Discussion: On Un-Hauling Books & How

A good way to help re-organize those shelves of books.

RiverMoose-Reads

Books –

Every book blogger faces the problem, one day or another, of having too many.

For example, my room is basically:

Which is:

1. Honestly probably some sort of health hazard (my shelf did once collapse and almost kill me once)
2. Not so easy to deal with when I go to college next Fall.

My solution?

Unhaul some books.

Which is a little bit like pulling teeth, or sacrificing children. I’m sure all other bookworms can relate.

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What Is An Un-Haul?

An unhaul is exactly what it sounds like. The reverse of a book haul. Getting rid of books.

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What Do You Mean, Getting Rid of Books?

I know. Its sounds basically sacrilegious. But it means getting books out of your shelves/floor/closet/room/house and into someone else hands.

It can be selling to a used bookstore, donating to a library or school, selling them online, giving them away via blog, dropping…

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It’s the New Year, What Will You Bring?

Well, as you’ve noticed I took a bit of time off after NaNoWriMo to rest tired fingers and a tired mind. Truth be told I got stuck with my novel and my 27,850 words seemed to glare at me from under their little chart on the screen. Taunting me to write more and yet when I went into the actual story I couldn’t seem to find the right words to continue the action. So, I’m looking for a few suggestions from some friends as they review the chapters I’ve written. I tend to get wordy in my descriptions as well as when I just write…(No, really?) (lol)

But on another note, as I look into this new year I’ve been reminded of who I am as an individual. Where I grew up, the history of my family, the culture and what makes up the whole of me. Including the spiritual half. It’s not been a sudden interest. I’ve been looking into my family history for some time as a biographical study. But during the past few days I’ve been speaking with my father who has had no small part in my life. He’s a retired Naval Chief Petty Officer of the U.S. Navy and a licensed baptist minister.

Throughout my life, I can remember sitting in a church or Sunday school class and listening to my father teach. He would always say, “If you have questions, write them down and we’ll discuss them after church.” He also told my brother and I we often asked questions most adults never thought of. This is how I grew up. Oh, my life certainly wasn’t ideal. There were many trials and tribulations (as it were). Our family came close to being broken apart several times due to extenuating circumstances. But the Bible and Scripture was always taught in our family.

As this new year opens my own resolutions have been formed. I have told you of what my life contained because of what I plan for my blog. I still plan to continue writing stories, poetry and other articles. But as I go forward this year I also plan to include a Bible Study of specific canons which were written for both church and pastors.

This came about due to a conversation with my father about how we live our lives as a testament to others. And the Bible was written as a guideline for us to follow on how to live our lives. There are teachings of discipline and ways of faith. I plan to find them, study them and see what they hold for me in this new journey. And perhaps they may also hold something for you as well.

So, I bring this “wordy” new year post to a close. I hope to see you all come along in my new journey; or, just follow along with my regular stories and poetry. 🙂  I hope this new year will bring us all a little closer and bring you what you seek.

Day 24 NaNo – In a Funk

Ok, it’s day 24 of NaNoWriMo and I have to admit it…I’m in a funk. Where my word count  should be at 39,985 with the rest of you. I’m stuck at 27,831 words. I know I can catch up but my mind seems to be stuck on personal  problems I’m having.  I can’t seem to pull  myself back up.

With  that in mind, I was able to write a poem concerning my problem. Weird  huh?  I  can’t write on  my novel  but poetry spouts from my fingertips. Life really is a joke. Anyway, here’s that poem (I’ll also put it in my poetry section). I’m putting  it here so you can see my mindset.

See My Words
© By: Lisa M. Gordier, Nov. 23, 2017

How do they not see
the words  before me?
Why do they only see
the tide before them?

The  swirling eddy
of vicious vowels
intertwine with consonants;
causing words to flow endlessly
on a snow white page.

And yet…

They do not see.
The beautiful tide,
seething  to be free
of their shackles and chains,
to whisper in everyone’s ears.

