Category: Personal
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Finished through Lesson 20 on the new Secret Writing Class today
Lesson AND worksheet — took a couple of days on this one, but this was one of those strange sideways-thinking lessons that lets you get at parts of your story that are going to be unexpected and exciting for readers, and that will give you fresh perspectives soon your characters and world. Like what I…
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The Money-Grubbing Asshat from Berkeley
I do email first thing, and then last thing. And this morning, my first goddamn email was a notice from the Berkeley Humane Society telling me that August is National Make-A-Will Month, and offering me their Personal Estate Planning Kit so I could leave them all my money when I die. Shitbags. This is pure…
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To quote Meatloaf, “Some days it don’t come easy…”
It is a Monday. I’m trying to be objective by keeping that in mind. Mondays can be a bit tricky sometimes, and this was one of those. So… I got words… They fit, they moved the story forward, they let me build out the obstacle my characters are facing, and I genuinely like what I…
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Another slow, struggle-y day today working through Chapter 6
The story has taken a (planned) dark turn. MEANWHILE… I’m struggling a bit to show the conflict without going darker than I want. And I have to be very, very careful right now NOT to let the magic run amok. It’ll do that, you know — magic will. Run AMOK… AMOK… all over the damn…
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‘Twas a fine day in writing land… with vengeance…
You know how you have heroes who you watch take a beating from the world, and get trampled by minions who’ve taken over something they’ve created? And you watch the over-throwing bastards who trample them ruin all the good stuff they made, and make a complete mess of this wonderful thing they put into the…
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Solid complications in Ohio Three today. 691 words, and 54,188 total
I love what I got. I didn’t get a huge wordcount, but I did get some spectacular complications to throw into the plot. The story’s coming together well. And now I’m at a tricky bit of plotting that is going to affect not just this book, but the next two, and probably have significant impact…
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Ohio 3, and the Shoe-Drop Moment
There’s the “make yourself cry” moment, and there was some of that today. I did, indeed, make myself cry. Again. There was a bit of making myself laugh. There was giving my character one moment I would take in a heartbeat if someone could just stop the world and roll back time. And there was…
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Heading in — teeth bared, knives out… because the BIG bad is coming
Rolled out of bed early — couldn’t sleep. Got the shower, drank the coffee, and cleared all the office shit first, because today I’m heading in to the BIG MIDDLE SCENE, where everything changes. I’m taking a deep breath. I have the Rock Gods going, because this section of the book needs my full focus…
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Ohio 3: A thing about family – the VERY good writing day
Today was a tough writing day — not because of getting the words, but because the words are about things that hit me hard. Family, and what that world could mean, and should mean, and also what it sometimes doesn’t. This chapter is deep inside the magic of the world… and the conflict there comes…
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Last day of the year… and about ready to get back to work
It hasn’t been the best year in my life. It hasn’t been the worst, either. I wrecked four first drafts of my Ohio Series (books two through five) by exuberatant pantsing. After a longish Think Week and some time spent away from fiction writing and away from deadlines, I’m rested and ready to go through…