Sometimes—no actually most of the time—I get ideas of something fun I want to do. Saturday it was a restaurant review blog, today it’s a book review blog. I think I would have a lot of fun, and I always think that I would actually be able to follow through with it. Remember the Internet Book Database I tried to start a while ago? That never took off. My whole life is littered with things like that. Clubs that never got past the first meeting, websites that no one ever visited, memberships contracts that I couldn’t fulfill, etc. It’s right depressing.
It all comes down to my short attention span. I have the same problem reading books. If it doesn’t hold my attention captive, then I give up and move on to something else. The only thing I’ve been able to keep up for longer than a couple of months is this blog, which I’ve actually been treating more like a diary—i.e. I rant, ramble, complain, and usually don’t talk about anything of worth, with a few exceptions.
I have the same problem with my writing. One day I’ll have a brilliant idea for a novel and I want to write it, and the next day the idea has cooled off enough that I want to write something else.
Today I’m not going to just complain, though. Today, I’m going to lay out my New Year’s Resolution to change all this. I know it’s a little early, but I wanted to start early so that by January 1st, 2011 I’ll have a workable plan to accomplishing my goal.
So, my goal is to make habits of sticking with things through a.) to the end or b.) long enough to make it a permanent habit.
For my next post I’ll have a better idea of how I’m going to do that, so stay tuned.
P.S. I'm writing this using Windows Live Writer, which is the COOLEST blogging program ever invented. Just so you know.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
It's Official
I'm now property of the United States Air Force.
Yesterday I went to the Military Entrance Processing Station and spent all morning, from 5:30 until after one in the afternoon, filling out paperwork, taking a physical, signing a million things, getting my fingers printed, and finally, taking the oath that swears me into the Delayed Entrance Program. So now I'm a DEP poolie.
I'll tell you one thing about MEPS; when they drew my blood, it didn't hurt at all. Not even the slightest pin prick. It was really weird, and quite fascinating.
So I just have a few more months left before I'm shipped off to basic training and start my life as a military woman. It's just not coming quick enough.
Yesterday I went to the Military Entrance Processing Station and spent all morning, from 5:30 until after one in the afternoon, filling out paperwork, taking a physical, signing a million things, getting my fingers printed, and finally, taking the oath that swears me into the Delayed Entrance Program. So now I'm a DEP poolie.
I'll tell you one thing about MEPS; when they drew my blood, it didn't hurt at all. Not even the slightest pin prick. It was really weird, and quite fascinating.
So I just have a few more months left before I'm shipped off to basic training and start my life as a military woman. It's just not coming quick enough.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Contest
I don't normally do this, but I was so excited to read about this contest that I decided that I had to give it a try.
There is this author, H. P. Mallory, who writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy. On her blog, she has posted that she's holding a contest for her fans to find someone to be a character in her book. Now, as a writer myself, I think it's a fabulous idea to have a contest like this, and I would die of happiness if I won.
One of the ways to get an extra entry is to talk about the contest on your blog, so here I am, talking about it on my blog!
Here's the link, if any of you are interested in taking a look; H. P. Mallory Character Contest
And now, we'll go back to our (ir)regular posting schedule.
There is this author, H. P. Mallory, who writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy. On her blog, she has posted that she's holding a contest for her fans to find someone to be a character in her book. Now, as a writer myself, I think it's a fabulous idea to have a contest like this, and I would die of happiness if I won.
One of the ways to get an extra entry is to talk about the contest on your blog, so here I am, talking about it on my blog!
Here's the link, if any of you are interested in taking a look; H. P. Mallory Character Contest
And now, we'll go back to our (ir)regular posting schedule.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
The Christmas Tree
For almost as long as I can remember, my family has had a manger instead of a Christmas tree during the Christmas season. Me and my siblings have always complained about this, because we like having a Christmas tree. Of course, my mom hates it because my brothers always fight over who gets to put what decoration on the tree, and we never have enough money to buy a real tree.
I've never had a chance to tell my mom, but there are reasons that I feel a Christmas tree should always be part of the decorations around the house. For one, the sweet smell of pine reminds me of the Christmas season. It's not Christmas, until I can smell a pine tree inside. But here are the real reasons.
1. The Christmas tree itself. It's an evergreen. I don't know what other people think that means, but to me the evergreen represents immortality, which is part of the reason that Jesus was born on Earth for, to grant mankind immortality, and give all people a chance to obtain eternal life. So right off the bat, the tree represents something important to the Christmas holiday.
2. The twinkle lights. This had a double meaning to me. First, each individual light is the light of Christ that everyone has inside them, that prompts people to do the right thing. And second, when it's dark outside, the overhead light is off, and all you can see is the tree light up by all the little lights, the lights combine into a larger glow, which to me represents Christ himself, because he is the Light of the World, pushing back the darkness and shining for all to see.
3. The decorations. I don't know about other families, but the decorations we use (when we actually have a tree) are all ornaments that my mother has collected over the years, each one with a special memory attached to it. So the decorations represent memories, usually of family and friends. And Christmas is a holiday of reflecting, on both Jesus' birth as well as the good things we remember in our own past.
4. The angel tree topper. We put an angel on our temples, why shouldn't we put angels on top of our Christmas tree during the holiday that celebrates the birth of him whose name we take upon ourselves? It might not look like the same angel, but when we put that angel topper on our tree, we are essentially saying 'this tree is a holy symbol of our discipleship of Christ, just like the temple is'.
Now, I may be romanticizing the symbolism of the tree and decorations. They may not have any real meaning, and may just be relics of what Christmas used to be when it was a pagan holiday. But these are what I think of when I think of a Christmas Tree.
I've never had a chance to tell my mom, but there are reasons that I feel a Christmas tree should always be part of the decorations around the house. For one, the sweet smell of pine reminds me of the Christmas season. It's not Christmas, until I can smell a pine tree inside. But here are the real reasons.
1. The Christmas tree itself. It's an evergreen. I don't know what other people think that means, but to me the evergreen represents immortality, which is part of the reason that Jesus was born on Earth for, to grant mankind immortality, and give all people a chance to obtain eternal life. So right off the bat, the tree represents something important to the Christmas holiday.
2. The twinkle lights. This had a double meaning to me. First, each individual light is the light of Christ that everyone has inside them, that prompts people to do the right thing. And second, when it's dark outside, the overhead light is off, and all you can see is the tree light up by all the little lights, the lights combine into a larger glow, which to me represents Christ himself, because he is the Light of the World, pushing back the darkness and shining for all to see.
3. The decorations. I don't know about other families, but the decorations we use (when we actually have a tree) are all ornaments that my mother has collected over the years, each one with a special memory attached to it. So the decorations represent memories, usually of family and friends. And Christmas is a holiday of reflecting, on both Jesus' birth as well as the good things we remember in our own past.
4. The angel tree topper. We put an angel on our temples, why shouldn't we put angels on top of our Christmas tree during the holiday that celebrates the birth of him whose name we take upon ourselves? It might not look like the same angel, but when we put that angel topper on our tree, we are essentially saying 'this tree is a holy symbol of our discipleship of Christ, just like the temple is'.
Now, I may be romanticizing the symbolism of the tree and decorations. They may not have any real meaning, and may just be relics of what Christmas used to be when it was a pagan holiday. But these are what I think of when I think of a Christmas Tree.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Speed of Light
I'm going to admit up front that I like reading science fiction. Not a lot, mind you, because some is just too bizarre for me, but I like what is generally termed as space opera. Star Wars is an example, though I don't read the books anymore because there are just too many of them. Of course, I haven't read a lot of classics, either. I'm still in the middle of reading Asimov's Foundation, I've read Herbert's Dune along with the first two sequels, and I've read some of Anne McCaffrey's stuff. All in all, not a very impressive list.
The last few weeks I've been struggling to find a way to earn money while I'm waiting to be shipped out to Texas. There aren't any jobs in the small town I live in, and I don't have a car so I can't drive to another town. I have just under three hundred dollars left from the insurance money I got when my car was totaled, but it's not going to last much longer, especially with a kitten to spay. So I thought I could try my hand at writing short science fictions stories to sell to magazines.
