Tonight I have the distinct privilege of talking to the students in Professor Ervin's class at the Central Penn College, Lancaster Campus. We are going to be talking about all kinds of fun stuff and have a blast. On tap are questions about the different genres I've written, others I'd like to try and then the hard questions like what's been wonderful about writing and what kind of surprises have I encountered. Oh, please don't let me embarrass myself while I'm here :) LOL! 'Cause if you've ever read my blog then you know I have an uncanny knack for making myself look like a weirdo. Either that or super brilliant. So let's go for super brilliant tonight and leave it at that. :)
In other news I had a rockin' retreat with a ton of work done and good times had by all - even with the fire. I'll talk more about that later. Now I have to get to class. I sure hope my mom remembered to pack me a lunch that doesn't include pickles!
Misty
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 02, 2011
Good times!
I have figured out what I think I have known all along. I know that makes little sense, but follow along with me.
I do much much better with face to face interaction. I LOVE to plot in person and brainstorm when I can actually see the person. My friend VB is good at listening on the phone and has even taken to typing out my thoughts and sending them to me like dictation! LOL! and that is fantastic. But I was at her house a couple weeks ago and the energy is totally different for me when you are actually in the room with that person.
My other friend, Barrie Summy, was in the area last week and we had a writers' dinner and it was so very cool to sit with her for almost three hours (with a very patient waiter) and just talk about plot and story ideas and anything else that came up. I LOVED IT!
Color me embarrassed for taking so long to really understand what works for me :)
I do much much better with face to face interaction. I LOVE to plot in person and brainstorm when I can actually see the person. My friend VB is good at listening on the phone and has even taken to typing out my thoughts and sending them to me like dictation! LOL! and that is fantastic. But I was at her house a couple weeks ago and the energy is totally different for me when you are actually in the room with that person.
My other friend, Barrie Summy, was in the area last week and we had a writers' dinner and it was so very cool to sit with her for almost three hours (with a very patient waiter) and just talk about plot and story ideas and anything else that came up. I LOVED IT!
Color me embarrassed for taking so long to really understand what works for me :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday again!
Thursday Thursday Thursday (said to the Marcia mantra)
But you know what, today rocked! Love my friend Barrie Summy! We went out to dinner and three hours later the waiter was still not trying to stick us with forks. We laughed, we talked, we kabitzed, we talked amongst ourselves. It was all things wonderful and covered in gobs of awesome sauce. And I get to see her again tomorrow :)
And I realized and solidified the fact that for myself, I really get jazzed on the charge of writers talking shop. There is something about the energy going around and through the conversation when it turns to plotting and discussing and it has me hyped to write write write. Of course I am at the edit edit edit stage but that's okay too :)
Misty
But you know what, today rocked! Love my friend Barrie Summy! We went out to dinner and three hours later the waiter was still not trying to stick us with forks. We laughed, we talked, we kabitzed, we talked amongst ourselves. It was all things wonderful and covered in gobs of awesome sauce. And I get to see her again tomorrow :)
And I realized and solidified the fact that for myself, I really get jazzed on the charge of writers talking shop. There is something about the energy going around and through the conversation when it turns to plotting and discussing and it has me hyped to write write write. Of course I am at the edit edit edit stage but that's okay too :)
Misty
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Not so hot
This Thursday was not nearly so great, but that's okay too. I ended up finishing another book this week, coming in with a whopping 10,000 words in one day on Monday! Yeehaw! Now it's on to editing. I did a few pages today but there were complications in the house that I will not bore you with :)
Anyway! Three weeks until my retreat time and going strong. I think I might actually have a solid plan for the retreat. Woot! Stay tuned for how that goes.
And...One of my very good friends is coming out this way with her new book. My friend Barrie Summy, will be flying in and I couldn't be more excited if I were graced with an endless supply of Twinkies and a guarantee of no weight gain! She will be visiting area schools and making our little town one of her stops. YAY! If you have not read any of the I SO DON'T DO mystery series, please SO DO it. Sherry Holmes Baldwin is an absolute blast.
Anyway! Three weeks until my retreat time and going strong. I think I might actually have a solid plan for the retreat. Woot! Stay tuned for how that goes.
