writerfangirl

I really, really want to get this started already. I have a bunch of characters and I want to see what they're all going to do. I should work out a little more on backgrounds, getting them a little more rounded. Tomorrow I'll make index cards for everybody.

I feel like this is my year. Finally! I also feel like the writing will actually be interesting (to me) and it won't sound like me just whining through the main char. I have ten lead voices that I am going to be drawing from, so there is a bit of diversity there. They each have their things going on. I like the underlining connection between all of them too. I need to start reading my book about that, too.

Things to do: October, 24th, 2010:

~ Finish reading Sera Beak's book The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark (this book is amazing, just fyi. Her website is pretty incredible. I recommend checking out the cast of her movie. Particularly Gabrielle Bernstein, the Urban Angel of Transformation She looks like Hayden Panettiere in some of those pics. Crazy! And I need her book too.)

~ Start reading book for major plot point in my NaNo story.

~ Creativity Coaching. I haven't mentioned it here, but I am studying to be a creativity coach. As a creativity coach-in-training, I am offering free coaching sessions (by e-mail) to anybody who wants them. If you need a sounding board, a cheerleader, a seasoned writer to give you some advice about NaNo or writing in general, I might be able to help you. Leave a message here or PM me your e-mail and we will talk. :D

~ Work out character cards. Front and back, I fill up every bit of space. :D

~ Start cleaning room. My focus in there is to figure out what stuff I am going to sell, throw away, or give away. This ties into the following two points:

~ NaNoWriMo Funraising I set up a gifttool a couple of days ago. You can find me HERE. I've put some offerings up there, including a Follow Friday Shoutout, you naming one of my characters, and a picture edit for you. Not to mention I am going to do a drawing for some of the prizes that NaNoWriMo will be giving me for fundraising. I want to share the wealth. Now how things tie to my room cleaning is that I am going to be finding fandom stuff to auction off. One thing I know for certain I will be auctioning off is a shirt that Milo Ventimiglia wore in the movie Gamer. Yeah, THAT shirt.

~ NaNo Book Drive. I have a ton of books, and most likely some I don't want/need anymore. So those I will be giving to the Los Angeles NaNo group for the book drive we are doing. My loss is someone else's gain. \o/ And my gain is a less messy room! Woot!

~ Get my blog posted. I have my very first pro blog post nearly done. Just gotta kick myself into gear and finish the editing. But it is coming over to Writing the Path.

I feel like I am forgetting something, but darn if I remember what that is. Ack! I think that's good. If I remember something, I'll tack it on later. :D

I hope everybody has a good Sunday! And Monday!

I wrote six pages: three pages for the morning pages written this morning and three pages in response to day 1's prompt--allegory. To be honest, I groaned when I read I had to write an allegory. I didn't want to do it. I found myself partly closing, but it was the prompt and I had to read it. So I did and I got three pages. I surprised myself by writing a story and being creative. Right now, I'm really heavily drawing from my life. That won't always be the case and I am really looking forward to that time.

I didn't want to have a day spent at home, as past Januarys have gone. Instead, I went out with my friend leadaisy. We hit the Waffle, in Hollywood, first and then went to Pasadena. I was so sure that Vroman's was going to be open, but alas they were not. What we did see was a bunch of trash lining Colorado Blvd on either side, outside closed stores. A few hours after the Rose Parade ended and it was already empty. I actually didn't see any of the parade today. That has to be a first for me. I'm not so inclined, either. I could take it or leave it. From Pasadena, we went to the mall. I made a Borders trip in Hollywood and at the mall and between those two bookstores, I came home with three books and three journals. One book I will start when I get up: The Writer's Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules For Mastering Your Craft. I liked the layout and I thought it had some handy points to be made. I look forward to breaking into that.

I surprised myself in my Morning Pages when I wrote down a few ideas for fiction stories I want to try; one story is a fanfic and the other is an original piece. I don't want to tackle those now, but at some point later. It doesn't seem to take a lot of effort to brainstorm for writing fiction. Did I really forget so easily? I also plan to go back to an original story idea I was playing with. I'll be brainstorming on that today, I think. The other two pieces are much shorter while this one is going to last a little while. But a piece is a piece. And if I complete one, more the better. It has been ages since I have ever completed any pieces. I don't make myself. And, sometimes, I don't even let myself start. But I know that you won't accomplish anything if you don't start. If you start something, finish it, then maybe it will work, or maybe it won't. But if you don't even start something, it won't work. It's that simple. I would like to give myself more of a chance. Heck, maybe I'll get something out of the very attempt of trying.

There was a book that I was looking at that I didn't pick up today that I might at a later point. I remember it is the companion book to Write. but other than that...I don't remember the author, even. I've checked Amazon.com. The writer is Karen E. Peterson and the companion book is The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer's Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan. There is one exercise Peterson had where you write the answer to a question with your non-dominant hand. I imagine it is to see if your brain hemispheres think differently. I have read that they do think independently of one another. And if there is a disconnect, then you would have two distinct personalities vying for control of one body. I think I might get something from my right hand that I hadn't even thought I would think about. Maybe something like that one style of writing, like...it isn't ghost writing. But the idea is that your tapping into a presence that isn't your own. I've always been scared about trying that. Scared about what would turn out, so I haven't even tried that. I've seen a book somewhere on that too, but I didn't give it a great deal of thought. Maybe in the future I'll check that out, but I have enough on my plate right now than to get into that too. One change at a time.

And another book I want to check out is Fear of Writing. This writer seems quite accessible to readers. She also holds monthly 10K days. Her next two will be the 14th and 23rd. I will definitely be signing up for both of those. I am not going to turn down a shot at 20k words in just two days. I want to get as much writing done as possible in the least amount of time possible. I know I don't have to work that hard, but I have gone so long not asking very much of myself that I want to change that.
( Thoughts on teachers and teaching )

I will start the Artist's Way tomorrow. I'm going to figure out my word count at the end of the week. I'd like to have about 7,000 words. I'm not going to worry about word count, though. I'm just going to write.

I think I may do a photograph a day, too. For today's photograph then, here is the aftermath of the 2010 Rose Parade: