It is a blog! Yes, only ten days have elapsed since my last blog! This shows Progress! I am maturing already! (until I abandon all hopes of posting in a consistent manner, like I usually do)
But FIRST! More coffee! Hrm. A line has formed in my local coffeehouse in the time it took me to write about maturity and consistency. I sense an evil pattern afoot, a plot to deprive me of my caffeine because I am already hyper enough from the first coffee of the day. Perhaps... I should get this coffee to-go. In the hopes of going home and doing some cleaning to take advantage of the overcaffeination. Is that a word? I guess it is now.
----the above was written at around 2pm today in the throes of caffeine-induced frenzy----
Tonight I cleaned out my ears with a cotton swab and ended up poking my right eardrum. The pain was terrifying, and I'm still shaken hours after the incident.
In other news... well, there's not much else to report. I'm in the midst of writing a review of the Tarot of the Boroughs deck for my tarot blog, which I will post there by the end of the month (in all probability).
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
A very conscious decision
Hello again, all.
I have removed my Nanowrimo word counter from this page, because I have decided not to do Nanowrimo this year. I am still absolutely in support of everyone that attempts the monumental undertaking of writing a novel in one month's time, but I know that I will not be able to do it this year.
A couple of reasons:
1) It's time to get serious about this religion business. Not because I am a serious person, not because my particular religion is so solemn, but because of my attitude towards it. I have been a practicing Pagan since eighteen years old, with quotes around the "practicing" part. I feel very much I've been talking the talk and not walking the walk, and I'm focused on changing that. And yes, Nano is only for the month of November, but Nano is to the detriment of everything else I want to continue to do throughout this month.
2) The boy has not read my successful attempt at Nano yet. He started, but hasn't finished, and that successful attempt happened two years ago. Since he was the motivating factor for my completion of Nano, and since he was inspiration for one of the characters, I feel very unmotivated about this whole Nano endeavor knowing that he hasn't read my successful novel. I know that that shouldn't be the point of Nano, but I still feel the lack of motivation.
3) Any writing I do this month will very much be of the nonfiction variety, mostly having to do with my burgeoning attempts at codifying my beliefs into words. Nano is decidedly all about fiction pursuits.
Please, if anyone reads this, do not be dissuaded by my lack of motivation if you're thinking about attempting NaNoWriMo. There is no feeling quite like winning Nano.
For more info on NaNoWriMo, go to nanowrimo.org.
I have removed my Nanowrimo word counter from this page, because I have decided not to do Nanowrimo this year. I am still absolutely in support of everyone that attempts the monumental undertaking of writing a novel in one month's time, but I know that I will not be able to do it this year.
A couple of reasons:
1) It's time to get serious about this religion business. Not because I am a serious person, not because my particular religion is so solemn, but because of my attitude towards it. I have been a practicing Pagan since eighteen years old, with quotes around the "practicing" part. I feel very much I've been talking the talk and not walking the walk, and I'm focused on changing that. And yes, Nano is only for the month of November, but Nano is to the detriment of everything else I want to continue to do throughout this month.
2) The boy has not read my successful attempt at Nano yet. He started, but hasn't finished, and that successful attempt happened two years ago. Since he was the motivating factor for my completion of Nano, and since he was inspiration for one of the characters, I feel very unmotivated about this whole Nano endeavor knowing that he hasn't read my successful novel. I know that that shouldn't be the point of Nano, but I still feel the lack of motivation.
3) Any writing I do this month will very much be of the nonfiction variety, mostly having to do with my burgeoning attempts at codifying my beliefs into words. Nano is decidedly all about fiction pursuits.
Please, if anyone reads this, do not be dissuaded by my lack of motivation if you're thinking about attempting NaNoWriMo. There is no feeling quite like winning Nano.
For more info on NaNoWriMo, go to nanowrimo.org.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
awfully long time between posts
It's my own fault for not writing in so long. Something always comes up that I deem more important than my writing, when really it is the most important thing to me. It's what keeps me sane most of the time... so I shouldn't be at all surprised that I've been flying off the handle more and more lately, since I don't have my "writing safety valve" in place.
