MUGGING THE MUSE

While perusing the NaNoWriMo forums, I followed a link to HollyLisle.com to download her free PDF entitled Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money. I have completed reading said PDF and highly recommend it. My hardcopy is filled with flags and underlined passages of things to do and not to do whilst writing and things to do and not to do when I am at the stage where I will approach the traditional publishing world with my work.

Overall, her website is extremely useful, entertaining, and interesting. There are articles, workshops, podcasts, blog as well as links to her published works, both traditional and self-published.

FOCUS

As one can deduce from the current state of this blog, I have been quite involved. And while one could give me the benefit of the doubt and say I was involved with writing, I would not in good conscious be able to receive that benefit. I would also not be able to substantiate it were someone to ask for what I had been writing, so it is best not to start down that dark path of lies at all.

I am still focused on writing, or perhaps it is better to say I am once again focusing on writing. It is not that I loose focus, it is more that the focus of my attention and time shifts. I think of it as giving a full one hundred percent, compared to a few thirty-three percents and a lingering one percent that really does no good at all other than to assuage my guilt over almost utterly ignoring some aspect of my life.

BUD SKETCHES II

I wish to publicly thank all those involved with the creation of the Internet, email, and providing online service to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, for you have allowed me to remain in contact with my illustrator during my holiday.

I received several sketches and page layouts for Bud the Bunny today. I sit before my screen in awe. Once again reminded of how I should never attempt to illustrate anything on my own. Ever.

I provided feedback, and now must wait for the next set of thumbnails of page sketches, which are due at his discretion, prior to the August 16th deadline. Which means I should occupy myself and not check email twice a day in anticipation of more artwork.

MISSING MIDDLES

In order to create a truly spectacular middle that will match the superlative standard set by the great beginning and glorious ending that already exist, I will not be submitting an entry to the FenCon Short Fiction Contest*.


* i.e. There are too few hours left to write and accomplish tasks that must be done and said tasks (e.g. laundry, packing for a convention, day job) are, unfortunately, of a higher priority than writing. Joyful be the time in my life when such is not the case.

HAZARDS - PART III

While writing tonight I was overwhelmed with emotion at a piece of dialog and cried. It surprised me. Upon re-reading what had been written, I realized how close it was to my truth, how much of me lay bare upon the computer screen.

Thus another hazard of being a writer comes to light - thou art fair fodder for the fertile mind. All writers are told to "Write what you know" and ideally, one should know oneself best. Therefore there is some of me in each of my writings, from Bud the Bunny to Rescue Bunny and Fire Bear to Kaleidoscope to Bob of the Desert to creations that have not yet told me their name. Will others recognize the parts that are me? Will they attribute the correct aspects, think me the hero or the villain? Be amazed/shocked/worried that I could write such a thing, for to order write it I had to think it?

It is a hazard I knew I would face, yet only truly tonight felt the impact.

Just for future reference, Fire Bear is a complete concoction of my imagination, and no personal insights into my psyche should be implied. At all. Seriously.

FENCON CONTEST

I was searching for local writing groups when I found out about the FenCon Short Fiction Contest. I decided to enter, and expanded on a great beginning. Over 1,000 words in over an hour. Not completed, yet far from just started.

NaNoWriMo is a closer possibility.

GREAT BEGINNINGS

Over a year ago, my lover pointed out the website of Robert J. Sawyer. I read through several of his columns.

As a writing exercise, I practiced Great Beginnings. And discovered they are quite fun to write. And fairly easy. Without extreme effort, I had several Great Beginnings.

And today, I still have several Great Beginnings, slowly gathering dust on their little electronic sentences. I later discovered that while I can corral the occasional Great Ending, Great Middles seem to avoid me like the plague, while Mediocre Middles gather at my feet like hungry pigeons.

Therefore more writing exercise and practice is necessary, so that I may someday flow from Great Beginning to Great Ending through a Great Middle of a story.

Until then, watch your step.

733+ 5p34k

If you are an online gamer, you write and read it. If you know online gamers, you have seen it. If you are aware of the online comic/offline manga MegaTokyo, you share the culture that brought forth unto the unsuspecting masses the communication form known as "733+ 5p34k" - a replacement algorithm applied to English words that varies based on your inherent elite-ness.

While I do not consider myself 744+ in many aspects of my life, my alter ego is held by some to have m4d sk1llz in the artistic renditions of alternate audio and visual combinations. And it is fun to use the local lingo when conversing instantly with those who use it as a native language. How else can one feel the true emotions behind YESPLSOMG?

TTFN