Take Your Characters from Disneyland to Yarnia

(((Warning: This page contains a bazillion links)))

Hey, did you know that you can get in free to Disneyland on your birthday in 2009? Those of you with November and December birthdays just need to register for your free pass and they will send you a voucher to print and take along on your visit. Coolio! I wouldn’t mind going there to celebrate my birthday in December! [Update January 30, 2013: This offer is no longer valid through Disneyland]

This has been a rough week, but something remarkable happened to me yesterday. I received a jar of love in the mail! It was full of paper hearts, each one holding a special handwritten message. The gift made me both laugh and cry. It certainly helped me through the tail end of this crazy week. Thank you, Claudia. Be sure to visit her Love Jars Facebook page to see her beautiful work.

My husband has been away on business. Without his help to cart the kids to their extra extra-curricular activities (no, that extra extra wasn’t a typo), along with more homework than their usual amount, I’ve fallen a bit behind in my NaNaWriMo project.

((chanting to myself)) I can still catch up. I can still catch up. I can still catch up.

While I was having doubts about my story yesterday, I reminded myself that this is not the time to be questioning my story line or doing major edits. All of that will come later. Like for instance next March during National Novel Editing Month.

In the meantime, if I could only pull myself away from looking at silly cat pictures on the Internet, I might have more time to write. My characters may put me somewhere I never expected, like in Yarnia.



On another note, a good pen is hard to find … and good writers are only as good as the pens they use. Okay, well, maybe this isn’t true anymore since many writers now use computers. However, I have always treasured a good pen.

Anyway, check out this pen, which makes me salivate:

Cross Townsend, Medalist, Selectip Rolling Ball Pen, In Polished Chrome and 23 Karat Gold Plate (505)

However, if that is beyond your budget, here is something more affordable:

Pilot G2 Fine Point Rolling Ball Blue Gel Ink Pens, 2-Pack (31032)

There is no effort involved in writing with the ideal pen. Maybe that’s something I could use right now. Or maybe I could just stop messing around and get back to work.

Read more about paper and pens at Deliberate Creations.

Hey, Angels, Could You Lighten Up My Load Until After NaNoWriMo?

Wow. Has it really been that many days since I blogged? It doesn’t mean that I’ve been slacking off. Life has just been crazy.

I wondered this morning if the little angels or guides that follow me around had a meeting about me recently. I imagined it went something like this:

“She’s not getting it,” guide one said.

“Well, let’s toss some more cr*p her way,” guide two said.

“Okay, sounds like fun. Let’s see if she learns this time.”

And let me tell you, it has been a fun ride. Let me also inform you all though … I’M GETTING IT!! Do you hear me?? You can stop throwing me these situations that you call lessons.  :-)

Here’s an example. Remember that time I felt walked all over by someone? I really just had to get out and get over my feelings of unsettledness, so I went shopping. After about 30 minutes of pushing my shopping cart around - one of those deep, dark carts not a typical, wire, wide open one - I looked down to see a door mat in my cart. I mean … hello. Can you be any more obvious with your messages? I got it! So please, can’t you just be easy on me for a bit?

Whew. Okay, I’m done with that.

Now, let’s see, moving on to the subject of National Novel Writing Month.

Being that it’s November 10, I am guessing that most of you have at least started your novel. If you are still hoping, praying, and wishing for story ideas, here are some sites that I enjoy.

Writing Fix offers interactive - and fun - writing prompts. More specifically, click through on various links to find sentence makers, character descriptions, and even a title maker, to name a few. Each page offers suggestions to dump into your empty vat called a writer’s blocked brain.

Okay, this isn’t a writing site, but it might get your creative juices flowing. Or at least it’s a fun distraction from writing your novel. Mr. Picasso Head offers a blank canvas in which you can drag pre-formed facial features to create your own work of Picasso art.

One last recommendation … I absolutely adore blank books. There is something mystical about all of those bare pages waiting to be filled. Blank books are not all created equally, however. I find my hand enjoys writing in the larger sized ones. It has the perfect amount of room so my hand needn’t worry about literary abandon pen strokes or in other words, sloppy writing. Be sure and buy one which has a cover that sings to your soul.

Although these are smaller than I like, check out these beauties:

Handstiched Book of Kells Lined Generatio

Embellished Literary Manuscripts - Shakespeare

I’ve managed to keep up with my National Novel Writing Month daily goal up until now. I’d better say goodbye. I have another 1,500 words to write.

Toodles!

Vomit is No Excuse for Not Writing!

Neither are rearranged schedules, your children’s guitar lessons, or having to volunteer with 2nd graders. Or for that matter, neither are laptops that choose to crash repeatedly. When the computer misbehaves, there’s always paper and pens. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway.

I was planning on attending a local write-in last night at Borders Books. But then several things stood in my way (and gee, can you guess what they were?), so I wound up not making it to the meeting. However, it doesn’t mean I gave up on my writing. I managed to pump out enough words to stay on track and here I am, on the brink of another new day beginning, and another 1,500 words needing to be written.

