Jan
24

Word Whore ~ Fox and Willow Thursday

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The theme this week on Word Whores is about taking sick days from writing – eg. if you’re sick, do you still try to make  your word count that day? Or is it a lost cause that better serves you by taking the time off and resting? I suspect there’s no right or wrong answer here – it’s really down to the individual and the situation. That said, I’m definitely not a fan of beating myself up over not being able to get something done because my head’s on fire. No sense in playing a martyr – it becomes tiresome after a while, so I usually try to just make a decision and stick with it. Makes the guilt that much easier to deal with if I’m not going to get a word count in that day. New Fox & Willow up today too, so go check that out.  🙂… Read more
Jan
22

Word Counts

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I tend to make a big deal when I hit the 50k mark of a WiP – even though in means I’ve still got a long way to go. It’s a mental hurdle though, because it usually means I’m hitting that half-way mark. It’s all downhill from here. (Although in this case I’m not sure it is, but I’ll pretend it is, for the sake of argument. In truth, I think I’m aiming for another 70k, but I also need to leave some room for editing – there’s a lot of world building additions that are going to need be added/smoothed out, many of which I’m thinking about as I go.) But it’s nice to get there either way. I’ve got an actual story in play now, with plots and characters that I’m getting to know, so that always makes the rest of it a bit less intimidating than the… Read more
Jan
21

Discorama

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Ha ha. Not quite. The lateness of this particular post is due to the fact that, yes, it would appear my discogram revealed I’ve got something wrong with my discs. Of course, I have to wait until the doctors give us the report, but if I had to guess, it’s a pretty safe bet there’s a few tears involved. I tried looking at the image cd, but…yeah. I can tell you which disc is the winner, but I can’t actually read the thing. Go figure. Anyway, although discograms on normal discs aren’t particularly painful (aside from the fact that they’re sticking a needle INTO your discs and injecting them full of fluid), when they hit discs that are torn, it definitely causes a nice inflammatory response. Hence me currently being on my third painkiller of the day. I also haven’t written anything today, though perhaps I should. Who knows what… Read more
Jan
18

Moving Right Along…

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The last few days have been a bit crazy at home – we’ve been checking out potential private schools for the kids, so that’s taken some time. Not sure if we’re going to send them or not, for a number of reasons, but both the DH and I agree that what the kids are currently learning in the public school is pretty awful. I get that teachers have very little control over the curriculum – they have to teach to the SOL tests so that the schools continue to retain funding, but it’s a shit system. Basic stuff like grammar and spelling have completely fallen by the wayside. For kids who pick writing/reading up naturally that may not be such a big deal, but I’m getting a first-hand look at how much of a disservice this is when I read some of essays that are coming home. To complicate matters,… Read more
Jan
15

Keeping Track

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There was a Tumblr post going around on New Year’s about making some sort of “good things” jar. The idea was you were supposed to write down something good that happened to you (or a happy thought or whatever) on a piece of paper every day and put it in the jar. At the end of the year you get to sift through the jar and remember all your blessings. It’s a pretty cool idea – and I debated doing it. Even went so far as to clean out a jar and get it ready, but that’s about as far as it went. Not sure why. It’s not that I can’t think of happy/good things that happened on a given day, though I definitely think that sometimes we tend to take many of those things for granted. It’s probably not a bad thing to try to focus on them more… Read more