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Diane Burton
JH Moncrieff
Anna @ Emaginette
Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter
Erika Beebe
Lisa Buie-Collard

And here are the awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG!

Tradition #IWSG 03/04/2020

March 4, 2020 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

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Monthly Status Report

So far, it seems like 2020 is a good year for consistency, but a bad year for actual productivity. I’ve been spending most of my “writing” time on critiques and podcasts, learning and absorbing rather than doing. But I think it is all good, and useful. I think I do alternate between fallow and fertile periods, and I know I will come back to a fertile period when I am ready. I have the luxury of a day job, but at the same time, I do want to get back to it.

That said, I have a new desk with more filing cabinets (really just a board on top of the filing cabinets), and so I am looking forward to getting back to my main revision now that I have all that extra space!

Optional Monthly Question

March 4 question – Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

I feel like I have, but of course, as is often the case, I can’t think of one right now. I know in the first draft of the novel I am revising, I had two long “scenes” that I had to cut about personal things. But they were things that didn’t really belong: how I put together a jigsaw puzzle, and how I like to make my ramen. Both were long pointless passages of exposition that had nothing to do with the story, and really didn’t even give much character to my character.

I can’t really think of anything else at the moment, but I might add Mr. So to my cozy series. Mr. So was called Mr. So because my dad’s first name started with S. He is a personal family elf during Christmas time. I can’t remember all the traditions around Mr. So, but I could see adding a kind of house-fairy to my cozy series. Maybe not related to Christmas.

I think this could add a lot of flavor actually!

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Jacqui Murray
Lisa Buie-Collard
Sarah Foster
Natalie Aguirre
Shannon Lawrence

And here are the awesome co-hosts for the March 4 posting of the IWSG!

On Visual Art #IWSG 02/05/2020

February 5, 2020 By ravenofiernan 10 Comments

Monthly Status Report

I haven’t done much writing in January. I think this is rather normal, too. I am okay with it because I know that I will come back to it. That probably isn’t the right attitude for someone who wants to go pro, but I only sort of want to “go pro”, so it’s probably fine for me. I am not planning on ever quitting my day job, so I can have a more relaxed attitude towards my writing.

I’ve been doing a lot more studying and learning rather than actual production. I finished a big beta project and now I am listening to podcasts during my writing time. It will all help in the end.

Optional Monthly Question

February 5 question – Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

You know? I can’t actually remember this ever happening. I remember a news story inspiring a serial killer novel, and no, I didn’t ever finish it. And then the song “My Snow White Queen” by Evanescence inspired my Snow White fairy tale retelling, which I did finish — well, the first draft anyway — but a photo or visual art? I can’t think of one.

Which is kind of sad because I do love visual art. But I can’t think of any stories that were actually inspired by it. But now that the question has arisen, it is something I can think of when I see art. Ask my muse if there is more to the story than what I see in the image. New perspectives are always welcome!

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And here are the awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG!

Lee Lowery
Ronel Janse van Vuuren
Jennifer Hawes
Cathrina Constantine
Tyrean Martinson

Becoming a Writer #IWSG 01/08/2020

January 7, 2020 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

Monthly Status Report

As usual, December was a slow month on the writing front, but I am happy to say that there was some important progress made. First, my evening routine. My evening routine consists of doing dishes, writing down what I am going to eat the next day, and writing for at least 15 minutes. To be honest, the writing part happens more often than the other two parts, and I managed it most days this month. I had a few non-writing days, particularly due to the holidays and just feeling tired at the end of the month, but overall, this is sticking. The downside to that is that I am beta-reading another writer’s novel, and that’s what I ended up putting into the writing session slot, with the understanding that I am learning from doing the review.

The other positive this month is that, following Nano, where I routinely did 3-5 hour writing marathons (with breaks!) on Fridays and Sundays, I decided that meant I could certainly do an hour of writing in the morning on Sundays. As a result, I finished a short story, and it is out to beta readers now. It’s one I’ve been struggling with for a long time. I enjoy having this time, and I might add Friday mornings at some point, too. For reference, I work Saturdays, but don’t start work until 3pm on Mondays and 4pm on Fridays, so I do have time in the earlier part of the day.