My  words shall have form
and a voice for all.
They will sing out to the wind,
who will whisper to all.

And then they will go,
to hide in the bookshelves.
Lurking in the undertow
of  the inevitable tide.

They cannot see.

So, everyone out there in NaNo land and blogosphere. Am I in a serious funk, or what? I do still know where I want to go  with my story and what I want to do with it. I’m just having  difficult with it at the moment.

(sigh) Well everyone keep those Pens & keyboards going. NaNo only has one more week to go.

The nine stages of FINALLY finishing your story

A great “cat’s” analogy of what’s to come and how we often feel about reaching our NaNo goal.

Milly Rogers Author

Now that the end of Nanowrimo is coming up, I’m sure there will be plenty of writers who will be jumping up and down with joy when they reach that elusive 50k goal. Some may even finish their novels. And if you’re one of them? Well, cheers to you.

I’m also hoping there are a few others out there like me who started Nanowrimo, quickly chucked in the towel on day two, then spent many leisurely evenings sipping wine and… doing nothing much at all.

Regardless of which camp you belong to, most of you can probably relate to or are eagerly anticipating the following nine stages: (and I bloody well hope you can relate, otherwise there must be something wrong with me)

1. You’ve just typed ‘the end’ and… no – no words. No words to describe it

2. But when it does finally sink in .25 seconds later, all you…

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Day 20 NaNo – In a Quandary

Well, day 20 of NaNoWriMo is here and I’ve surely gotten myself in a quandary. I’ve gotten no further than day 15 with my word count somewhere just above 27,000. Oh woe is me. All things considered, I suppose it’s not completely terrible. I’m only about 6,000 words behind.

Just as reference for yourself, you should hopefully be around 33,320 words (give or take) by the end of the day.

My initial quandary was having difficulty in continuing a particular scene. So, I thought to myself, I’ll add in a couple scenes which I’d been meaning to add in which happen a little bit down the road and then splice them together the way I’d intended. Hmph, silly me. I added the two scenes and then life came along.

That darn thing called life, which is why I missed two more day of both writing &  blogging. I had to both work on job and then I came down with a dreaded migraine – which kept me off the computer. Of course when I got better, I still had that dreaded scene staring at me. So I did what I call my “Mind Wipe/Blank”. I put all my writing and computer work aside. I don’t even write letters, bills, you name it – I don’t write it. And I do anything else. I talk to a friend, play video games, whatever….listen to my upstairs neighbor jump on my head.

And now you ask me, “Did it work?” And I tell you that I can’t really say for sure. I feel like I’m still staring into the black hole of an abyss but I might be seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. If I can’t quite yet connect my two dots I might add a third one. I know it seems silly, but at least I’d still be writing.

So everyone embrace your quandaries whole-heartedly! You never know what might come of them. Keep those pens and keyboards going. We’re almost done.

Day 15 NaNo – Does Your Story Make You Laugh?

Here we are at Day 15 of NaNoWriMo, the halfway point. With a little help from pieces of my story I’m jumping around with, I was able to reach (and go beyond) my 5,000 word goal today. I did more than 7,000 words! So, now my word count is at 27,536.

And, of course, the word goal for today was a total of 25,000 words (if you’re keeping track out there).

By the title of my blog today, you can see where I’m going. 🙂 Yes, laughter. It can be an important thing in your novel, even if it’s horror or drama. When I read Heinlein’s “Battlefield Earth”, I was surprised to find quite a bit of humor in his writing. It endeared me to both the author and the characters.

Today, while writing, (because I’m a panster) I wrote a part of a scene which had me guffawing so much I stopped in my tracks. For some reason I had to keep re-reading it to see if I wanted to keep it that way, and I kept laughing. In the end, it stayed. Here’s that short bit:

As the evening wore on and shops closed, I decided my search would have to go to a different place; that of a tavern. I had passed one likely suspect in my wanderings, called “The Drunken Wench”. It was also not far from where I currently was – another reason it was a good a place as any to start.

