Category: Writer

Sometimes…

That word – along with other qualifiers like maybe and perhaps – make it into my notes a lot. Like I can’t make it an absolute for some reason. Always and never are rarely in there. I wonder, occasionally (See?), if that is so I can maneuver in a world or a story that I haven’t gotten into very well just yet.

I’ve been noticing it, so it might also be changing. Change is like that. You see it, you decide whether or not to keep it. Self-awareness can be that trigger for a new habit, or to break an old one.

Not everyone works that way. I notice, and I watch them. I was gifted Harriet the Spy when I was about seven years old, and I loved that book. I think that might have been a reason why I couldn’t be found without a notebook for, like, well, all my life. Paper and a pen are usually at hand, even when I have moved many of my writing activities into more digital formats.

That, at least, is not a habit I’m trying to break. Paper and pen are useful, even though we have hand-held computing devices barely imaginable in my childhood. A smart phone is one thing, and paper allows imagination in an entirely different way.

I read this meme on Holly Jahangiri’s FB page, and it’s spot-on. And then I wonder, we take away the humanity of so many people through stereotypes, slurs, and villainization. Yet we give it to Alix AI as if it deserves it when other humans don’t. There’s a story in this for me somewhere, but it hasn’t come out yet.

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No Blank Pages

At least, not for a moment. I printed everything I wrote in this series in the last couple months and I’m reading it, making notes, getting ready for that next draft. When I started, I found a few little things. I’m more than halfway through book 1 now, and I’m getting the reminder I needed to bring that forward in the other books. I have figured out I love the word ‘still’, among other things, and my notes are including things that didn’t happen as well as things that still need to happen. (Yeah, there it is again.)

I’m glad I tailored this first book the way I did, and took away a bit of the complexity. Sadly I love big complex story lines. I love the struggle of getting the pieces together in an outline and then on the draft pages. I do not love how long it takes me to get a finished project. What I tell myself is that if I keep working on it, I’ll find the process – and I know it is getting better.

In the first book, the mechanic (Uehe) keeps upgrading the ship and causing delays. Lorelei (captain) asks. “Uehe, how much time do you need by for the life support? Best and worst case?”

Uehe smoothed his fur. “Best case, end of the day. Worst case never.”

“Never?” Lorelei sat down on the bench behind her.

While she takes this pretty well, the mechanic gets everyone off the ship until he fixes it. It gives them time to see this planet (or at least the city they landed in) before they’re back to their breakneck pace. There’s nothing quite like a deadline that you’re not sure you can make but you need to or everything gets much worse.

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The End of NaNo

At least for this year. I didn’t expect to write this many words. I didn’t expect to have my project split into two pieces. I definitely didn’t expect my characters to take a vote to not follow my outline anymore. However, I’m pretty excited with how these things did turn out. I’m really excited that I’m going to hit the end of the novel tonight.

Even the NaNoWriMo site has a link that says, “Now What?”

For me, I know what I’m going to be doing. I’m translating this into a workable schedule. I spent an amount of time that I felt I could continue into December. I’ve been working to update my media presence and I have one more book in the queue to be available in December. I averaged about 4000 words per day during NaNo, plus I was working to preplan the next stage.

As for the series I’m working on, I have Book One, Novella, Book Two, and where it ends I have to think. I had Book Two taking on several things that didn’t actually happen as I thought it would, and so Book Three may be on the horizon, and it might have a few other things happening in the middle. I need to add at least one more novella to the saga because the villains of Book One changed, and they give another layer to where the book actually ended up. I also have several other pieces I could write, and from here I’d need to take a few minutes and write out the parts I want to write at the moment. Book Two was supposed to have a brilliant mad scientist involved, and so far he’s been absent. The other thing I need to remember is that a bunch of relationships changed during this project and that will shape how the next piece falls out. Mr. Mad Scientist Dude might just get his own novella/novel alongside his hero, who came up more often because of his own great and terrible creations.

This is the joy of writing, editing, and discovering. This is also one reason I’m so happy running around the galaxy with these not-so-intrepid adventurers. There’s simply no end. Maybe because I don’t want it to end. I just can’t wait to share all of this with you!

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Hello, 2023.

I took time off to be with my family while they were home. My husband isn’t quite sure what to do – today is his 18th day off in a row (extra vacation – use it or lose it) and he goes back tomorrow, along with the kids. I’ve seen so many memes about coming in, being quiet, and nobody yelling that this is your year, but being the best version of myself isn’t claiming anything about the year.

There’s a quiet time for me between Winter Solstice and the new calendar year. I often choose a new notebook and find some goals I’m ready to work on, whether they’re new or not. Writing always makes that list, no matter what I did the year before.

I joined 750words in 2011. In the last 12 years, I’ve written over 4 million words, and that’s just what was tracked on the site. There are usually blog posts, handwritten ideas, and all sorts of rewrites that aren’t tracked. I learned a lot. For 2022, it was around 252,000 words, and I didn’t write in March. (Mom died, and before that I traveled a lot to see her in hospice. It’s very difficult to give myself permission not to do my words, but this was the time it was appropriate.)

Within my projects during 2022, I had a story published. I have a couple stories out for consideration, and I managed a decent rewrite of the first book in the space western series. I also had a couple other ideas for extended series or novella length works. I’m hoping to continue the series and see how many others I can develop.

While I’m still working on my revised goals for the year, I’m going to start the second book rewrite as well as a short story this week (the one I didn’t finish by the 31 Dec deadline). I have my new notebook lined up, and I’m excited to see what happens with both of the projects. By the time I finish one of them, I’ll have another to work on. Some of you know my love of paper – so my project binder as well as this year’s notebook are below.

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Home From the Reunion

It might seem odd to some, that I went to a high school reunion this weekend for a school from which I didn’t technically graduate. However, I moved there for the last bit of third grade and stayed to the end of tenth grade, and we were more well-known to each other than I could manage from any other school I attended K-12. (There were six others. It’s probably a wonder I managed to stay in one place so long.)

It was disappointing that more of my classmates couldn’t make it, but I was pleased to see some of our elementary school teachers. One fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teacher were in attendance, only one of them still a full-time teacher. I suppose that ought to remind me how long ago elementary school was. While I wasn’t in that particular fourth grade section, I had both the others.

When I saw them (and it took a little bit for us to recognize each other), I remembered how many stories I made them sit and read through in my journal at the time. I always wanted to be a writer. It wasn’t understood to me at the time that I was a writer – one who writes. I filled the journal even then at different paces, some days filling in pages with my messy scrawl and others barely the minimum requirement. I don’t think they watched me too much on the minimum. I’m glad I got the chance to thank them for reading all that stuff I was so intent on spinning out.

Have you thanked a teacher lately? Especially one who took the time to encourage you when you were younger and make sure you weren’t so overwhelmed or lost that you gave up entirely? I know a lot of people think about teachers not as people but as little units of things that ought to get done. Perhaps it just seems that way during union talks or when there are cuts or something like No Child Left Behind. (Don’t get me started on that one.) Are there teachers out there you remember who helped you out? Who gave you something interesting to look forward to?

They hadn’t heard I was a published author now. Sometimes word travels slow, even in the small towns where I once attended a school that only seems familiar to the locals. Perhaps they’ll carry the word onward to the others who might have taught me. My former classmates got to see The Art of Science, too. Some of them have kids that age already, which is hard for me to imagine, since mine are 2.5 and forthcoming.

I’m really glad I went to the reunion. Despite my missing classmates, I did get to catch up with a few I really wanted to see. And here’s to all the rest who perhaps missed me there, and maybe I’ll catch them in another five years or more.

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