Optional Monthly Question

January 8 question – What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just “know” suddenly you wanted to write?

This is a difficult question. I know when I was very little, if my mom went somewhere and I was home with my dad, he and I would make little picture books. I still remember Norris the Nose! These were mainly just drawings with titles, but we stapled them up and they looked rather book-like. I also made similar stories with My Little Pony stamps/stickers. So, that was pretty little.

But something changed by the time I got to third grade because there was a creative writing prompt that started, “If I ever met a ghost…” and my response was just a single end to that sentence — “it would be a nice ghost like Casper” — and there was no additional story involved. I don’t know if I just had writer’s block or if I just wasn’t interested. I know I felt extremely clever at not making the ghost scary, which is what I thought we were “supposed” to do (in retrospect, there probably wasn’t any “supposed to” — I have a tendency to assume that sort of thing and then deliberately go in the opposite direction out of perversity).

Then, in fifth grade, we had to write these letters to our parents every Friday about what happened that week. Now, there is a reason I don’t write memoir. I find my own life incredibly boring. Also, I had a good relationship with my parents and told them what I did every day at dinner. So this exercise seemed both pointless and redundant. I was watching some soap operas at the time, so I made these letters as creative as I could (I remember at least one time my teacher telling me I had to redo it because it wasn’t what really happened during the week) using characters from the soap operas and making the events seem more interesting than they really were.

By sixth grade, I was committed to writing, and have been writing off and on (some periods in my life, like grad school, more off than on) ever since.

INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

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Writers supporting, encouraging and learning from each other. Post on your own blog about your struggles, your triumphs, and your successes. Talk about your works in progress: the good, the bad and the ugly or some other writing relating topic on your mind. Read others, interact, comment, and grow within this wonderful author community. Every month there is an optional question for those who may need help figuring out what to post about.

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG

And here are the awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG!

T. Powell Coltrin
Victoria Marie Lees
Stephen Tremp
Renee Scattergood
J. H. Moncrieff

Dream Future #IWSG 12/04/2019

December 4, 2019 By ravenofiernan 2 Comments

Monthly Status Report

Well, it was NaNoWriMo, and I have fantastic news! I finished typing up the 2/3 of the revision I had written by hand, then wrote the remaining 1/3. I won Nano with a complete second draft of Cipher at 95,729 words! This is a much better length, and a much better draft. There is still a lot of work to be done, but once again, Nano came through for me.

My winning total was about 111,111 words because I did include a lot of my brainstorming, which I do normally when writing, and also some other creative works, including this post and a short story. Overall, it was a good writing month, and I cannot wait to see this novel continue to improve!

And now on to the optional monthly question:

December 4 question – Let’s play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?

The main internal thing I would change is that I would become better at consistency. Once again, this November, I proved that when I want to, I can get the words out. But they come out all at once in a gush. Most of my writing was done on my days off, when I turned off the internet and did long three or five hour marathons. I had 50k by Day 10 by getting 30k in the first three days. I had three more 10k days (all on Sundays), and an almost 10k day on Black Friday. Weekdays, I sometimes got above the NaNo daily par of 1,667 words, but mostly they were lower. I did write every day, which is a type of consistency, but I know a writing career can’t be supported by writing seven 10k days in November and then barely making it to 2,000 words any day the rest of the year.

Of course, the main external thing I would change would probably help with that. While I like my job, my dream is to lower my hours from 40 hours a week at my day job to 30 hours. That would allow me to keep my group insurance, but give me more time off. I have even daydreamed about how I would change my schedule. (Since we all have to work at least one Saturday a month and since I value regularity in my schedule, I would keep my Saturdays). I would work 8 hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and 6 hours on Saturday. Then have Sunday through Tuesday off. If I could do 10k days even two of those four days, that would leave still two days for errands and other social/household work.

The biggest part of my dream, though, would be something I already have: the sheer joy of creation, of bringing my words, my lives, my soul to the page, to create the novels only I can create. I am doing that now, and the dream would be lifeless, if that part was no longer present.

