So excited....but so much to learn

It's 7:22 Friday evening and as I opened my blog I got SO excited because I had one comment AND a NEW FOLLOWER!!!!! I need to breathe and slow down to get my thoughts together-I feel like I won a prize!!! First, I want to say thanks and welcome (if that's appropriate) to my new follower, iwrite92. If you're name is in your profile, I haven't read through it yet, because I couldn't wait to post this, but thanks for adding your name. I wish I'd started writing at seventeen....Thanks also, Sara, for your comment that helped to ease my guilt trip a little. Maybe I do need to look at my schedule and rearrange the blog sessions a little.

Now for the so much to learn. I am NOT a computer savvy individual. While I can sort of make my way around, it usually takes me forever to get where I'm trying to go. This leads me to my dilemma for tonight. Sara tweeted about my blog on twitter. Okay. I know what Twitter is and I think a tweet is like a comment. That's about it, so I'm guessing it means that the tweet will pique curiosity and possibly bring readers to my blog. How'm I doin'? I am a crazy bird fanatic-I have three budgies-but theirs are the only tweets I know. So...Twitter. More stuff for me to read and learn about. I do think that I joined at one point, and I have no idea when that was or what my password might be, but it would probably be easy enough to find out.

More stuff to stump me...I tried to respond to Sara by email and somehow ended up following myself on my own blog. What a pinhead! Now I have to figure out how to unfollow as it looks really ridiculous and desperate. Never did get the email to you, Sara-don't tell me though, I like mysteries and I'll figure it out... I hope.

Some cool info to pass on--but it's not going to be from "In Your Own Voice" as I said I'd do last night. This is better. I love entering writing contests (Sara had some, but I was just beginning my blog and a little overwhelmed). A really fun one is coming up, and there's still some room for participants. It's offered through Writer's Weekly and they call it their 24 Hour Contest. They set a date, usually on a Saturday, and at noon on that day, they email you a paragraph to turn into a story. They give you 24 hours to submit it, so it has to be finished and entered by noon on Sunday. It's fun, and some of the winning stories are really, really good....Let's see if I can attach the link..... http://www.writersweekly.com/. There. I have yet to figure out how to do it so links are highlighted, but I'll get there.

Writer's Digest is also offering some really awesome contests, with a choice of genre's from which to choose. They currently have a similar challenge to the 24 hour, only you get more time. Called "Your Story", they offer an idea to run with and develop into your story. Thus the name! Deadline for that one is February 10th. Check out the plethora of other competitions they're offering for the spring at http://www.writersdigest.com

Going to spend some time with my husband....Happy Friday Night!

Exhausted

Yesterday was the first time I didn't post since I started this blog on Jan. 1. It bugged me because I'd made a pact with myself to post everyday, but I just couldn't do it last night. I'd had a couple of long days and they caught up with me. Tomorrow is going to be another long one and I'm really tired tonight, but I didn't want to let another day go by without a post.

Still wading through "In Your Own Voice". It's not too technical and I've picked up a few really helpful points which I'll go into detail about tomorrow. Reading an entire book a week is quite a demand, though, and I think I may cut myself some slack there. I do love to read, but I can only do so much stuff in a day.

I have this fantasy about someday being able to do nothing but write, and read. I guess we all do. I'd love to be able to stay home and work at my computer until the late hours of the evening, then sleep in until around 8:00 the next morning and do it all over again. Realistically, I know that it's not that way it is. I know it's work. And difficult. And frustrating. But I'd be doing all that difficult, frustrating work for myself. How cool. At the very least, I have something to look forward to when retirement time arrives. I'll have to wait a while but until then, I can dream...
This isn't much of an entry for today, but it's about all I have to give. Tomorrow's another day.

Trying Write To Done link again

The link didn't show up on the post I published two seconds ago. I'll try again, but just in case, I'll include it here as well.

http://writetodone.com/

Plug a blog and quick post

If anyone is out there and reads this, check out the link for Write To Done. Filled with amazing articles on everything from clearing out brain clutter through brief and simple meditation techniques to really helpful writing tips, it offers both incite and inspiration. I'm really glad I found it and I hope I was able to include the link with this....still trying to fine tune details.

Tonight I wanted to work on revising the story for my writing group and I’d planned to make this a quick and short post. But with three sentences barely written, I'd already gone back a half dozen times to rewrite them. This is so time consuming, I swear, it takes me ninety minutes to put four paragraphs together to my satisfaction. I’m trying to train myself to just get stuff down, misspellings and all, then go back and rewrite and edit, but even as I compose this, I'm correcting and changing, especially if a word is misspelled.

What’s the matter with me? Sometimes I really wonder why the hell I’m doing this to myself. I have to work hard at not stressing out, especially over things I can’t control, but this seems to bring out the stress in me big time. So why do I enjoy it so much? Is it some warped form of self punishment or is it because, as my husband tells me, I’m a control freak? I think it may be a little of both. All I know is when I'm done-or at least finished for the time being, I feel a great sense of satisfaction and release. The key is knowing when to stop because I tend to get all caught up and just want to keep going. But I have a real job to go to in the morning and unfortunately can't sit here all night.

Maybe someday I'll have all the time I want to just write and write and write. I can dream...

Read a little, learned a lot

I feel better tonight after I did some more reading from Bernard Selling's "In Your Own Voice". I'm quickly learning that the amount of knowledge I have about writing could be fit on the head of a pin. For example, each time I go back and read something I wrote, I invariably change the content because I don't like the way it came out the first time. I thought that was editing. No. I'm rewriting. Editing corrects the grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. I apologize to anyone who read that insight and rolled their eyes. I'll take any suggestions or help available and if you eye-rollers haven't already deleted me forever from your hard drive and want to offer it up, please feel free to throw some my way.

Obviously, drawing the reader in as soon as possible is the key to a good story. Selling stresses beginning with a powerful moment, either with dialog or a line of action, creating a strong sense of feeling to extract empathy from the reader, and provoke questions that will spurn the reader further. Getting all that into the first paragraph will entice the reader to move onto the second paragraph, where the "backstory" will fill in the details of events that happened before the story actually opened.


Information is good. Too much information is bad. I once heard someone say "write tight", meaning use concise language to get the point across with as few words as possible. The same goes for creating a story. Selling stresses focus, creating a beginning, middle and end to each episode of writing, keeping to the topic without introducing other unrelated events. Kind of like a chronological time line.. Bouncing from kindergarten to high school and back to third grade would be confusing. Keep order. Order is good.


I was encouraged by all I read today, because some of it comes naturally to me. I've been referred to as a drama queen, but I think that when it comes to getting emotions down on paper, I'm pretty good at it. Everything else, not so good. I'll keep trying, though....keep on writing, keep on writing, keep on writing.....

Starting Week 2

Sunday night and I'm tired. This is the first time I've sat at the computer today, and I'm fighting with myself as to write or not to write. I don't have much to offer tonight-I'm feeling a little disappointed in myself because I didn't finish "In Your Own Voice" this week, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to read a book a week. Bill says no excuses and I need to make time. I agree, but some days, my head just can't wrap around any more stuff or it feels like my brain will explode.
I think for now, I'll do a little more reading of other blogs, make up my calendar for next week, and call it a day.