I am angry at myself. I implemented an exercise and diet program for myself, and have let it go when I was doing so well. I had been working out at least three times a week for 45 minutes each time for over a month. I think it's been about three weeks since I worked out. I'm disappointed in myself. Typical Aries: all bluster and fire and drive at the start of something, and then fizzles out after a while, or gets easily bored with the whole thing.
Maybe the Universe has been trying to send out signals to me lately, and I've been stubbornly refusing to see them. I haven't had an e-mail request for a tarot reading in a very long time (not since March/April). This is not counting people I know and/or work with. I swapped readings recently, and my reading said that I'm going about things the wrong way... or perhaps not the wrong way, but a roundabout way. I use tarot cards to access my intuition, when maybe I should be cutting out the middleman (the cards) and just read for someone. This is a very scary thing for me. I always have anxiety about that. I've taken classes in intuition before at the Open Center (yes, there are classes in psychic development if you know where to look), and I asked a few people to be my guinea pigs when doing readings w/o cards. Was I accurate? Yes. Did it take a while for my predictions to be verified? Yes. It's that kind of waiting that I can't stand! I'm all about the instant gratification (another Aries trait). When I should just be happy that I'm of service to people, I'm not... it's never enough.
I am angry at myself. I implemented an exercise and diet program for myself, and have let it go when I was doing so well. I had been working out at least three times a week for 45 minutes each time for over a month. I think it's been about three weeks since I worked out. I'm disappointed in myself. Typical Aries: all bluster and fire and drive at the start of something, and then fizzles out after a while, or gets easily bored with the whole thing.
Maybe the Universe has been trying to send out signals to me lately, and I've been stubbornly refusing to see them. I haven't had an e-mail request for a tarot reading in a very long time (not since March/April). This is not counting people I know and/or work with. I swapped readings recently, and my reading said that I'm going about things the wrong way... or perhaps not the wrong way, but a roundabout way. I use tarot cards to access my intuition, when maybe I should be cutting out the middleman (the cards) and just read for someone. This is a very scary thing for me. I always have anxiety about that. I've taken classes in intuition before at the Open Center (yes, there are classes in psychic development if you know where to look), and I asked a few people to be my guinea pigs when doing readings w/o cards. Was I accurate? Yes. Did it take a while for my predictions to be verified? Yes. It's that kind of waiting that I can't stand! I'm all about the instant gratification (another Aries trait). When I should just be happy that I'm of service to people, I'm not... it's never enough.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Idiots being idiots again
One little tweet from Neil Gaiman, and I found out about this. Can all this madness please stop? I feel like this is just a page out of the haters-being-haters playbook. JK Rowling wrote an incredibly satisfying seven-book series that captured the imaginations of both children AND adults, and I don't think I'm exaggerating that she is one of the reasons that being a bookworm is "cool" again.
Now then. I'm going to use a quote from the article that absolutely sums up the crux of what I feel on the subject. "Non-writers think it’s the ideas, rather than the execution, that make a book. They’ve got that backward." It is one thing to get an idea. Ideas are easy things. Everyone has ideas. However, they're slippery little suckers. Because putting your ideas to paper and having them make sense is the most difficult part. It's part of the reason that keeps me employed as a copy editor. It's a big reason why I hit road blocks in my writing, such as the very common "writer's block". It's not a lack of ideas... it's being at a loss as to how to go about getting the idea to the page and have it come off as how you imagined it in your head.
If I was a stupid person willing to sue for plagiarism, here is one of my own ideas that I have turned my pen to, and the corresponding work/tv show/movie/book/etc. that I would sue (but I wouldn't, because damnit, the execution is the key and not the idea!):
My work: Aphrodite's Daughter (about a matchmaker that finds out she's the unwitting daughter of Aphrodite)
Corresponding work that I feel (and others have felt) are similar to my work:
• Valentine (American TV series... albeit quite short-lived)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians (book series and soon-to-be movie series... in which a boy realizes he's Poseidon's son... I think, I haven't read the books yet, but my friend's son has)
• Should I also sue all greek and roman myths as well, for using a pantheon as a basis for my story, or should I be sued for using them?
• Should Neil Gaiman (author of American Gods and Anansi Boys) in turn sue me, because I used the idea of someone being a child of a god (Anansi Boys) in my work?
