We hear about how zombies are over and how fairy tales are in, we hear about agents and we worry about if we can one day sell the thing we have scarcely typed five paragraphs of. We ought never end a sentence with the word of. Or to. Or with. We think we should write … More Month Twelve Reflections: Write What You Write
I wanted this to be another inspirational blog post. I did. I wanted to sit down and write something that would lift up the spirits of all my fellow NaNoWriMo participants. But I also am having difficulty myself, and I don’t want to do the disservice of making this all look easy. It isn’t. Writing … More Magic, do as you will
(Why are you reading blogs? Go write! ) When I was younger, I spent a lot of my time (13 years) involved with all things theater. Acting in, writing, and directing plays all taught me a lot about storytelling, and about writing. Playwriting and screenwriting is writing distilled down to an impressive science; instead of … More NaNoWriMo Tips: stage directions and other lessons from script writing
October was a wild ride, and this ending feels hard won. There was the loss of irowboat's cat Felix, the win of the NaNoWriMo post, the daily life in-betweens of it all, and working in the words wherever they fit. The anticipation of November has hung on us all heavily, and today it is here. … More Ten Down, Three to Go! With other thoughts.
Only two days ago, I carried wine to my car in the snow. The cold air here is whistling down the neck of still-musty coats retrieved from storage boxes, leaves skitter in the wind, and a pumpkin late graces my writing time instead of coffee. Yes, NaNoWriMo is nearly here. No matter how prepared or … More NaNoWriMo Prep: Step Away
Written by irowboat I was going to respond this comment from dawnstarpony, but it ran considerably long, and PartlyPixie made me turn it into a post. dawnstarpony asked: Do you consider character planning/-izing/character personality sheets as outlining and wasting time? I’ve encountered two general populations of writers when it comes to characters: Those who are … More Guest Post: Your character may be a mugger if…
Sometimes, it is impossible to get started. We sit at the paper or computer, and as soon as we clear some mental space for ourselves and look for what we want to say, our minds crowd with The List. You know The List. It's a demonic little thing that pops up and tells us all … More Unstuck: Do Something Else
It is day four of October, and while I have done very well blogging every day, I have not yet chosen which story to write this month. Choosing what to write has become the bit I dislike the most. It has a certain freedom and excitement to it, true, and I like the sudden openness … More My Trouble at the Starting Line
Thanks to dawnstarpony, I have been ruminating a great deal on stuckness (a word I will need to teach my iPad, because I will be using it a lot), and the unsticking and how we get stuck. And as a result, I hope to have a very good deal of posts about writing and getting … More You tell me: What Makes You Stuck?
Ash rained from the sky today. It stuck to my windshield wipers and my hair, and collected on the blacktop like sinister snow. The air smells of smoke, a friendly kind of smoke that reminds me of hot dogs and blackened marshmellows melting squares of Hershey's. But this isn't campfire smoke. It is the smell … More A Burning Metaphor
Concerning History in the Atlantic World, 1680-1740
The long haul of the spectrum
one woman's thoughts about life on the spectrum
Japanese pop culture through a feminist lens
The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja. 