“And what about those [writers' workshop] critiques, by the way? How valuable are they? Not very, in my experience, sorry. A lot of them are maddeningly vague. I love the feeling of Peter's story,someone may say. It had something... a sense of I don't know... there's a loving kind of you know... I can't exactly describe it.... … Continue reading When Are Workshops Helpful?
Despite literally doing social media for a living, I am missing out on an entire writing community on Twitter. I tend to tweet and provide social media for brands and spend little to no time on my own social media. That means my personal branding is limping along. At the urging of a friend, I … Continue reading #WritingHashtags
I've been struggling lately with my manuscript, Hot Mess #1. I made a bit of a breakthrough last night, but I didn't do anything in December and January has been a slow start. My laundry list of excuses includes: Several instances of snow, which somehow made it impossible to write. Illness, where I spent several … Continue reading Level 3 Writer, Level 34 Human
When I was a teen, I had a habit of getting books I loved, reading them, then leaving them all over the house so I could pick them up and read them at all times. My mother loved finding paperbacks strewn across the kitchen table, between couch cushions, even by the toilet. There was a … Continue reading Jean Ferris Is Dead
The whole point of NaNoWriMo was to finish the second novel. I didn't have to start from scratch, I had a decent head start over 10,000 words, but it was still a push. I had days where I wrote a hell of a lot. I had days where I wrote zero. Today I finished. Because … Continue reading Done with NaNoWriMo
Yesterday was a bad day. Today is shaping up to be a bad day. It's not the persistent, nagging slow burn of depression or grief, it's just several bad days where things just happen that suck. My trainer quit, for example. I had some family drama to deal with. And my beloved manuscript earned its … Continue reading When crappy days derail NaNoWriMo
Let me start out by saying the "meh" doesn't have to do with the story. It's all about the number of words. In fact, I am in love with my story. I had to stop writing earlier than usual today because I needed to vote before work (go vote, people!) and as I was putting … Continue reading One Week, 8,968 words, Meh.
Most writers, being studies of the human condition, have a working knowledge of the 5 Stages of Grief. They are: Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance These are not necessarily in order of chronology or importance, but there they are. They also apply to most emotional tragedy or loss beyond death, such as a bad break … Continue reading The Five Stages of NaNoWriMo
First of all- Happy Halloween! This is me. I'm Katy Perry. My current struggle is how to wear glasses to alleviate this eyestrain headache without causing another headache created by my wig smushing the glasses further into my head. My other current problems include wigs and petticoats and glitter eyeliner. Tomorrow is November 1st. I … Continue reading NaNoWriMo’s Eve
Today my alarm went off at 5 a.m. I put my feet on the floor before I could talk myself out of it, shoved them into puffy slippers, and shuffled into the bathroom. I fed the cat, let the dog out, got myself a glass of water and sat down to edit. I opened Scrivener … Continue reading Back to Morning Pages
The Merry Manuscript 