administrative assistant.) He also said that he sees angels watching over me (that part I’m not so sure about but who knows).
The best part of this, of course, was that he said my writing is going to work out. He said he could see me at a book signing. He asked how old I was (32) and he said he thinks I will be either 35 or 37. He described the cover of my book to me – black with swirls (like dust swirls from rings around planets) and a big red star right in the middle. He also said he saw me writing paranormal and sci-fi, and I admitted I am working on a sci-fi romance at the moment. Pretty freaking cool.
So whaddya you guys think? Think there might be a spark of truth to what he told me? Or do you think he was full of dog crap? If any of you reading this have been to a psychic before, I’d love to hear what you thought of it. (Even if you hated it and felt the person was a total rip off.) Let me know your thoughts!
Sunday, September 5
Check out my new blog layout!
I've made a few changes to the layout (as I'm sure you can see, this background is quite different from my previous pink one!). Next will be changes to content. But until then, let me know what you think of the new look!
P.S. Work on my actual website is soon to start! I am talking to a web designer about how much I need her to do vs. how much I can logically handle myself (in terms of how much HTML / CSS I need to know). I am very excited! :)
P.S. Work on my actual website is soon to start! I am talking to a web designer about how much I need her to do vs. how much I can logically handle myself (in terms of how much HTML / CSS I need to know). I am very excited! :)
Thursday, September 2
I'm still here! and a REALLY funny article
No progress on the website yet, but maybe this weekend depending on the weather. Earl will be passing my way, but since I'm on the west end of Long Island I probably won't end up with more than just a rainy day.
I usually don't share articles and such on here, but this one I read today had me laughing my ASS off. I'm not sure how many non-NYers will appreciate the humor. I know some people think of the Big Apple as some glamorous place that they're dying to visit one day. Others think of it as a scary place where insane people run loose on the streets, and crime is completely and utterly out of control. To be honest, it's not really either of those. What it is is overpopulated and overtaxed. And, well, ok, you're right - full of crazies.
8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live
I usually don't share articles and such on here, but this one I read today had me laughing my ASS off. I'm not sure how many non-NYers will appreciate the humor. I know some people think of the Big Apple as some glamorous place that they're dying to visit one day. Others think of it as a scary place where insane people run loose on the streets, and crime is completely and utterly out of control. To be honest, it's not really either of those. What it is is overpopulated and overtaxed. And, well, ok, you're right - full of crazies.
8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live
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