Office by Alex Penny
1. I’m a writer. I know, I know, this is a bit of a cop-out since this is my blog about writing. But what can I say—it’s something I love. Sometimes, words just flow from my fingers with ease, and that’s an awesome high of a feeling, and yet sometimes writing feels like I’m trying to drag the words kicking and screaming from the bowels of hell itself. Call me masochistic, but I almost like this type of writing better; after I struggle and work through the mountain of blockages, I take a moment to scroll through all the text I just produced and feel like I actually accomplished.
2. I’m stubborn. Some people (including many of those with whom I’m close) think this is a negative attribute, and yeah, sometimes it can be. Sometimes I won’t let something unnecessary drop or won’t broaden my point of view. However, more often than not, it has been this same stubbornness that has made me able to accomplish what I have and overcome what I’ve needed to overcome in life. I think that all authors need a strong stubborn streak—it’s a career requirement. How else would we be able to get through writer’s block if there wasn’t that little voice inside that says “Okay, I’m going to finish this damn book if it kills me!” and gets our hands back on the keyboard?
3. I have a large vocabulary, mainly from reading an enormous number of books as I was growing up. It helps to keep my prose interesting.
4. I am a font of useless knowledge. I have a knack for trivia and random tidbits and factoids. Most of the time, I’ll have no idea where I learned them. I don’t quite see how I can connect this to writing, but it sure comes in handy for Jeopardy. :)
5. I’m 5’8”. To me, this is the perfect height for a girl. Most guys are taller than I am, and I can feel little and cute next to my boyfriend when I want to. However, I can also put on a pair of three inch wedge heels and rocket up to 5’11” when I need to impress or feel confident. Yeah, I’ve abandoned relating these to writing. Is it a good thing that I’m having a hard time thinking of ways to brag on myself…? :P
6. I’m a loner for the most part. This is similar to #2 in that it can be interpreted as a negative, and indeed, I occasionally feel lonely. Most of the time though, I love being on my own, keeping my own company. I don’t have to rely on other people to alleviate my boredom or validate me. I can curl up in my dorm room, happy as a clam to just enjoy the quiet and read, watch a movie, write, etc. instead of going out and partying and possibly getting into trouble. Also, this makes me self-reliant in that if I have to go somewhere by myself, I’m confident and self-sufficient. (Please don’t misconstrue this as me saying I don’t like to spend time with my boyfriend or hang out with my awesome friends, though.)
7. I love very, very intensely, be it romantic love or friend-love.
So, this is supposed to be my authorial blog, and it has been sorely neglected, so I’ll have to resort to challenges just to get myself in the habit of posting. :P
day 1 - pride. seven great things about yourself.
day 2 - envy. seven things you lack and covet.
day 3 - wrath. seven things that piss you off.
day 4 - sloth. seven things you neglect to do.
day 5 - greed. seven worldly material desires.
day 6 - gluttony. seven guilty pleasures.
day 7 - lust. seven love secrets.
(via heckyeahtumblrchallenges)
So, this is supposed to be my authorial blog, and it has been sorely neglected, so I’ll have to resort to challenges just to get myself in the habit of posting. :P
day 1 - pride. seven great things about yourself.
day 2 - envy. seven things you lack and covet.
day 3 - wrath. seven things that piss you off.
day 4 - sloth. seven things you neglect to do.
day 5 - greed. seven worldly material desires.
day 6 - gluttony. seven guilty pleasures.
day 7 - lust. seven love secrets.
(via heckyeahtumblrchallenges)
Lastly, tea - unless one is drinking it in the Russian style - should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.
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George Orwell, written in 1948. If you don’t listen to me say that sweet tea is nasty, will ya at least listen to him???
I would like to go back in time and trade places with her… She looks so peaceful. Also, how cool is the fact that this is a superbly color photo from 1920??
i12bent:Edwin Gledhill, Canadian-born photographer, Nov. 29, 1888 - 1976, pioneered the use of the autochrome process for portraiture…
Above: Carolyn Even Gledhill with Nasturiums, 1920 - autochrome
I’ve won NaNoWriMo the last two years, and I have been the biggest NaNo cheerleader/recruiter/I’ll-pull-out-your-toenails-if-you-don’t-do-NaNo/encourager this year. I even co-founded the Novel in a Month club at my university for heaven’s sake! And yet, this year… This year has been a flop. My plot sounded SO amazing, but I never really did any planning, and at about 28k, I ran out of steam. I had put my characters in a problem I couldn’t solve. I didn’t know what would happen next. And horrifyingly enough, I didn’t want to know what would happen next.
I’m in the process of accepting that this year was the school of hard knocks telling me that I need to outline. Oh, and also, freshman year of college has beaten me into a pulp with schoolwork. If I had lived, breathed, and loved my plot like last year, that wouldn’t have been an excuse. I took seven AP tests my senior year of high school (last year), and I refused to let schoolwork get in the way of writing (I succeeded in both by sheer stubbornness). But this year, it was so handy to be able to say, “Oh, can’t write today—I have a paper due!” I could avoid my plot I was growing to resent and still feel responsible at the same time.
I know there’s always next year, and I do have last year’s completed draft I’m excited about finishing editing, so that’s some comfort, and yet… Losing NaNo, not having that lovely certificate to frame and put on my wall with the others, not buying the winner’s shirt, seeing people around me win… It hurts. It just plain hurts.
A cover made for me by inky.black.sky on the NaNo boards!!
Well, in my last post about my writing, my main point was that I was too reticent to get really wacky. Well, I pretty much have the weird factor down now… I invented beings that look like the gigantic purple lovechild of a human and a stick insect, and I made Steve of course (see the excerpt below), along with other things.
But now, my story is lagging like nobody’s business. The scene is set. The pieces are in place. And now I have no idea what to do. This seems to be the problem in every novel I write. I’m just not good at keeping the tension up. I make the problem I put my characters in so good and twisty that sometimes I’m not smart enough to figure out a way out of it! I wish I could outline. I guess this is the price I pay for being a discovery writer.
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Another fun novel excerpt! This one’s a wee bit longer than the last, but I think it’s worth it. :3