I thought it would be easy. I mean, 8k is easy for me, and I've finished a couple of stories that short before, but most of my writing has been fantasy, so I knew this would be different. I've never actually written more than a few thousand words on any science fiction story, though I have a lot of ideas. I originally thought it was just because I like writing fantasy more, but after attempting to write three different stories to sell, I realized that wasn't the case.
I'm either not smart enough or not crazy enough to write science fiction.
My idea of science fiction is more based on the silver screen than books. I like Star Wars and Star Trek, and I love Firefly and an old show called Space: Above and Beyond. The thing about all of these is that they are simple. You can empathizes with the characters because they live through situations that are translatable into our time, and the technology never overwhelms the characters and story. However, in my determination to write and sell science fiction short stories I read some of my books that have been gathering dust on my shelves, and found that simple is not what science fiction is, apparently.
I've been reading a book called The New Space Opera 2, which is a collection of short stories, (I have number 1 as well) and 90% of the stories make my head spin. For the most part I can't relate to the characters because half the time they are 200 or thirteen centuries old making bizarre choices and using technology that I could never dream of.
The other thing is most science fiction has aliens in it, and I don't like reading about aliens. That's one of the reasons I like Dune and its sequels; there aren't any aliens. I mean, I firmly believe that there are 'aliens' out there, but I believe that they have the same form we do, so reading about tentacled, gray skinned, three-limbed creatures that have three genders, speak in radio waves, and breathes methane, doesn't appeal to me.
I realized that I had to give it a try anyway, to try to write something to sell, but after struggling through ONE PAGE on one story, I gave up. I'm just not cut out for it. My writing style doesn't do sell-able science fiction, my intelligence doesn't do sell-able science fiction.
So I'm back to my favorite genre and no way to earn money unless I get a novel finished.
The last few weeks I've been struggling to find a way to earn money while I'm waiting to be shipped out to Texas. There aren't any jobs in the small town I live in, and I don't have a car so I can't drive to another town. I have just under three hundred dollars left from the insurance money I got when my car was totaled, but it's not going to last much longer, especially with a kitten to spay. So I thought I could try my hand at writing short science fictions stories to sell to magazines.
I thought it would be easy. I mean, 8k is easy for me, and I've finished a couple of stories that short before, but most of my writing has been fantasy, so I knew this would be different. I've never actually written more than a few thousand words on any science fiction story, though I have a lot of ideas. I originally thought it was just because I like writing fantasy more, but after attempting to write three different stories to sell, I realized that wasn't the case.
I'm either not smart enough or not crazy enough to write science fiction.
My idea of science fiction is more based on the silver screen than books. I like Star Wars and Star Trek, and I love Firefly and an old show called Space: Above and Beyond. The thing about all of these is that they are simple. You can empathizes with the characters because they live through situations that are translatable into our time, and the technology never overwhelms the characters and story. However, in my determination to write and sell science fiction short stories I read some of my books that have been gathering dust on my shelves, and found that simple is not what science fiction is, apparently.
I've been reading a book called The New Space Opera 2, which is a collection of short stories, (I have number 1 as well) and 90% of the stories make my head spin. For the most part I can't relate to the characters because half the time they are 200 or thirteen centuries old making bizarre choices and using technology that I could never dream of.
The other thing is most science fiction has aliens in it, and I don't like reading about aliens. That's one of the reasons I like Dune and its sequels; there aren't any aliens. I mean, I firmly believe that there are 'aliens' out there, but I believe that they have the same form we do, so reading about tentacled, gray skinned, three-limbed creatures that have three genders, speak in radio waves, and breathes methane, doesn't appeal to me.
I realized that I had to give it a try anyway, to try to write something to sell, but after struggling through ONE PAGE on one story, I gave up. I'm just not cut out for it. My writing style doesn't do sell-able science fiction, my intelligence doesn't do sell-able science fiction.
