Chasing Dreams

Hello!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! As you may have noticed I haven't been able to post as frequently as I did.  I've recently been running in too many directions trying to accomplish a great deal, but in reality accomplishing very little.

I am an Independent Writing Consultant and am working to build my portfolio so that by the time I graduate, I will have some work waiting for me.  It's always a good idea to try and get work in your field of interest.  Somehow technical support did not seem to fit into those plans.  I also realized that this transition would require a tremendous change and an equal amount of risk.  With that thought in mind, I made the decision to try and focus on my "true" job.  Being a newbie is difficult.  There is no word-of-mouth; no one to give you references.  Everything hinges on the kindness or faith of someone unknown to you, someone to give you that first opportunity.  It is also a wonderful challenge because it fosters excellence. A person just starting out has everything to prove and much to lose if they don't succeed.

I am gradually updating my site (www.crampedwriting.com) to include my new job which entails a variety of duties:  proofreading, copyediting as well as substantive editing.   Eventually my site will have the details about the different tiers and the costs.  I'm also able to offer assistance with writing-related questions, and make suggestions when appropriate, for certain aspects of marketing.

This is a very exciting time, but as you can see, does not allow for the upkeep and maintenance of two blogs.  Therefore I will be discontinuing this blog and using strictly the www.crampedwriting.com one.  I apologize for any inconvenience this change creates, and I hope you will all continue to visit me at my "new home".  I prefer the variety of options for the wordpress blogs and look forward to being able to help and touch-base with everyone a bit more efficiently.

Thank you for all your patience and understanding!  I'll be running a promotion next month as well, so please don't forget to check out the new site.  I want to make sure as many people as possible have the opportunity to submit an entry.

Have a great day!

Learning From NaNoWriMo

It's been a while.  I've neglected you for a couple weeks now.  I promise it was not intentional.  I just decided to take the craziest ride of my life, and bit off more than I can properly chew.  I reached a critical point, not long ago, where my synapses went into overdrive.  I realized that if I kept working full time, catering to family, and attending school, I would have no time to actually write.  For an aspiring author, this is obviously distressing news.

Not distressing, that term is not strong enough.  I'd probably say it was catastrophic news.  This came after many other issues had decided to make their way to me and plop themselves onto my already full plate.  The only available answer was to quit my job and NOT get another one.  Crazy?  Yes, very.  Necessary in my case?  I think so.  The true question is what happens from here?

As things stand, I'm not finished with my B.A. in Creative Writing.  I wanted to have my degree before I was in this position.  We all know how plans are though; they never go where they are supposed to.  I'm still taking my classes (I actually only have a few semesters left, which will no doubt fly by) and trying to make my way through the possibilities of earning income, which is in some way related to my field of study, rather than throwing away my time at a job which will not build a portfolio.  Somehow, "I can help fix your internet", does not seem to garner points on a writing resume.  Weird.  It has been a long couple of weeks crammed with various duties.  Things are beginning to settle down, so the real struggle begins.  Oxymoron, I know.

I've been doing NaNoWriMo this month, a very valuable exercise in writing insanity, which will hopefully produce something of quality.  In addition to this, I need to edit another manuscript (my first edit!).  It is probably time to drag out all those nifty writing links I've been saving up for the future.  As they say, it is "go time".  I've already learned that this journey is not for the scared, or the faint of heart. It is not for those who dream of a "someday".  NaNoWriMo is teaching me that every moment is THAT moment, every day can be a step towards "someday".  I've always been able to write without worrying about writer's block (this may be due to my ADD-esque writing style), but NaNoWriMo challenges this.  To meet my goal, I need to write a certain amount of words per day.  If I fall behind, I have to write more during the following days to catch up.  The writing lags and it can be depressing watching the spillage of word junk accumulate on the screen.  I can understand the desire to stop at that moment.  To go hide from the manuscript you are writing and which seems to mock you and your dreams.  Don't hide though!  Keep going, press onward! Truly, it is a pain in the butt, yet it works.