And...One of my very good friends is coming out this way with her new book. My friend Barrie Summy, will be flying in and I couldn't be more excited if I were graced with an endless supply of Twinkies and a guarantee of no weight gain! She will be visiting area schools and making our little town one of her stops. YAY! If you have not read any of the I SO DON'T DO mystery series, please SO DO it. Sherry Holmes Baldwin is an absolute blast.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I love me some Thursdays
There is a definite perk to my day job and that is that I have every Thursday off. Now sometimes I will have doctor appointments on those days, lunch with friends, make hair appts, whatever. But lately I have been making sure to be home for some of them because they are a rocking day for writing. I wrote 5000 new words today and edited 99 pages. I was going to try to find a word with 99 letters just to celebrate but I was afraid it would come across wrong in my current blog format :) Too long, you understand.
Anyway, so excited about today's writing progress and hope for more over the coming days.
Misty
Anyway, so excited about today's writing progress and hope for more over the coming days.
Misty
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Do you have room to write?
This is a reprise of an article I wrote for the newsletter for my local chapter of RWA as the president. Sometimes I come up with some good stuff LOL! (always at the last minute! Thanks to Lisa for pinging me) and I thought I would share it with you. The 50/50 I'm talking about is the challenge we currently have going on with the chapter. 50 words a day for 50 days. You make the commitment and cannot miss more than two days in a row. I think it works because it shows you what it is like to write every day and 50 words is less than this paragraph I just wrote. :) In fact this paragraph is over twice that! So here it is:
We often talk about finding the time to write – how you have to carve time out of the day, sacrifice certain things to be able to write, taking those pockets of five minutes here and ten minutes there to at least touch your manuscript and keep yourself involved. The 50/50 is designed to show us how it can be done with little time. It helps us see that fifty words is not that hard to do every day if you commit yourself to opening the document and at least writing a paragraph or a quick dialogue between characters.
But do you also have the room to write? Do you have a space you call your own? Do you have a place where all your things are, where you are surrounded by the tools and energy you need to get things done? I thought I was. I had my corner of the library – as we loftily call it – with my writing books and my radio, my pens and notebooks. Yet, recently it hasn’t felt “right”. So I started writing on the couch, but that was uncomfortable. And I tried writing in the kitchen, but that didn’t work either. I was starting to feel like Goldilocks when I realized it doesn’t need to be the perfect place, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect set up with everything at your fingertips and sunshine and rainbows coming in the window where a small bird trills happy songs for you to write to. It doesn’t have to be a great big office with leather chairs, a conversation pit and a view of the world at your feet. It does, however, have to be yours and it has to work for you. Whether that’s quiet or chaos, messy or pristine, airy or cramped – it just needs to fit you and encourage you to write. Some people do their best work in the basement under the stairs, in a café teeming with people, in a roomy closet because it has a door that can be shut. Whatever works is good as long as you’re writing.
Here’s to finding that space and using it!
Misty
We often talk about finding the time to write – how you have to carve time out of the day, sacrifice certain things to be able to write, taking those pockets of five minutes here and ten minutes there to at least touch your manuscript and keep yourself involved. The 50/50 is designed to show us how it can be done with little time. It helps us see that fifty words is not that hard to do every day if you commit yourself to opening the document and at least writing a paragraph or a quick dialogue between characters.
But do you also have the room to write? Do you have a space you call your own? Do you have a place where all your things are, where you are surrounded by the tools and energy you need to get things done? I thought I was. I had my corner of the library – as we loftily call it – with my writing books and my radio, my pens and notebooks. Yet, recently it hasn’t felt “right”. So I started writing on the couch, but that was uncomfortable. And I tried writing in the kitchen, but that didn’t work either. I was starting to feel like Goldilocks when I realized it doesn’t need to be the perfect place, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the perfect set up with everything at your fingertips and sunshine and rainbows coming in the window where a small bird trills happy songs for you to write to. It doesn’t have to be a great big office with leather chairs, a conversation pit and a view of the world at your feet. It does, however, have to be yours and it has to work for you. Whether that’s quiet or chaos, messy or pristine, airy or cramped – it just needs to fit you and encourage you to write. Some people do their best work in the basement under the stairs, in a café teeming with people, in a roomy closet because it has a door that can be shut. Whatever works is good as long as you’re writing.
Here’s to finding that space and using it!
Misty
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Woohoo and a yeehaw!
I finished writing a book today!!!!! I am super excited and ultra pleased with it and myself :)
My kid is camping so we had a Dr Who marathon at home and I also got to watch the Tudors. Lest you think I wasted my whole day and didn't get anything else done...I wrote 4000 words.
That is my kind of day! What's your kind of day?
Misty
My kid is camping so we had a Dr Who marathon at home and I also got to watch the Tudors. Lest you think I wasted my whole day and didn't get anything else done...I wrote 4000 words.
That is my kind of day! What's your kind of day?
Misty
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