So I'm back to my favorite genre and no way to earn money unless I get a novel finished.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Noble on Minimalism
Sometime during August I discovered something called minimalism, probably through an article on the Yahoo homepage. I was immediately intrigued; people who live with the fewest amount of things they can get away with? I had heard of it before, namely in a young adult book called The Gospel According to Larry and its sequels, but I didn't know it had a name to it.
As usual, I did a ton of research on it. When I want to know about something, I read EVERYTHING. Seriously everything. Since talking with the Air Force recruiter I haven't learned anything that I hadn't already learned from doing my research. I'm a bit obsessive that way.
Anyway, I found a lot of blogs to read, a lot of articles, and the more I read it the more I realized that I liked the idea, even agreed with some of it. While I will probably never be able to be an extreme minimalist, I would love to only own what I absolutely need.
In my family, it's never really been that way. We have always had stuff; books, tools (kitchen and guy tools), decorative knickknacks, magazines, CDs, even old vinyl records that my mom collected and kept for a long time even though we didn't have a working player. I learned, probably subconsciously, to keep things. I keep all my papers, I always find a reason to keep books I will probably never read again (or even read for the first time), and I can't seem to get rid of small things that are usually associated with memories. Over my twenty-one years I have collected a lot of 'stuff'.
Moving four times in less than a year has shown me that I really don't need half the stuff I lug around, and that really they are weighing me down. And when I join the Air Force I won't be allowed to have my stuff for at least the first four to six months.
After a couple of weeks of going over everything I could find on minimalism it went to the back burner in my mind, like most things do. I kept tabs on my favorite of the blogs, listed to the right as miss minimalism, but that was about it.
Recently though, I've been having to go through my stuff and start packing it up again. While I'm not leaving for several more months, I wanted to make room in my room for a desk for my mom's sewing machine because I feel bad that I'm going to be here a lot longer than anyone thought. Originally the room I'm staying in was supposed to be mom's sewing room, and she's had to do without because of me.
So I had to look at my stuff and say what I could live without for a while so that I could give her a place to do her favorite thing (so she doesn't go crazy over the winter). I've found that packing things up and getting it out of my room, as well as getting rid of things I don't have room for, made me feel good. My room felt open again, and I have places for some more things. I even got rid of all but two of my favorite stuffed animals. I only kept the two that had the most special meaning to me (one I got when my second youngest brother was born, and the second I got when I was eight and got baptized).
Yech, I'm rambling.
Anyway, what I mean to say is, while I will never get my possessions down to one hundred, or even two hundred, during the months before I leave for basic training in Texas I hope to start my way down the minimalist path and get rid of everything I don't need and never use. Hopefully without so much stuff weighing me down I will feel less tired all the time and feel like I don't have to worry about where I'm going to put everything.
If you've heard of or practice minimalism or something like it, tell me about it.
As usual, I did a ton of research on it. When I want to know about something, I read EVERYTHING. Seriously everything. Since talking with the Air Force recruiter I haven't learned anything that I hadn't already learned from doing my research. I'm a bit obsessive that way.
Anyway, I found a lot of blogs to read, a lot of articles, and the more I read it the more I realized that I liked the idea, even agreed with some of it. While I will probably never be able to be an extreme minimalist, I would love to only own what I absolutely need.
In my family, it's never really been that way. We have always had stuff; books, tools (kitchen and guy tools), decorative knickknacks, magazines, CDs, even old vinyl records that my mom collected and kept for a long time even though we didn't have a working player. I learned, probably subconsciously, to keep things. I keep all my papers, I always find a reason to keep books I will probably never read again (or even read for the first time), and I can't seem to get rid of small things that are usually associated with memories. Over my twenty-one years I have collected a lot of 'stuff'.
Moving four times in less than a year has shown me that I really don't need half the stuff I lug around, and that really they are weighing me down. And when I join the Air Force I won't be allowed to have my stuff for at least the first four to six months.
After a couple of weeks of going over everything I could find on minimalism it went to the back burner in my mind, like most things do. I kept tabs on my favorite of the blogs, listed to the right as miss minimalism, but that was about it.
