Time makes a heart grow…

Well Hello there.

Seems like I have not written on here in FOREVER.

Oh wait.  That is true… because I haven’t.

So life happened, and in the way that life typically does things I’m left holding a jumbled up mess of pieces and other things.

Here is what’s happened:

• I moved to North Carolina.
• I had a stroke.

I know. A lot of stuff right?  I’m sure there are more things to talk about but those are the two really important things.

I’m still working out the why and all that of the stroke (the doctors are sure taking their sweet time!).  Luckily it doesn’t appear to have affected me very much.  I do have some short term memory loss and a few other very mild personality changes but all in all it hasn’t been too bad.

Moving to NC was unexpected to say the least, but things are going well.  I’ll make a post about it in the next day or so to give a huge update on everything.

So that’s it in a nut shell.  I hope to start working on my stories etc asap so be on the look out for some new awesomeness as far as that all goes.

Hot Mess

My organization project is in full swing and it is a little daunting.  I did not realize how much I love to take notes while doing research.  I do not think it would be so bad if they were better organized and in only one place, but of course they are all over the place.

At least I have them mostly organized in notebooks, albeit several notebooks.  They are still a wicked hot mess though.

So now instead of having a gazillion notebooks that I take with me everywhere, I am going to be using WordPress as my virtual notebook.

Here is my first “Note” entry for my story Vampy:

Note entry for research on Empusa

Because I do not necessarily want just anyone to read my notes (sorry guys) I have edited my publishing settings for these notes to private:

Private Settings

After writing the notes, I made a new category for which specific story this note pertains to, in this case Vampy:

New Category for Vampy

And I make sure to tag it with keywords so I can easily find it later if I need to reference it.  I used any of the keywords I think I might use in the future:

Tags for this specific note

This is all in the infantile stages, I am sure I will tweak it as I use the site more.  I am pretty excited though.  Now I just have a gazillion more entries to make.

The hardest thing I am finding is that by going through my old notes, I get inspired by new ideas and start wanting to do more research.  Right now I am making myself focus on my existing notes so I do not get sidetracked.  Besides, I want to start working on my new young adult project.  After all that was the Compromization I made myself.

I will make sure to post an update in a couple months and let you all know how this new system is working out.

What do all of you use to organize your research and ideas?

Time Vampires

I absolutely love the internet.  It is like having a extensive personal library right under your fingertips.  I love being able to do research on the fly but it can also be very distracting for a procrastinator like me.

My personal internet Time Vampires (websites that take way more of your time than you originally intended) are Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and icanhascheezburger.  Even WordPress is starting to become a time vampire of its own, they are so many great blogs!  I often find myself reading one blog, then another and then suddenly I am finding I have not gotten anything done and it is two hours later.

What do you all do to battle these ruthless time suckers?

I have made a conscious effort to keep off those websites if I am settling in to do some work.  It has been really hard, especially ignoring Facebook but I have gotten better.  I also make sure to set aside some time so I can goof off on the net.  I have found some of the most amazing things by stumbling upon them completely by accident.  These all contribute to feeding my hungry brain and giving me inspiration.  I think it all comes down to something that can basically be applied to anything in life: finding the right balance.

I know for me personally I am at my creative best when I can immerse myself in other creative outlets like photography, art, music, and movies.  History and mythology fascinate me and some of my best ideas have come to me after being inspired by some Greek myth or an obscure Japanese fairy tale.

Letting the writer in me over rule the searcher and knowledge hunter is definitely a daily struggle.  Even if I had all the time in the world, I probably would have this daily fight. Now I just have to perfect my balance of creative inspiration and working on existing projects.

Derailed

Derailed

 

Today did not go as planned, at all. I know it is bound to happen but it is really hard to not let it bother me. I had wanted to work on my organization project but I was late getting home. Now the day is all but gone.

I am trying to stick with my goal of daily writing, so even though I am not working on any specific story I still made a point of keeping my 30 minutes per-day writing goal. That is another great thing about this blog. I am still writing and getting my author gears a-whirling but I do not have to force myself to work on something my heart might not be 100% into at that exact moment.

