Tag Archive | personal: writing

What’s Lyn Been Doing (in re. writing)?

Jun22

A glance at my post count for this month suggests there should be tumbleweeds rolling across the dusty, empty plains of my blog. Where’d Lyn go? Off into the aether somewhere…

The truth is, I’ve been doing a pretty decent clip of writing, but I started trying a new system, and, while it’s getting me writing done, it’s all being pretty behind-the-scenes stuff.

Right now, what I’ve got is 6 projects, one/day, that I focus on for all or most of that day: A Doomsday piece I’m working on with @inventrix, Edally Academy, Inner Circle (Although I may have to drop one of those for sanity’s sake), submission stories, the two Addergoole Staff go to Doomsday stories, and Patreon. The idea was that if I reached my wordcount-+-25% goal on any day, I’d work on other smaller things, but that just hasn’t happened, not before 10 p.m. any night.

On the other hand, I’m making good progress on those projects! I had a couple slow weeks the 1-6th and 7th-13th (first garb, then sick), but last week was all zoom, zoom, ZOOM! Focusing on a single project the whole day means I’m less likely to lose track of where I am — but only focusing on it for a day means that I don’t get antsy and bored with it. Win/win!

…except the lack of posting, which I need to find a way to fix. <.<

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/951699.html. You can comment here or there.

On Crows and Crow Cages

Feb11

Crows, the email from April said. Just crows. An anthology of crows.

Ideas started flitting through my head. The Crow (the movies(s), the comics…). No. Crow Change. Neat… but not a story. Crow Therian. Snow White with crows instead of bluebirds. The corvids in the field outside my house. Crows.

Crows, it said, and I started thinking. I knew I didn’t want to do another Fae apoc, not yet. I was pretty sure I wanted to use an urban fantasy setting I’d been bouncing around in my head, one set on a university campus much like the one where I spent most of my twenties (I had a protracted early-adulthood, okay?) And, obvious, it needed to involve crows.

And then my husband, brainstorming over croissant french toast stuffed with strawberries (we have the best diner) mentioned demons.

And Crow Cage was born.

I’ve worked with April before – on What Follows, where my Fae Apoc story Monster Godmother is published. I’m excited to be working with her again on Mobbing Midnight, and I’m excited to be working again with such a wonderful selection of writers.

Go check it out! Every little bit gets us closer to our goal. Annnd… if you you haven’t bought What Follows yet, check out the $20 and higher levels – you can kill two birds with one stone!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/896722.html. You can comment here or there.

Climbing imaginary hills whilst writing imaginary worlds (blog post)

Feb11

I’ve been watching HaikuJaguar‘s talk of her walking desk with quite a bit of interest. I have a desk job, a desk second-job (writing), and, in the winter especially, sedentary hobbies (reading, TV).

Space & money constraints mean such a thing isn’t in the cards for me right now. But I have this lovely tablet I bought for myself for Black Friday (Samsung Galaxy 4.0 Nook) and this lovely keyboard for said table my parents bought me for Christmas….

…and it works. I wouldn’t want to try balancing anything bigger on the treadmill’s magazine rack, and it only works on two treadmills at my gym (one of which is out of order perpetually), but I got on the right treadmill yesterday and wrote 569 words in 30 minutes. Not my top rate, surely, on either writing or calorie burning. But fun!

It’s a case where multi-tasking actually does good. I like it. 🙂

Now if only I could write while I drove…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/896343.html. You can comment here or there.

December Meme – Day Eleven (Yesterday) Roll dem bones.

Dec12

(reference: http://gosimpsonic.tumblr.com/post/54091186115/roll-them-bones)

The Meme

Today’s prompt is from [personal profile] thnidu: Rolling the dice.

Oh ho ho I could go so many… okay, two or three ways with this.

The first that comes to mind is the literal. I have, like any good pen-and-paper gamer, a bag full of dice, most of which have more than six sides (I have some D4s because they amused me; I don’t think I’ve ever used them in a game).

The thing is, although I’ve been playing tabletop games on and off since college, and although I learned HOW when the kid down the street ran D&D for me back in high school (My guy friends who had a regular game wouldn’t let me play with them. Seriously), most of my gaming career has been LARPing.

No, not like that movie. Well, maybe a little bit. (Not like the Supernatural episode, either.)

I did World of Darkness (Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, Mage…) LARP, which wasn’t boffer and was rock-paper-scissors. No dice involved! I tended to describe it, offhandedly, as “I spend my weekends pretending to be a vampire. Or a werewolf.” And it really is just make-believe.

You see, I never outgrew make-believe. Other kids stopped playing with me, but I kept thinking up the stories. Once I found out I could get other people to write stories with me – or read and engage in those stories – I was right back on the playground, having the time of my life.

So rolling the dice comes from, for me, a very similar place as writing. I’m playing in a fictional world, and I love it.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/864808.html. You can comment here or there.

Clean-all-the-things-write-all-the-things weekend

Feb10

I’ve been alternating bouts of cleaning with bouts of writing all weekend! And the house – kitchen and bathroom, in particular – is a lot cleaner, and the writing is a lot more writier. I feel exhausted (Some of that is/was the shoveling) and very accomplished.

Have a couple excerpts:

“…Now, if Rin-nin was willing to throw her weight around…”

“But she doesn’t do that. I mean…” He thought of the few times that he’d seen her flash the signet ring. “Not a lot.”

“You two are allowed to keep on the way you do, providing that you do not cross the line, and you do not interfere with anyone else’s schooling. You’re coming close to both with Illian. What’s more, we need him.”

“She doesn’t spook.”

“True.” Agmund accepted the implicit truce. “So something spooked her. Close the doors, quickly. You.” He grabbed the nearest student. “Run, get Luke. Close all doors behind you.”

