It's About Time

No, I'm not counting my words

2008-11-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

Writing Prompts

2006-01-02T16:49:00.000-08:00

Through a yahoo writing group, the writer's covey, I found this link
Creative Writing Prompts

Looks like some pretty good prompt exercises.

And another Writing Prompt site.

Plot-O-Matic

2005-12-30T03:15:00.000-08:00

Cerulean Sky
an original screenplay concept
by Aurora Kamber

Comedy: A struggling artist teams up with a cute dog named Jake to solve the perfect crime. In the process they fall in love with a rookie cop. By the end of the movie they run away from 3 bad guys and end up winning the admiration of their co-workers, living happily ever after.

Think Gone With the Wind meets Out of Africa.

Well, that was fun. Want a plot of your very own. Call on Plot-O-Matic.

Up really early this morning which means I will be ready for a nap about the time I should be at my most productive. Ha. More decluttering and cleaning with a bit of yard work throw in is on my plate for today.

I am working on a list of writing goals for 2006. I need a better plan than I had this last year. Occasionally, working on my novel while procastinating until November, for NaNo is, well, just stupid. And no one, not even me, should ever accuse me of being stupid.

Writing Goals

Set aside a block of time to write. Minimum 15 minutes with 1 hour on Fri, Sat,& Sun
Journal everyday.
When "writing", stop editing...just write
Get back in the habit of going to writer's group.
Post on farm blog or here more often.

Submit at least one short story or article.

That should be "do able" enough to "not give up" come mid January. Those intertwined with my personal and art goals should keep me pretty darn busy.

Well Crap!!!

2005-12-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

Didn't make the 50K this year! November has to be the worse month for this! I might just have to wait until I retire to officially complete this challenge.

I can hear November calling

2005-07-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

I have been working on my book bit by bit as time permits. Not even close to being finished.

But last night I kept writing this scene opening in my dreams:

The sea water lapped against the sides of the small wooden boat. A row boat or dingy as most would call it. My family, different as usual, called these vessels a dinky. The consistent soft water pat was soothing as I lay feet to bow, my head supported by the well worn planking of the seat at the stern. The oars safely tucked in around my hips I watched huge clouds dance across the cerulean sky.

"...a dingy as most would call it. My family, different as usual, called it a dinky"

Somewhere I have to work this in... calling a dingy a dinky is what kept repeating in my tossing and turning.

Okay it needs work. I really need to learn more about parts of boats. I think the oars would be longer than to have the paddle part at my hips...

Anyway just wanted to get that down before I forgot it. No idea where it is going.

That's the fun part.

2004-11-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

4160 Words and I actually wrote some dialog... between Lena, Helena, Meg's older sister and Maggie, Lena's friend.

I didn't have a chance to write a single word yesterday. I am falling behind by half or more, so alot of catching up to do this week. I should be at about 13,360 based on 1670 words a day. Oh well, I will just keep plugging away. I still hope to get to 5000 tonight, but I have to get up off this chair. After sitting all day at the computer at work it is hard to set here at night, too. So I will get out my notebook and write in it for a couple of hours. Then all I have to do is type it. And word count it.

2004-11-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

3215 been busy I have...

just getting ready to introduce the "love interest" for Meg or will it be Lena's love interest? Such decisions...

2004-11-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

2887 moving along quite nicely. I have stopped editing as I go and just letting the thoughts flow. Right now I have yet to write the description of the MC (main character) that is the "1st person, Lena" the one that is "writing" or the "I", in this ordeal, but everything is flowing so well that I hate to stop and do a detailed description of her, when the description really needs to go in a different place. Much earlier on... oh well

2004-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

2243 Words

I really spent too much time doing research tonight and not enough time typing. And then when I did get to the writing part and spent to much time editing. I need to continue to just type, type, type, and let the ideas flow out on to the page. I can edit later.

Meg has 2 brothers and a sister, the sister is going to be the one writing Isle of Hope, so there will be 1st person and 3rd person. Which seems to be flowing well so far... and for another excerpt:

Our mother, an avid reader while pregnant, named me while she read Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Helena, or Lena, for short. We always shorten up our names before we started school. I went through a short period of time, most of 4th and 5th grade, only answering to Helena, usually waiting till whoever was calling me to say it twice. She was reading The Ambassadors, by Henry James, so that is how Chadwick got his name. By the time mother was carrying Bart, her literary choices were quite different, and we were just 4 and 2 years old. So he is named for Dr Suess’s Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We weren’t sure what name mother would choose for the gift baby, we all called Meg the gift baby because mother muttered “the gift baby several times a day”. By this time mother's reading material was almost non existent, but she sure managed to eat a lot of rocky road ice cream, which the mail boat brought over a half gallon every day for months. Plus, mother always had an orange, frothy concoction in a clear, cut crystal goblet, that she called my mimosa, but I knew there wasn’t any champagne in it. Mom was strictly a teetotaler, until at 40 she found herself gifted with another pregnancy, then she carried the goblet and a pitcher or thermos filled with the mimosa mixture with her everywhere. Chad and I were betting on Rocky, or perhaps, Mimi if a girl was born. I don’t think there was a reason for the name Meg, but at least she didn’t have to shorten her name.

