Home 2019 April

Month: April 2019

Chasing Productivity

Life is much easier if you plan ahead, I’ve discovered on any number of occasions. I’m trying to do it more consistently, so I did make a plan for this blog post. My idea was to blog about an app, Productivity Challenge Timer. I’ve had it on my phone for–probably years? I’d never used it. For one, I was amused by my title of “Unrepentant Slacker” when I opened it. For two, I didn’t know how to use it. For three, I didn’t want to get yelled at by a big guy with a hammer. On Saturday, though, I went looking for a Pomodoro timer bc my phone timer is loud and I can’t change the sound to something less jarring. Since some of the stuff I need to time requires me to move around, online ones just aren’t as useful as I’d like. So I bounced around a bit looking at reviews, searched “productivity” in the Play Store, and wandered across “already installed!” Oh. Right. That thing. While I love to find new useful things (and imagine that FINALLY I have found the magic spell to Fix All!), I also dislike putting apps on my phone. I don’t want it to be so full it doesn’t work well, and I begrudge granting one more set of permissions because lork knows who’ll be looking at my stuff next…and I needed to figure something out and get to work, before I spent the whole day looking at productivity apps and then…

Continue reading

When I’m Not Writing…

I get twitchy. Out of sorts. Ideas feel like they are going to explode out of me if I don’t get them down on the screen. It’s just not pretty. There have been a few times when I stopped writing regularly. Once was after my first ankle surgery, where I didn’t touch the computer for a week. Another, which I’ve talked about at great length, was due to the trigeminal neuralgia attacks and not being able to concentrate. I could write around 100 words a day (and I did, resulting in this) but while it felt good, it also felt like not enough. I need to be able to immerse myself in the world and characters of a story. I need momentum. I depend on it, actually, to keep me moving. I can rack up quite a few words even at 500 words a day if I do it every single day. Let’s talk about the last time I wrote anything regularly. That was the Fireborn revision back in December, which required some rewrites, but not a whole lot. There was my antho story, Of Poison and Promises. The anthology released in March. I’ve also finished my online serial, Sun Touched, and I just need to revise the last installment before posting it on May 1st. I did write a bit on Oubliette, an older novel, but for only two days. And last week, I started book #3 of my Reaper Girl Chronicles, The Vanishing. The muse/right brain/writer brain is…

Continue reading

Playing Around

Hi, friends! I hope you’re having a lovely Tuesday! (Also, I was looking at my post from last month talking about how nothing was a catastrophe, and then three days later I had a car accident. Still not a catastrophe, but March was really determined to make life hard.) It’s always interesting to write these posts each month, because it is only once a month, and it’s hard to remember what I was talking about, and because Siri, Erin, and KD have come in and talked about different stuff. Do I build off of the other posts? Do I wander off on my own? But anyway. 2019 has been a year of exploration, for the most part. Aside from the anthology, most of what I’ve been working on has been trying new things. I think this is an important part of creativity, really, to help you think of new things and give your brain a workout. Plus I was feeling a little discouraged and burned out, and having fun doing new things always helps. So, what am I working on? Children’s books of all shapes and sizes, from picture books to chapter books. Mostly just playing around, but writing some. Nonfiction books and potentially video classes Workbooks and journals Writing a book to a new technique from a class I’m taking Drabbles just to drabble New genres It’s a bit freeing, though I will admit I feel a little guilty about not working on any “serious” projects, though the story…

Continue reading

My Writing Process

So last time I talked about how writing wasn’t fun anymore. I’m still working on that problem, most recently by writing flash fiction (very very short stories). Just the other day, I finally submitted a flash fiction story that I’m happy with. Even though it’s less than 300 words, my process for that story was kind of a microcosm of my process for longer stories as well. So I thought I’d share… Step 1. Decide on a concept to write about. In this case, I was writing something to submit to a themed anthology with some specific parameters. I’ve done that before with some success–even if I don’t end up submitting to the particular anthology that sparked the idea, it helps kick-start my brain. Other times, I’ve started with a one-line “what if” idea. Step 2. Brainstorm several different stories based on that initial concept. This stage often involves research. The idea here is that whatever I come up with first is probably also what other writers will think of first, so I need to keep brainstorming until I find something more interesting or unusual. Step 3. Write an exploratory draft based on one of those story ideas, with more research as needed. At short-story length, I don’t outline much (if it’s flash fiction, not at all). I just throw a bunch of ideas on the page and see what sticks. By the end of the draft, I’ll have a clearer idea of what I was trying to do with…

Continue reading

Curiosity Killed the Cat – Part 3

Curiosity Killed the Cat A free fantasy serial by KD Sarge Part 3: Many Doors (Read part 1 here. Part 2 is here.) Srivasi reached for the door and hesitated. He had the right answer now, but there was no guarantee that the correct door led to safety. He looked back, and it was still dark around the corner they’d come from. He could go check, but probably the door was still closed, still hidden by the skill of its builder. Maybe he could find it and force it open, find a way to get back to the surface—and maybe he couldn’t. He wasn’t particularly eager to have the boy see him fail. If— “Oh, fine.” The boy bounced forward and yanked the door open. Leaped back, leaving Srivasi standing before the doorway alone. Only darkness flowed out. Metaphorical flowing, not real, thankfully. “Are you going to make more light?” Dasid demanded. “Or should we just stand here a while first?” Oh. He’d let his wand go out, distracted by running for his life. Srivasi thought of shoving the child through the door and holding it closed, but the boy would make noise and bring anything that might be nearby to attack. Though on the other side of the door… No. If something attacked the child, Srivasi would have to help him. Better to avoid it if he could. Srivasi sighed and lit the tip of his wand. “Huh,” Dasid said. “It looks just like where we are,” Srivasi said. “Yeah,…

Continue reading