“If he keeps clawing that thing, he’s not going to have anything left to hold on to.’

“What’s Dad say?”
Mom paused with her back half to him. He thought she might not answer. When she turned around, her face was strange and her signs were tight and unhappy. “Dad understands.”
“I don’t.”

Back to the writing board!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/472819.html. You can comment here or there.

Resolutions in the New Year

Jan1

Weight and Health:

  • Lose 36 lbs over [48/36] weeks.  Fit comfortably in [my smallest jeans/a size 6]. 
  • Be active a little every day, a good amount (1/2 hour+ once a week, a lot (2+ hours, a hike) once a month)
  • Get rid of encroaching flab under arms; have a stomach I don’t mind being seen in a swimsuit.
  • Eat more vegetables: at least half the plate at least 3x/week
  • Be able to handle the stairs at any of the given local parts without panting. 

Writing:

  • Have Rin/Girey finished and ready to Kickstart by April at latest (this allows for working on it in JaNoWriMo and MaNoWriMo)
  • Submit at least one story a month for publication
  • Addergoole:
    • Get Addergoole E-books available
    • Work on B-sides and have at least 10 5 available before the end of the Addergoole Year


Social:

  • Go to at least three social events this year
  • Make at least one friend I feel comfortable hanging out with for, say, coffee once in a while


Emotional:

  • Set boundaries. Tell people when they’re making me uncomfortable.
  • Language: learn how to speak in un-ambiguous language and ask for clarification when I think someone else is being ambiguous


Etc:

  • Find an marginalization organization plan that works and stick with it. (so far ToDoist seems to be working very nicely.

Phew!

How about you?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/439777.html. You can comment here or there.

Tuesday, with Where’s the Writing?

Oct2

I just realized I have not posted fiction here since September 18th. O_O

And it’s not that I haven’t been writing. I had a little meltdown in there for a couple days (these things happen) but for the most part – writing has been happening.

But I’ve been working on longer things (oooh, aah), Addergoole and long stories and random other things. My @thorneWrites twitter is often a good indication of what I’m working on at any given moment.

Here’s a few snippets from yesterday’s writing

“It’s all right. He wasn’t pleasant, but he only broke two ribs.” She hugged him close to her, wondering, once again, what she was going to do with him. “I’ve survived worse.”

~*#*~

“I never should have gotten you him!”

“Maybe not. Maybe I should have gotten him for myself. But he’s mine, now, and I want to spend some time alone with him.” She stepped over her threshold, pushing Noam further into her room. “I like you, Hera, but that doesn’t mean I need to spend every moment with you.”

~*#*~

Would she leave him that? Would he be alive long enough to care?

“The…” He couldn’t bring himself to admit what he was. A normal human would not have been able to sense the magic. “I’ve heard of places like that.”

“Everyone has. That’s part of the strength, of course. Nobody touches a Dark Tower.”

~*#*~

“Some people get off more easily than others.” Aly sat down next to the little girl with a tray full of snack foods. How she’d manage to get that together without leaving the room, Baram didn’t know. He assumed magic. “And some people just slide around the bad stuff.”

“Oh, I had a bad Keeper. It’s just that Callista’s Keeper was… something else.”

~*#*~

“That’s fucked up. Your whole country is fucked up. This whole situation is fucked up.” Her voice was rising, but Elisabeth didn’t care. It was just ridiculous. Some people got to fall into rabbit holes. She’d fallen into All Slaves All the Time. “And you’re fucked up if you think I’m going to just kowtow for you, just because you paid my kidnapper for the privilege of carrying me out of there.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/405167.html. You can comment here or there.

What’s Lyn Been Doing?

Jun22

Not being on the computer much, that’s for sure!

State of Nano: As of this morning, I have written 45,378 on my Addergoole, Year 9, 1st Semester piece. That, with previously written material (over 11.5K words, wow!) brings it to 11 chapters and some mini-interludes, which means that I’ll finish 12 chapters in just over 50K. Hopefully by the end of the weekend.

State of the garden: we bought another pepper plant (shoshito) and another tomato plant (pear-cherry). Also a cilantro, finally.

The squash are having fun, stretching out finally. The onions are being onions, ditto the leeks.

I have bean sprouts! And pea sprouts! and radish sprouts! (The sort in the garden dirt; I also have sprouts growing in a jar in the kitchen).

And last night I started planting a bag of salt potatoes that had gone to sprout.

State of the everything else: T has been cleaning out the loading ramp that came with the house – essentially a dirt ramp framed in railroad ties. We plan to use it as a planting bed.

After we get the safe out of it. O_O

And the dresser is very nearly done! I have to decide if I want to sand, smooth, and then 4th-coat the top, the sides and drawers are done, and the knobs will get here this week.

And … that explains, I think, the lack of anything else lately. If I owe you Giraffe Words, I apologize. When I hit 50 K, I will start working on the giraffeyness again!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/355432.html. You can comment here or there.

Goals this week!

Jan3

Addergoole:
Format, cover, and post the remaining 4 e-books
Write 1/2 of one bonus story
Post Rix fix

Giraffe Call:
Finish all small prompts for giraffe call
Summarize
Summarize the year in Giraffe
Poke donors about their extended stories (poke)
Post poll for incentive-extended story & setting piece

Other writing:
Find a something to submit to
Write a piece for that.

Longer goals:
Addergoole:
Get caught up on bonus stories
Finish & post for sale Book One as e-book
Stamps count!!

Giraffe Call:
Figure out how to easiest store stats (cluudle?) (Inventrix has an idea)
E-book?

Other writing:
Rin/Girey Ebook
Stranded Ebook
Cali Ebook
More submissions – 1/month minimum

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/218325.html. You can comment here or there.