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And here are the awesome co-hosts for the November 6 posting of the IWSG!

Tonja Drecker
Beverly Stowe McClure
Nicki Elson
Fundy Blue
Tyrean Martinson

The Order of the Good Death #IWSG 11/06/2019

November 6, 2019 By ravenofiernan 4 Comments

Monthly Status Report

Not a lot has gotten done in October. September was a productive month, writing-wise, and I’m looking ahead to the frenzy in November known as NaNoWriMo.

I participate every year, and have a great deal of fun, so I’m not planning on missing out anytime soon. Of course, that knowledge made me desperately want to play more Skyrim, make more soup, and in general take care of my house, not to mention actually spend time with people.

So, that’s pretty much it for October. Not a bad month, but not much writing.

For November, I am not doing a traditional NaNo. Instead, I will be finally typing up and finishing writing the second draft of Cipher. I’ve been writing it by hand since 07/2018 and I got stalled recently because of the slowness with handwriting, which made my critic louder, and I just wasn’t getting the words. Since it will need to be typed anyway, I decided to just type the whole thing for NaNo, and when I get to the part where I stalled (near the end), just keep going and finish the thing.

I will be doing a third draft anyway, so might as well use the motivation of NaNo to help me get this one done.

November’s Question

And now on to the optional monthly question:

November 6 question – What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever googled in researching a story?

This isn’t actually something I googled, and it’s probably not the strangest thing, but it’s what came to mind when I saw the question.

I love cozy mysteries, and I’ve written a few over the years. I have one in a bed-and-breakfast, and a YA one set in a Catholic private school. And of course, being so slow at revising, all are very messy rough drafts. Still, it remains an interest, and a few years ago, one of my writing friends introduced me to the Ask a Mortician videos by Caitlin Doughty, which led me in turn to her nonprofit organization The Order of the Good Death.

Immediately, I knew I wanted my paranormal mystery series to be about a funeral home worker who knows about and applies natural burial techniques in addition to more typical mortician services. Her work would give her access to the corpses of the murders, and I could also explore these other options in my work. As a pagan, I have long wished that upon death, I could just be buried naturally in the earth and have the earth consume my body the way it would happen naturally. To learn that this is actually something that can be done was eye-opening to me, and I want to share that with others.

I can do that through my main character, while still presenting an interesting mystery.

And of course, I use the resources at The Order of the Good Death liberally to make sure that the details are accurate.

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And here are the awesome co-hosts for the November 6 posting of the IWSG!
Sadira Stone
Patricia Josephine
Lisa Buie-Collard
Erika Beebe
C. Lee McKenzie

Storytime Blog Hop 10/31/2019

October 29, 2019 By ravenofiernan 6 Comments

Welcome to the October 2019 Storytime Blog Hop!

I don’t have a story this time, so check out my past entries, which are also the first two flash fiction pieces of my Tarot collection:

0 – The Fool

I – The Magician

Then hop along to the other stories. I’m sure you will find something you love!

Loney Lucy by Bill Bush
The Traveler by Barbara Lund
Evening by Karen Lynn
Man Of Your Dreams by Gina Fabio
The Undertaker’s Daughter by J. Q. Rose
The Road by Elizabeth McCleary
Storytime Blog Hop by C. T. Bridges
Storytime Blog Hop by Warp World Books
The Exception by Vanessa Wells
Number 99 by Juneta Key
Edda’s Second Chance by Katharina Gerlach
Very Thin Line by Rebecca Anne Dillon
Henry Moves House by Nic Steven
For The Ghost The Bell Tolls by James Husum
Never Alone by Melanie Drake
The Neighbor by Meghan Collins

Many of these stories will also be featured on Holly Lisle and Rebecca Galardo’s podcast, Alone In A Room With Invisible People

They are reading several flash fiction pieces aloud for their Halloween episode.

The Value of Reading #IWSG 10/02/2019

October 2, 2019 By ravenofiernan 6 Comments

Monthly Status Report

So, after my slump in August, September ended up being a very good month, writing-wise and other. I decided to put my revision on hold for Nano, to use its energy to power me through the rest of the rewrite, so I haven’t done much on that.