Recently though, I've been having to go through my stuff and start packing it up again. While I'm not leaving for several more months, I wanted to make room in my room for a desk for my mom's sewing machine because I feel bad that I'm going to be here a lot longer than anyone thought. Originally the room I'm staying in was supposed to be mom's sewing room, and she's had to do without because of me.
So I had to look at my stuff and say what I could live without for a while so that I could give her a place to do her favorite thing (so she doesn't go crazy over the winter). I've found that packing things up and getting it out of my room, as well as getting rid of things I don't have room for, made me feel good. My room felt open again, and I have places for some more things. I even got rid of all but two of my favorite stuffed animals. I only kept the two that had the most special meaning to me (one I got when my second youngest brother was born, and the second I got when I was eight and got baptized).
Yech, I'm rambling.
Anyway, what I mean to say is, while I will never get my possessions down to one hundred, or even two hundred, during the months before I leave for basic training in Texas I hope to start my way down the minimalist path and get rid of everything I don't need and never use. Hopefully without so much stuff weighing me down I will feel less tired all the time and feel like I don't have to worry about where I'm going to put everything.
If you've heard of or practice minimalism or something like it, tell me about it.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
December is Here
Finally. After about the third week of November I was sick of NaNoWriMo. That's a really sad thing to be feeling, sick of the novel writing month that I look forward to every year.
This year has been a disaster, though. I never got past 8k on any story I started, and I changed at least ten times. I just haven't been as dedicated to my writing lately. I've struggled to finish anything, and I've started to wonder if I'll ever be able to get published. It's really depressing.
I did manage to finish NaNoWriMo, though I didn't finish a novel. I found that the biggest reason I'm having trouble with it the past two years is I've been taking it too seriously. I've been using it as a way to get my publishable ideas written, and that's not what NaNoWriMo is about. It's about having fun writing something crappy. I may not ever do NaNoWriMo again because I can't write something crappy. Even when I banish my inner editor, I still physically can't write anything bad. It makes me sick just thinking about writing something like that.
So, since it is now December and I have up to five months before I leave for Texas, I've decided to try a different approach to writing. I've been focusing on writing novels (and once I have one idea than it turns into a whole series, which usually overwhelms me to the point I don't want to do it anymore) and what I need to be focusing on is getting SOMETHING published. Meaning, I should start at the bottom and write short stories for magazines and anthologies and get a foot in the door before I try to write a novel.
And I think I can actually do it. I have proven to myself already that I can write short stuff (even when I was trying to write long stuff) so now it's just a matter of writing one thing and finding someone who will publish it. All things considered, that shouldn't be excruciatingly hard, but we'll see how it turns out.
This year has been a disaster, though. I never got past 8k on any story I started, and I changed at least ten times. I just haven't been as dedicated to my writing lately. I've struggled to finish anything, and I've started to wonder if I'll ever be able to get published. It's really depressing.
I did manage to finish NaNoWriMo, though I didn't finish a novel. I found that the biggest reason I'm having trouble with it the past two years is I've been taking it too seriously. I've been using it as a way to get my publishable ideas written, and that's not what NaNoWriMo is about. It's about having fun writing something crappy. I may not ever do NaNoWriMo again because I can't write something crappy. Even when I banish my inner editor, I still physically can't write anything bad. It makes me sick just thinking about writing something like that.
So, since it is now December and I have up to five months before I leave for Texas, I've decided to try a different approach to writing. I've been focusing on writing novels (and once I have one idea than it turns into a whole series, which usually overwhelms me to the point I don't want to do it anymore) and what I need to be focusing on is getting SOMETHING published. Meaning, I should start at the bottom and write short stories for magazines and anthologies and get a foot in the door before I try to write a novel.
And I think I can actually do it. I have proven to myself already that I can write short stuff (even when I was trying to write long stuff) so now it's just a matter of writing one thing and finding someone who will publish it. All things considered, that shouldn't be excruciatingly hard, but we'll see how it turns out.
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