Still alive, and links!
Sorry I haven’t really posted this week! I’m not sure why… fatigue, busyness, noveling…
Maybe just feeling too wrapped up in private concerns to think of something interesting to say in public. :-p
So, since I’m still feeling that way, here are some links to blogs – both ones I’ve been reading for a while, and a couple I’ve just discovered.
http://www.raisingmyboychick.com/ – “Parenting, privilege, and rethinking the norm.”
http://outspokenmedia.com/blog/ – A blog about SEO, social media, and social issues related to business.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ – Allie has an uncanny ability to make me not just laugh out loud, but giggle uncontrollably.
Two excellent blogs on the business of writing:
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
http://kriswrites.com/
(Both of which also occasionally have free short stories!)
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ – The glories and horrors – but mostly horrors – of professionally decorated cakes. I often laugh, gasp, or go “eeeeuw” out loud while reading the daily post. 
That’s it for now. Have a great weekend, and hopefully I’ll have more to post later.
Back off track…
I had a wonderful day yesterday!
I hope all of you who celebrate had a lovely Easter, and that everyone else had a great day.
But… I didn’t write a word of fiction yesterday. And I stayed up late, so I couldn’t make myself get up at 5 this morning. And I’m kind of beating myself up over it even though I don’t think I should. I’m really happy about yesterday, up to and including putting writing aside for something more important.
I was reading a few minutes ago about the problem of shenpa, a Buddhist concept often translated as “attachment” but which might also be called “stickiness,” “itchiness,” or “being hooked.” (Like with a fish hook.)
I’m not sure exactly how that connects, except that I think I’ve kind of hooked myself into feeling like I should be a robot when it comes to following the plans I’ve set for myself. Even though sometimes it’s way better to deviate from those plans or even change them entirely.
Our minds are so weird…
Noveling along…
The noveling is going well.
One of the things I’m learning this time round is to intentionally hold the story loosely.
“We are not married to our outline. We are interested in the spirit of our outline, the driving want of our hero. The incidents and events may change.”
(From The 90-Day Novel, by Alan Watt.
That’s the problem I’ve always had with planning out a story before writing it – once it’s planned out, I feel bound by the plan, resist ideas that stray away from it, and lose all the fun of discovering the story as I write.
While I’m not following this guy’s method exactly, (when do I ever follow directions exactly?) I’m finding he has a lot of ideas that feel likely to help me combine the fun and thrill of seat-of-the-pants writing with the confidence of planned-out writing.
The daily wordcount goal is helping too.
So, what are you guys working on? Any projects or ambitions? What strategies help you get past the planning stage into the actual doing?
© 2010 Catherine Wechsler, used with permission.
Happy Earth Day!
Google’s Earth Day doodle is so cute!
(Even if I had to click on it to see what it was for…)
Earth Day… I think it’s pretty cool, as a way to raise consciousness and encourage everyday awareness and conservation, but I’ve never actively celebrated it. I can’t even think of anything that I will do differently today because I’ve realized it, except say “happy Earth Day.”
Maybe it needs some silly traditions… like activists shaving their heads and donating their hair for wigs! hmm… doesn’t really fit the theme, does it?
Doing an electricity fast would be interesting. Difficult, from my point of view, but interesting. Just turn off the circuit breakers for your house, for an entire day – no electric lights, heat or AC (since my heating system has an electric ignition, fan, and thermostat), or stove, or refrigerator – I guess it’d be a good time to defrost your freezer, too.
You could do a modified fast, too, the same way people might fast from all food, or do a juice fast where they don’t eat solid food, or whatever you call the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. So maybe you leave the breakers on for the heat and refrigerator, but don’t use anything else. (That’s the juice fast, I think.) Or you pick a specific thing to give up for the day, like electric lights, or your car, or watching TV. (That’s the no-meat Friday version.)
Of course, while I’ll occasionally do a juice fast or give stuff up for health reasons or convenience, I’m not really into giving things up to prove a point. So while I think an electricity fast would be interesting, and would be an appropriate Earth Day tradition, I’m probably not going to do it any time soon.
I will make sure I turn out the lights when I’m not using them, though.
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