Writing Roundup #7
Tuesday, November 06, 2018
How did your homework from Writing Roundup #6 go? Have you learned anything interesting?
Have I overused DIY MFA as a source today? Don’t care. It’s a great resource.
You can read my basically unedited attempt at this prompt on Wattpad. Placeholder words are in [square brackets] and notes to myself for later are in {curly brackets}.
And don’t forget to share your attempt on Twitter with the hashtag:
If you found them helpful, I would also encourage you to continue the Grammarly and Grammar Girl assignments from Writing Roundup #5.
My words for this lesson are:
The truth is less flattering. Most of my writing during the month of October was blog posts, and I only wrote about 3-4 of those. So the good news is that my blog post buffer isn't going anywhere (and I finished a couple of reviews I found really difficult to write), but I haven't made much progress on the novel. I've only written about 2K more words--about 18K less than I wanted for the last four weeks. Of the last 28 days, 18 were unproductive writing-wise for both blog and book.
Last week I had several days where my brain just felt fried. Rather than banging my head against the keyboard, I opted for work that I can do in that condition--listening to audio books, cooking tons of chili, baking tons of muffins, and filling my freezer with provisions for the future when my brain is feeling better. I'm also making an effort to eat more vegetables and less junk, in the hope that it'll help the brain chemistry. Exercise, too, seems to help.
When I finished cooking my gargantuan quantities of chili (three batches in my ten-quart stock pot--my husband is going to be eating chili for lunch for a looooong time), I turned my brain dead self toward making hats for the nieces and nephew while trying to finish some LOTR audiobooks. The result thus far is one of each size of the My Little Bear Hat, designed by Elizabeth Roggasch. I still need to sew on the ears for most of them, but I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out so far. If my ten-year-old niece doesn't get back to me soon on whether she thinks her little sister is too old for hats with bear ears, I might have to make her one too...
I started feeling a little better today, and hopefully my brain chemistry will continue to improve. I'm going to try to get back to writing regularly this month, but I have no delusions about finishing before Christmas, or even necessarily before the end of the year. It could happen, but at this point I'm just going to work and see. I wish you success in your NaNoWriMo endeavors, and for U.S. readers, a happy Thanksgiving.
That’s it! Writing Roundup #8 will come out in four weeks, so you have plenty of time to do the homework. To find other posts in this series and a more detailed explanation of the categories, visit An Eclectic Writing Class.
Productivity
I’ve got another DIY MFA post for you: Five Self Care Tips to Improve Your Writing Process by Sera Fiana.Writing Craft
As a reader, preachiness is one of my personal pet peeves. I find myself wanting to say “Dear writer, people who read are smart. Don’t talk down to us.” But sometimes I still catch myself preaching in my writing. If you have this problem too (or even if you think you don’t), read Three Ways of Revising (or Avoiding) Preachy Themes in Your Story by Sara Letourneau.Have I overused DIY MFA as a source today? Don’t care. It’s a great resource.
Prompt
Write a scene including the phrase “Are you ready?”
You can read my basically unedited attempt at this prompt on Wattpad. Placeholder words are in [square brackets] and notes to myself for later are in {curly brackets}.
And don’t forget to share your attempt on Twitter with the hashtag:
Technical Stuff
In The Elements of Style, read the chapter titled “A Few Matters of Form.” I recommend reading it 2-3 times until you have a firm grasp of the material.If you found them helpful, I would also encourage you to continue the Grammarly and Grammar Girl assignments from Writing Roundup #5.
Vocabulary
I really enjoyed the long list from last month, so I’m continuing with another 28 words. If you want to use my words, I have a Memrise course for this class.My words for this lesson are:
- Vitriol
- Rictus
- Ensorcell
- Arras
- Perfidy
- Ague
- Ocher
- Tumbrel
- Garrote
- Culvert
- Bailey
- Virulent
- Jackdaw
- Servitor
- Brazier
- Rime
- Charnel
- Balustrade
- Poniard
- Multifarious
- Verisimilar
- Raffia
- Prosody
- Piebald
- Plaintive
- Peremptory
- Inexorable
- Risibility
Progress
After last month's success, I thought this month would be great too. After all, we're all settled in from our move now and NaNoWriMo has even begun!The truth is less flattering. Most of my writing during the month of October was blog posts, and I only wrote about 3-4 of those. So the good news is that my blog post buffer isn't going anywhere (and I finished a couple of reviews I found really difficult to write), but I haven't made much progress on the novel. I've only written about 2K more words--about 18K less than I wanted for the last four weeks. Of the last 28 days, 18 were unproductive writing-wise for both blog and book.
Last week I had several days where my brain just felt fried. Rather than banging my head against the keyboard, I opted for work that I can do in that condition--listening to audio books, cooking tons of chili, baking tons of muffins, and filling my freezer with provisions for the future when my brain is feeling better. I'm also making an effort to eat more vegetables and less junk, in the hope that it'll help the brain chemistry. Exercise, too, seems to help.
When I finished cooking my gargantuan quantities of chili (three batches in my ten-quart stock pot--my husband is going to be eating chili for lunch for a looooong time), I turned my brain dead self toward making hats for the nieces and nephew while trying to finish some LOTR audiobooks. The result thus far is one of each size of the My Little Bear Hat, designed by Elizabeth Roggasch. I still need to sew on the ears for most of them, but I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out so far. If my ten-year-old niece doesn't get back to me soon on whether she thinks her little sister is too old for hats with bear ears, I might have to make her one too...
I started feeling a little better today, and hopefully my brain chemistry will continue to improve. I'm going to try to get back to writing regularly this month, but I have no delusions about finishing before Christmas, or even necessarily before the end of the year. It could happen, but at this point I'm just going to work and see. I wish you success in your NaNoWriMo endeavors, and for U.S. readers, a happy Thanksgiving.
That’s it! Writing Roundup #8 will come out in four weeks, so you have plenty of time to do the homework. To find other posts in this series and a more detailed explanation of the categories, visit An Eclectic Writing Class.
What do you think? Did I cover it all? Is there another element you’d like to see added to this post series? Leave a comment below or my hairless ghost lemur will haunt your dreams.
0 comments