We recently replaced my computer. I love my faster processor and better graphics card. Plus, we got my old computer set up in the office as a print server. I planned ahead and got a copy of Windows 7, which I have no problems with. The one thing I forgot, a new version of Office. I don’t have a copy for this new computer, and WordPad doesn’t count words. Word Press has a guestimate word counter- it counts characters, assumes each word should be x characters long, and then guesses. So for now I am counting my own words.
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Nobody’s Perfect
16
Nov
“China Details Activits in Mental Hospitals” You won’t see this headline on MSN now, as its been changed to “China holds activists in mental wards” but I loved the original, misspelled, and misleading headline. What are activits? Why would you detail them in mental wards? Maybe they’re hallucinations?
I have heard (thank you Candace Dempsey) that at MSN the policy is “Get it up, then get it right”. I know none of us are perfect, but every once in a while, its nice to see proof of it in black and white, even if it lasts less than five minutes.
Freelance Writing
15
Nov
Had a good time at the panel on getting started in freelance writing put on by the Seattle Writergrrls. The panel included two established freelance journalists– Amanda Castleman and Candace Dempsey- and Gary Marshall, a literary attorney.
Highlights of the talk included negotiating kill fees- what you get if they accept your story but decide to never run it (on a pay after publish contract, versus a pay on receipt contract)- and negotiating first publishing rights only, so that you as the author maintain ownership of your work.
The best part, though, was the chance to network with other writers.
November Writing Goals
31
Oct
Perhaps I should take inspiration from NaNoWriMo and set my own goals for the month. I won’t ask myself to write an entire new story (even if its not 50,000 words), because I don’t want to let myself abandon the projects I’m already working on.
So, I think my goal will be to write every night, at least for 30 minutes (actual writing, not re-reading or editing) on a story I’m currently working on, with the goal of completing it by the end of the month.
It may not be a whole novel, but it might end up a novella.
NaNoWriMo
30
Oct
It’s almost November, and everywhere, novelists and want to be novelists are preparing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write an entire novel (50,000 words) in a single month. I will not be participating.
It has nothing to do with needing to write 1667 words per day. I could do that in 2-3 hours. It has to do with my process. Even if I think I know where the story is going when I start, it rarely follows the map. True, NaNoWriMo is about volume, not quality, but the novel still needs internal cohesion.
High School Poetry
20
Sep
Recently I found the old three ring binder I kept all of my poetry and other writing in during high school. I opened it briefly and noticed that the piece on top was from the summer after my senior year– over 15 years old. I am kind of afraid to read it. I remember a number of my (not exactly good) poems quite well. But the piece on top, I have no memory of, so there’s bound to be a few surprises. I guess I should mostly just look at it with the thought that at least I’ve gotten better.
Journaling
26
Aug
Thank you to my dear husband who pointed out that this blog is essentially what I hated most about many of my college classes- journaling. I had a professor, in my last semester of undergrad (D is for diploma) actually comment that he wished it hadn’t been my last semester. His was a fascinating class that I was quite interested in, and I took part in class discussion and did well on the tests. However, a major part of our grade for the class was based on writing journal entries for our reading assignments, which I did not so much.
A bit of fiction
27
Jul
Time slipped through their minds like sand through the fingers of children. Years passed by unnoticed; decades disappeared without remark. They searched for the proverbial needle in a haystack, the one single moment in the whole of history on which their future- creation, destruction, entropy -hung. The pendulum kept swinging, relentlessly counting the seconds to the end.
A glimpse here, a hint there, they would pause and hope, but no answers were forthcoming. Time was running out, both in their search and in their reality. Had they missed it, should they rewind or keep moving forward? The silence was deafening.