Let's be clear here in where the ideas came from (in case anyone tries for the "I read or saw something else and then wrote" defense). Valentine came out over a year after I wrote Aphrodite's Daughter, and all I did was see it on the TV, laugh, and call up my friend Lorraine and say "Do you recognize this idea from somewhere else?" Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I had no idea existed until this fall when my friend's son was describing the latest book to me after he had finished reading it. And for good measure, I wrote Aphrodite's Daughter perhaps a year before I read Anansi Boys.
In short, I feel like this case against JK Rowling is equivalent to someone suing McDonald's for burning themselves for their coffee being too hot. Sadly, we've seen how THOSE lawsuits went. I just pray and hope that THIS lawsuit is seen for the disgusting money-grubbing ploy that it is.
*dismounts high-horse and goes back to bed*
Now then. I'm going to use a quote from the article that absolutely sums up the crux of what I feel on the subject. "Non-writers think it’s the ideas, rather than the execution, that make a book. They’ve got that backward." It is one thing to get an idea. Ideas are easy things. Everyone has ideas. However, they're slippery little suckers. Because putting your ideas to paper and having them make sense is the most difficult part. It's part of the reason that keeps me employed as a copy editor. It's a big reason why I hit road blocks in my writing, such as the very common "writer's block". It's not a lack of ideas... it's being at a loss as to how to go about getting the idea to the page and have it come off as how you imagined it in your head.
If I was a stupid person willing to sue for plagiarism, here is one of my own ideas that I have turned my pen to, and the corresponding work/tv show/movie/book/etc. that I would sue (but I wouldn't, because damnit, the execution is the key and not the idea!):
My work: Aphrodite's Daughter (about a matchmaker that finds out she's the unwitting daughter of Aphrodite)
Corresponding work that I feel (and others have felt) are similar to my work:
• Valentine (American TV series... albeit quite short-lived)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians (book series and soon-to-be movie series... in which a boy realizes he's Poseidon's son... I think, I haven't read the books yet, but my friend's son has)
• Should I also sue all greek and roman myths as well, for using a pantheon as a basis for my story, or should I be sued for using them?
• Should Neil Gaiman (author of American Gods and Anansi Boys) in turn sue me, because I used the idea of someone being a child of a god (Anansi Boys) in my work?
Let's be clear here in where the ideas came from (in case anyone tries for the "I read or saw something else and then wrote" defense). Valentine came out over a year after I wrote Aphrodite's Daughter, and all I did was see it on the TV, laugh, and call up my friend Lorraine and say "Do you recognize this idea from somewhere else?" Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I had no idea existed until this fall when my friend's son was describing the latest book to me after he had finished reading it. And for good measure, I wrote Aphrodite's Daughter perhaps a year before I read Anansi Boys.
In short, I feel like this case against JK Rowling is equivalent to someone suing McDonald's for burning themselves for their coffee being too hot. Sadly, we've seen how THOSE lawsuits went. I just pray and hope that THIS lawsuit is seen for the disgusting money-grubbing ploy that it is.
*dismounts high-horse and goes back to bed*
Thursday, November 5, 2009
tarot, nanowrimo, and other assorted side-projects
It's been awhile since I've posted. I think I might be slightly insane for making the pact to do National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) again. I also might be insane for creating an entirely separate blog to write posts about tarot (tarotspell.blogspot.com), however I figured it was the best solution to the problem of Geocities closing down on October 26th. Geocities was where my small little site about tarot resided.
I've been inspired by a few different blogs I've seen lately about tarot, and I wanted to share my own thoughts on the cards. Add to the discussion, if you will. I'm also going to a tarot workshop in December, and am psyched about it. Even the name, "Throw out the fucking book!" appeals to all my senses!
Anyway, that's it for me right now. I'm going to take a shower and try to head to bed. I'm behind on my word count for Nano already, so will have to make up for it tomorrow. Eek.
I've been inspired by a few different blogs I've seen lately about tarot, and I wanted to share my own thoughts on the cards. Add to the discussion, if you will. I'm also going to a tarot workshop in December, and am psyched about it. Even the name, "Throw out the fucking book!" appeals to all my senses!
Anyway, that's it for me right now. I'm going to take a shower and try to head to bed. I'm behind on my word count for Nano already, so will have to make up for it tomorrow. Eek.
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