It was late evening when i arrived, but not so late that patrons were still not coming and going from the tavern. There was a smell of roasted wild boar and vegetables along with honey mead wafting out from the door when it opened and closed. Above the door, the tavern’s sign swung in the light breeze portraying its transgressed wench.

So I put to you…create an amusing scene, even it it’s just a small bit such as the one above. Make someone laugh. Use your inner comedian and smile a little. Heck even the bad guys have to laugh too.

Have a good evening and a good tomorrow. Keep those pens and computer keyboards going.

Day 14 NaNo – Resting Eyes & Fingers

Well, it’s obvious I skipped out on Day 13 of NaNoWriMo, but I’m here on Day 14 and feeling slightly better rested.

I picked up my computer today and wrote 750 words, to bring my total word count to 20,538.  Of course if you’re on track with you’re word count you should be somewhere in the vicinity of 23.333 give or take.

For the past two days I’ve been trying to rest both my fingers and my eyes. I know I’ve touched on the fact I’ve different maladies which forgo my ability to write on occasion. One is arthritis, practically everywhere but worse in my fingers. Another is dry eyes. “Ha” you say? Dry eyes? Unfortunately it causes my eyes to go blurry when I look at my computer screen for any length of time. It even makes it difficult to drive or just to read. Thus the need to rest the poor things.

And why am I mentioning these maladies of mine? Because for those of you out there who may have similar problems I’m reminding you it’s ok to take that day or two off from writing (even during NaNo) to take care of yourself. I  think I’ve mentioned it before. Remember when you suffer, your writing sufferers as well.

So, I have a bit of my day left to  relax. I’ve made it to my 20,000 word goal, for the moment. Now I’ll finish my day of rest.

Keep taking care of yourselves and keep those pens and keyboards going.

 

The nine main stereotypes of writers

Hilarity ensues when we think of such stereotypes.

Milly Rogers Author

When most people picture a writer they imagine an intelligent but crazy bohemian hermit who spends their days addicted to caffeine in all its forms and dreaming up fantastical worlds and despicable murders.  It may shock some people to learn that some writers may enjoy going to the beach, love the sun, prefer to be outdoors, and actually, NO, they don’t know a single thing about how a computer works, but if you need help with anything Microsoft word related – well you’re in luck!

1. Writers are computer whizzes – No mother, I am NOT A COMPUTER WHIZ. I’ve been slaving away on my laptop for years because I enjoy writing (and netflix), not because I like computer programs and learning how to connect a laptop to wi-fi. Please stop asking me for help because I don’t know (OK I do, but that’s beside the point).

2. Writers are poor hippie drifters – you…

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Day 12 NaNo – Never Thought So

Well what do you know? Day Twelve of NaNoWriMo is almost over for plenty of us. My fingers are beginning to cramp and I’d hate to think what they’d feel like if I were using just a pen and paper!

I wrote just over 1,000 words today. Not quite my goal so I’m only up to 19,782 words. I’m shy the goal of 20,000 words today. Hopefully everyone else is doing  a little better and has reached that goal or just about. I suppose mine isn’t terrible since I’m only shy 320 words.

It’s funny, today I was staring down those 320 words like they were an outlaw in some western movie. I thought, “I can write those words easy”, but it was getting late and I’d just finished one of those sentences that seemed to say, “next scene please,” and my mind wandered ten different directions. Man, I hate when that happens.

I know, however, that tomorrow I will reach that 20,000 word and more goal, and for me that is quite remarkable. I never thought I’d make it this far in NaNo. It encourages me that I’ve come this far with my writing. And I hope, especially if this is your first NaNo, that if you’ve also come this far, you are encouraged as well.

Keep those pens and keyboards going.

Lesson 27: 5 things I learnt from Stephen King’s “On Writing”

A wonderful reminder of what makes us good writers