So what do you all do when something like this happens? Any tips on how my fellow writers or other creatives out there recover when unexpected real life events throw a kink in your writing plans?

Compromization

My various “note” books. At least four are for one single story.

So instead of wasting more time fretting over whether or not working on the new story or an old one is the right thing to do, I have made a compromise with myself.

Compromise + Organization = Compromization

As you can see in the above picture, I have notes for various books everywhere.  At least four of the notebooks in the picture are for my Super-Secret book.  For some reason, I am terrified to condense and throw theses away.

I also have a journal/notebook fetish.  I love them.  If I see one I like, I usually buy it, even if I do not really have a reason for it at that exact moment.  There is some good news however.  I recently found a NLA Group (Notebook Lovers Annonymous) and my sponsor is helping me overcome my addiction.  It is terribly hard though as Martha Stewart just released an adorable office supply line.  The journals are amazing, Moleskin quality with a touch of style.  I will be strong and have banned myself from the local Staples.

Enough with my OCD, fetishes and on to the point shall we?  I have decided that I will start working on my new story, but only AFTER I have gotten all my current ideas organized and in a less haphazard system.

Organization of my ideas is one of the reasons why I decided to start blogging on WordPress was to have all my random musings and research in one place.  I am still working out how I will use it the most intuitive way, but so far I am really impressed.  I am sure there will be a blog at some point highlighting everything once I get it all figure out.

So tomorrow will begin my mass exodus of organization.  Wish me luck!

New vs. Old Ideas

So in the spirit of being a good writer and all that, I am having the most interesting internal struggle.  Do I want to work on the many stories I have been putting on the back burner, or do I want to start working on this new idea I have for a young adult series?

Here is a quick, non-detailed overview of my current inventory of incomplete or desperately need reworking stories.  Keep in mind, most of these are what I call “working titles” so please make no assumptions about them based on their lame temporary titles.

• Love is a young adult romance period piece.  This story was started way back in high school.
• Primal is a completed short story that I plan on fleshing out into a young adult fantasy/romance which was also written in high school.
• 21 Days a “chick lit” book based in Boston.
• Vampy, as you can imagine it is an adult book about vampires.  I promise no sparkling or stalking of weak female lead characters.
• Super-Secret another “chick lit” book with a new twist on a classic well known fairy tale.

Besides the above fledgling tales, there is this new story idea that has been buzzing around my head.  It will be a paranormal young adult series when I am finished with it.

I think all of the above ideas are very sellable, but which one do I concentrate on first?

The reasons I am leaning towards my new paranormal YA series are:

• It is a new concept and I am hoping that this will help set fire to my inner writer.
• I love doing research for a new story.  I love mythology and learning new things.  But I think this is also one of the main excuses I use when procrastinating.
• I am thinking about self publishing it on Amazon to help raise funds for a desperately needed laptop.  My current laptop is practically in two pieces and the screen is only connected by a very weak and easily broken wire.

I am going to sleep on it tonight, perhaps my dreams will reveal the proper action to take.

Bicycle-legs and reading

Stack-o-writing- books: Hansel-cat inspects them for safety.

I got a boat load of books on writing recently from Amazon.  It was like Christmas!  In July! Or something…

Here’s a list of the books I recently received:

• The Write Type by Karen E Peterson (Reading this one right now, I am really excited to finish it.)
• Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris
• The 3 AM Epiphany by Brian Kiteley (This one will be next.)
• Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland
• The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman
• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
• On Writing by Stephen King

Part of my ongoing attempts to be a better writer, was to start incorporating writing exercises to my daily life to help grease the writing wheels.  Hence afore mentioned books.  It has been a very long time since I have taken any formal writing or English classes so I hopped on Amazon to see what kind of writing books they had.  I am hoping these will all be useful.

It has to be like riding a bike, right?  Once you learn, you never forget.  It just might take a little while to get your bike-legs or whatever…

Anyway, I am planning on writing reviews on the various books I am reading.  This will include non-fiction goodies like the books pictured, various items read for research and inspiration, and also the various books I read for fun.

DISCLAIMER: My tastes run rampant as far as what I like to read so keep an eye out for reviews.  You never know what you are going to get!