Writing is a sport. You heard me...(figuratively speaking).   A sport requires intense training, dedication, perseverance and practice.  Sound familiar?  I thought so.  Writing takes skill, but if you have the determination, you can learn to acquire the skill.  If you want the "trophy", you have to do the work.  No one ever expects to have a perfect sprint, or three-point shot, without first working towards the completion of those goals.  As writers, we cannot expect to write the perfect book, or even the perfect scene at the first draft.  NaNoWriMo is teaching me the value of pressing on, though the work might be substandard, to reach the end goal of completing the first draft.  Once the first draft is done, I'm able to go back and edit.  More practice.  You can always rewrite once you finish, but if you get distracted or depressed about the work, you may never finish.  Remember to allow your writing to suck.  Don't look back, keep going.  Whether you're doing NaNoWriMo or other writing, keep going.  There's obviously times to take a small break, but if you find yourself avoiding your story, you'll probably just have to plunk yourself down and continue to write.  Then make sure to give yourself proper credit, no matter how crappy you feel your writing is, for the dedication and perseverance you exhibited in finishing a manuscript.  That is a HUGE accomplishment, whether you were able to do it in a month or ten years.

It starts with just the dedication to write something each day.  Perhaps writing thoughts in a journal, or creating a poem would be a good start.  If you dream of writing, it is NEVER too late to begin.  Minutes a day.  I wish you all the best luck and will continue to share as much as possible of this crazy journey.  If you've never done NaNoWriMo, or are not sure what it is, check it out!

I want to know about NaNoWriMo!

Hope And Humanity

Hope!  Hope is such an integral part of humanity that it resonates within each of us.  Either there is the tingle of hope which entices us to believe things that our minds tell us we should not ("he/she really cares for me"), or we feel there is no hope in some cases.  As readers, we cling to the hope that our hero or heroine will save the day.  We hope that they won't die in the process. We hope sometimes, that our characters find the love which has been sitting right under their noses.

Hope is what keeps us going both in reality as well as in our reading.  Perhaps, in an arduous reading assignment our only hope is to get to the end unscathed.  Still, it's hope or a distinct lack thereof (which basically just preps us for the introduction of hope).  If the reader isn't hoping, what is to bring them into the story as if they were old acquaintances?  Hope is recognizable on many different levels and creates common ground for the reader regardless of the exact circumstances.  I may have never hoped to pass a board exam in my quest to become a lawyer, but I have hoped to pass a driving test, or even other college or high school tests which hold the keys to my future. This translates into something understandable and garners sympathy for our characters.  Without hope, a character falls flat and fails to engage the reader (assuming they never find hope throughout the book).  A character without hope for an entire book, is not a book which will most  entice a reader to pick it up repeatedly and will not earn it a coveted spot on the bookshelf.  It may even cause deletion from the reader's digital library ~gasp~!

There is a time for rosy hopes, but because hopes can be small and are often found in the character's goals themselves, don't need to be boring or trite.  A character can hope that a sick friend or family member overcomes a debilitating sickness, or it could be that the character hopes a friend lands the job their dream job.  A character may hope for just a normal day.  The hope does not necessarily mean the outcome will be favorable, but a character without any form of hope (even deeply repressed hope) is not realistic.

Hope is what inspires us to take risks, to finally try and accomplish our dreams, to change our situation for the better, to reconnect us with our own humanity, to stir emotions.  Hope motivates us (and should inspire our characters as well) to achieve beyond our dreams and gives us a reason to persevere.  Hope can seem to break us at times, but it is also the very thing which heals us and gives us strength.

"What If" Ponderings

What if the world as we know it, does not exist?  We might automatically think, The Matrix.  I, however, am not really thinking along those lines.

Candace Knoebel's First Book!

Hey everyone! Great news, Candace Knoebel has a new novel released, entitled Born in Flames.  This is available via ebook here:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/born-in-flames-candace-knoebel/1112772359?ean=2940015130775

You can check out her blog here:

http://candaceknoebel.wordpress.com/

This is pretty exciting stuff and I'm wildly happy for her.  It is so far available only in ebook, so I'll have to forgo my dreams of a signed copy for now.  I have the digital copy which I am reading in between my assigned reading for philosophy and english.  I'll probably get through her book first, though.  It's already quite interesting and I'm about three pages in. I'll try to post up a review of that.  The review of The Souls of Black Folk is currently sidelined (fyi), but I have not forgotten it!

This is all for today, happy reading everyone!

Be strong, be brave, be awesome!

Yay! My Review of Alison Goodmans novel, "Eon"

Finally!  My long-awaited review of the book Eon, by Alison Goodman.

Multitasking in Writing

Not sure if multitasking is the greatest thing for a writer to do, it is like self-inflicted ADD.