Kaye George gave me a kick in the pants. Exactly what I needed. She sent me the link to Written? Kitten!, an app which provides positive reinforcement at 100-word intervals.* (Or 200, 500, or 1000, for writers who don’t like cats as much as I do.) Several weeks ago, I downloaded Write or Die, an … Continue reading »
Tagged with creative writing …
#ROW80 11.13, NaNo, & Viral Accord
NaNoWriMo / ROW80 update: I’ve been working on Molly but haven’t been averaging the 1667 words per day required to reach the target by the end of November. According to the NaNo stats page, at my current rate, I’ll reach 50,000 words on September 28, 2015. But there is hope—if I write 2,753 words each … Continue reading »
Cow Swapping
Ever have one of those days when you have a zillion things to do, but you can’t get them done? Because you start one thing, but then you think you should be doing another thing, so you start that, but you remember you need to do something else? So you stop starting anything at all? … Continue reading »
#ROW80 10/3 Goals
Round 4 of A Round of Words in 80 Days begins today with a statement of goals. Here are mine: Write 1000 words a day (excluding blog posts and HotShots!) Keep a daily record of activities related to writing Don’t volunteer for or join anything else Those are the official goals. If I were listing … Continue reading »
Purpose
We write to make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable and love possible. ~ Roger Rosenblatt
Day 29: W. F. Ward, Confectioner, 1958
Out on the porch it’s August, But it’s cool inside and dim, one bulb suspending from a cord. A slim brunette holding a bottle of Royal Crown Cola Smiles down from above the mirror. In the back, where it’s dark and you’ve never been, Sit two small, dusty tables and four delicate chairs. Once, flappers … Continue reading »
Day 17: Perpetual writing
I never quite know when I’m not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, “Damnit, Thurber, stop writing.” She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, “Is he sick?” “No,” my wife says, “he’s writing … Continue reading »
NaNoWriMo, MRI, TBF, and WLT
I’ve spent the past week writing and rewriting a post about attending the Texas Book Festival. No matter how many times I revised it, it sounded dull and complaining. Actually, it sounded worse than complaining, but if I use the word I have in mind, I would be crossing a line drawn in the sand … Continue reading »
Move over, Cyd Charisse
I received a phone call last week from Lucia Zimmitti, an editor who spoke at the Texas Trail Writers Roundup this spring. In mid-July, I’d sent her the first five pages of my manuscript. She reported that she’d read them and that they’re ready for query. She said she believes agents who read them will … Continue reading »
A nice turn of events
I learned yesterday evening that my story “Personal Experience” won the second place prize in the Fiction: Short Story category of the 2010 Brazos Writers Writing Contest. My critique partner’s story, “Taffy Lomita,” won first place and will be published online. CP and I are officially Pleased With Ourselves. I’ve given myself permission to remain … Continue reading »