But I have gotten some more work done on the website — still obviously more needs to be done, but it’s on the right track. And I wrote two flash fiction pieces: a story about a dragon at Christmas and the next installment of my Tarot series, IX – The Hermit. I’m pretty happy with both of them, but still awaiting feedback on the dragon story.

The decision to focus on my routines has paid off. I have been sleeping better and feeling like I have more energy. The writing is more consistent, too, which is expected and a nice side effect.

October’s Question

So, now onto the optional question:

October 2 question – It’s been said that the benefits of becoming a writer who does not read is that all your ideas are new and original. Everything you do is an extension of yourself, instead of a mixture of you and another author. On the other hand, how can you expect other people to want your writing, if you don’t enjoy reading? What are your thoughts?

When I saw this question, I will admit I was a little dumbfounded. Why would someone who does not read even want to be a writer? It’s like someone who hates music wanting to play the piano. What is the point if it’s not your thing?

Reading has always been my thing. Oh, there was a period when I didn’t know about the type of books I would have liked to read, and I was reading all this realistic fiction, and got bored with in, and thought I didn’t like reading anymore, but that was just because I didn’t know about the right books. As soon as I found Nancy Drew, I was off again, usually finishing a book a day, despite going to school. And after Nancy, there was Agatha Christie.

And then, in junior high, I found some Piers Anthony Xanth books in my cousin’s room. Then Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Ursula K. LeGuin . . .

Writing is just an extension of all that. I wanted to stay in those worlds forever, but more, I wanted to create my own. I found books that I loved, but also books I wanted to love, but didn’t . . . where the idea was fascinating, but the book wasn’t what I wanted. And so, I wanted to write those stories.

And that’s where I am now. I want to write all the stories that I want to read that don’t exist yet, except in my head. But if I didn’t read . . . what would I write? And why would I write?

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And here are the awesome co-hosts for the October 2 posting of the IWSG!
Ronel Janse van Vuuren
Mary Aalgaard
Madeline Mora-Summonte
Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor

The Slumpy Month of August #IWSG 09/04/2019

September 4, 2019 By ravenofiernan 16 Comments

This is my third post for The Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

So, there’s always an optional question to answer for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, for which I am very grateful, because I don’t always know what to write about. I am also very grateful that they are optional, not required.

Especially this month. This month, I know what I want to write about. I’ll keep that optional question and maybe bring it out at a later date. This month, I want to talk about last month.

The month started strong. I went to a fantastic workshop by Bernadette Marie about building an author platform, and I did start posting on Facebook more. I have an ambiguity about Facebook because it has been bad for me in the past, but I think I am finding the right balance, at least for now. I also got a lot of revision done that first week of August.

But then things went downhill. Now, I should say that I have typically been a “spurt-and-slump” writer: getting lots of motivation and big word counts/productivity during certain periods of the year, and then having dormant periods where I don’t write much of anything at all. Since April 2017, I have been trying to focus more on consistency: to lower the peaks and raise the valleys. In general, it is working, but it’s still my pattern.

And August, well, other than that first week, turned out to be a slump month. I haven’t had a whole month be a slump in a long time, so it caught me by surprise, but I can see the work of my inner Rebel. So September, I am going back to the basics, so to speak. While I would love to continue pushing on my revision, I think what is most important is to develop and maintain a structure.

I have created morning, evening, and night routines. Writing is part of the evening routine, but it’s only 10 minutes. And to be honest, pretty much the only routine that is solid is the morning routine. So my goal for September is to focus on building and maintaining those three routines. I might not be writing much, but I will still be writing. Just as important: it will help with the other slumps I had in August, too. Because, as it turns out, when you start giving up on one thing, you start giving up on everything else.

I need to stop giving up on myself.

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Writers supporting, encouraging and learning from each other. Post on your own blog about your struggles, your triumphs, and your successes. Talk about your works in progress the good, the bad and the ugly or some other writing relating topic on your mind. Read others, interact, comment, and grow within this wonderful author community. Every month there is an optional question for those who may need help figuring out what to post about.

Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG

Join in yourself!