Thank goodness I haven’t suffered yet from the dreaded writer’s block during this year’s NaNoWriMo. Well, at least not yet.

When writer’s block strikes, what do you do? Come on, you can tell me. I surf the web, of course, and here are some cool sites I found in my moments of distraction:

Language is a Virus – While I can’t comment on the books they have for sale because I haven’t read them, there are some fun features on this site. Not only are the photos cool, but from the home page, click on the “Writing Games” link to find everything from a Character Name Generator to a Cut Up Machine to a Title-o-Matic.

If you need practice writing without thinking, visit One Word. Not only is it a pint-sized distraction from your writer’s block, it helps to encourage thinking outside the box. Click on “go” and then you are given a mere 60 seconds to write about the word posted on the next page; it’s just plain fun. And after 60 seconds, maybe you will be re-energized enough to carry on with your National Novel Writing Month project.

Oh, oh, oh, but wait! Don’t go yet! I have to tell you about this little gem before you go. I was very excited when I found this book, which offers an idea different from any others I’ve heard before. When writer’s block strikes, use the following guide along with your Tarot deck to help shape your characters.

Okay, now get back to work!  :-)

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Yes! Day Five of National Novel Writing Month!

As I look ahead to the next few days, I feel a little nervous.

I volunteer in my son’s classroom each Thursday. Tomorrow, my kids have a minimum day at school and then it’s the weekend. So there’s that little bit of ego-voiced doubt, “Will I be able to reach my writing goal each day?”

Yes, I will! ((gulp))

I started out this year’s National Novel Writing Month limping along and then finally caught up; I’m now at 7,511 words. That’s a little beyond my goal so I have a little room on the other days to slow down. I’m quite shocked, actually, that it’s been somewhat easy to reach this point.

Anyway, I have to leave for 2nd grade soon, so I’d better say goodbye to my blog and hello again to NaNoWriMo.

Oops, before I forget. I thought I would recommend the below book even though I haven’t read it. The reviews convince me that it would be worth the time to read.

Happy Writing!

National Novel Writing Month – Day Four!

So I made good progress on my novel yesterday. I’m relieved that I made up for lost time and am nearing the 6,000 word mark. That’s what happens when I focus instead of distracting myself with Halloween candy, walking the dog, and playing on Facebook. Well, okay, I did play on Facebook a little.  :-)

I’m having a dilemma though. I wanted to write a book geared towards teenagers. When I told my daughter the story line, she liked my idea and even asked me if the main character was a teenager. It’s not. It’s a thirty-something year old. I still want it to be a teenager. However, I think I’m too far in now that if I take the time to re-write the whole introduction, I will fall behind again.

So what should I do now? (Just thinking out loud here) Oh, I know! I should at least stop distracting myself by writing this blog – and get back to work.

Happy writing!

National Novel Writing Month! The Mad Race is On!

Last year, long before November arrived, I knew I was going to start and finish National Novel Writing Month. The story line simply popped into my head one day and I managed to write the entire tale even though, upon completion, it needed major editing.

After finishing the rough draft, a friend of mine who was enrolled in an editing program, jokingly asked if she could edit my book. Wow! Talk about synchronicity! Of course I said yes! So now, one year later, my book is nearly a finished draft.

As soon as November 2009 was in sight, I resisted the urge to panic.

What can I write about, I wondered, my dilemma becoming more frantic as each October day crept by. I looked through old notebooks. I hoped for a prophetic dream. I searched the Internet for story prompts. Nothing came; but still I couldn’t give up.

And now, it’s November 2 and I’m barely putting a story together.

So what do you think? Can I do this? Am I crazy to even try now that November 3 is only two hours away?

Hmmm ... if nothing else, I can share my NaNoWriMo adventures here. And by the way, if you're registered with National Novel Writing Month, feel free to visit me there.

Do You Have the Time? Then Read My Other Blog Post!

Earlier, I mentioned that I would be posting occasionally as a guest writer on another blog. I have just posted my first one on the subject of time management ideas for busy moms and I would be ever so grateful if you would pay me a visit there.

Thanks for reading. I hope to see you again soon!

Welcome

Although I have a blog on Wordpress, I was offered the opportunity to write as a guest blogger for another site on Blogspot (which I will announce in a later post). Thus, I had to create an account here.

Initially I had the thought to carry on with the subject matter of my other blog, "How to Change your Life by Changing your Perspective." After more thought, I decided to leave the subject matter open (however, my writing does tend to stay within that positive thinking realm).

Other than blogging, I am working on two collaborative writing projects, still editing the book I wrote during National Novel Writing Month last year, and was happy to watch the performance of my play, "A Human. Being" at The Black Box Theater in West Hollywood last month. I also write for Suite101.

I hope you will visit again soon!