So now I have the siblings, Lena, Chad, Bart, and Meg. I also have Chad and Bart's Family and occupations and more, but I am not posting everything. I think this could really turn out well. Heck I am even thinking a trilogy... Wait how many words again?

2004-11-02T20:41:00.000-08:00

1454 Words

This is amazing how this is turning out. What had started out, 1000 words ago, to just be an exercise in trying to write something and make it to 50,000 words is actually turning into something.

Isle of Hope

Meet Meg:

Meg is 5’9’’ taller than most of the women on the Isle who tend to run closer to 5’2 with the eyes of blue. Her eyes are a greenish blue or a bluish green; hard to pinpoint their exact color, her father always said the moods of the sea were mirrored in her eyes. She is fair of face, with an oval shape, no freckles, beauty marks, or little moles. Well-shaped brows, oddly enough natural, tweezers never having plucked a single hair. Nose as cute as the proverbial button. Her lips full, the bottom being the fuller of the two. A dimple, when she smiled, on the right side, with just a hint of one on the left. A sable mane of hair, laced with chestnut strands, cascaded almost to her waist. Pleasantly, buxom and curvy, by the mainland’s standards, some would consider her a BBW, a very attractive one, who would turn heads and be paid quite a nice sum to become a plus-size model.

I love her already!!! Oh and wait till you meet her love interest. And her sister and Nadine, the postmaster, errr mistress.

I still can't decide whether the parents are living or dead. I guess I will figure that out eventually.

Oh and Meg is a potter.

Off to figure out how to post word count on NaNoWriMo site and make that little gauge thing move on that other site.

2004-11-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

480 WORDS

Good Grief, I really should have learned how to use MSWORD before I started this. Anybody know how to shut off the little green and red underlining, to double space automatically, and not have the first letter of each word on the double spaced line be a capital????

The beginning:

It was the best of times… No, can’t use that one. It was a dark and stormy night, can’t use that one either. I laughed as I lifted my fingers from the keyboard. Everyone knows the that the first sentence of a novel is the most important. That was of course only one of many reasons why I had not started writing before this day. So forget the first sentence and just start writing. Heck, I can always add a first sentence after I am finished. After all this is my book and not some assignment for “Creative Writing 101”.

2004-10-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

NaNoWriMo Nov.1-30, 2004

Last year I wanted to do this but with my mother and stepdad visiting on Thanksgiving for the last several years, me turning into a nutcase in the days and weeks leading up to their arrival. I put it off with a "maybe next year".

Since I thought I was close to having nervous breakdown last Thursday, I called my mother on Friday asking her not to come this year.

"Now, Mom. it's not you, I love you. I allow myself to have massive overdoses of anxiety preparing for your arrival. With my health issues, Mom, I have to get as much stress out of my life as I can. It's really my problem, Mom."

Plus the garage/studio is not finished,along with many other projects that keep me up at night wondering how all will get done. She mentioned a few weeks ago that she just happened to find her Mother's Day Card, where I had wholeheartedly promised to have the studio done,in writing. Yes, she actually said in writing. Like I can't take that back. In my defense that was way back in May. I had plenty of time, right? Ha, try living my life. Last year, or maybe it was 2 years ago, I painted under all the sinks, 'cause Mom had bought me all these under-the-sink storage bins during her visit. I had the entire year to get that done, she said about 3 weeks before the Thanksgiving visit for that year.)

Now it is almost November and I can't even see the floor of the garage/studio, let alone 2 out of 4 walls. Piled a little high it is.

So I will write. Go to Work. Come home. Write. Let the housework go. Drive the Kiddo here and there. Attend Playoff games. Write. Play with the dog. Return the roofing contractor's calls. Write. Fix Fence. Brush a horse. Write. We will eat Cheerios for dinner. Or waffles. Or grilled cheese. Have tea or Hot chocolate.
And I will not have a nervous breakdown.

It's about time.