A bright green and black bird with orange beak and feet. Looks like a sparrow, a small common backyard visitor.

Dec. 17, 2024

A Bit of Insight

Traci Dowe/Kenworth

In January, I will be starting the 52Scenesforwriters which runs for a year and which hopefully, I’ll have a book ready by the end of that. The class concentrates on doing as it says, working on 52 scenes throughout that year. I’m not sure which project I’ll go with yet.

I am also doing their 12shorstoriesforwriters challenge, which is, of course, writing a short story each month. I think the scenes work somewhat the same but might be at a different time frame to get those 52 scenes in. The advantages are your getting your work critiqued by other members as well as your instructor.

I’m hoping this will motivate me. I am doing well with the seven minute writing sessions 3x a day but I want to really get the nuts and bolts down for my storytelling. This year has been a year of learning and furthering my stories as well as goals.

I’ve dragged for so long on things that I really need to get going. My health had been so serious for so long but now, I’m not going to let that hold me back. I don’t know how long I’l have to make an impact on readers so best to move while I can.

I’m also thinking about dictating my work as my arthritis is so bad that it pains me a lot of times to write or do much of anything. Losing weight has helped some (I’m down from 297 to 240).

I have another surgery in my future. I’m hoping not till spring but it’ll depend on the doctor. In any case, I’m a lot further than I was at this time last year. Kevin J. Anderson was our teacher at Apex the other night. He had a lot to say especially about advances not being near what they used to. Kickstarter is being used in place of this.

I do look forward to my next lessons. Each step brings me closer to getting where I want to be: published. I wish I’d found all this info out years ago, but I guess that’s how life rolls. Have a great week, take care, and God bless.

The Seven (as in Links!):

1. Kill Zone Blog: Reader Eater Friday-What’s On YOUR Plate? | Killzoneblog.com

My favorite Thanksgiving meal is The Skillet Lasagna I’ll be making along with homemade pizza. I’m spending the holiday with my son and daughter. Oh, and four kitties, lol.

• Chris the Story Reading Ape: Storytelling: The Elements of Plot – by Melissa Donovan… | Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog Good storytelling includes many elements that a writer must consider. Plot and character are foremost among these elements, and for literary writers, language is high on the list as well.

Some writers start with nothing more than a few key characters and let the plot develop by exploring those characters’ actions. Others practice careful and elaborate plotting and determine every twist and turn a story will take before writing a single word of the first draft.

Character is what draws me in and gets the story moving. Yes, there’s a bit of backstory infused with the present. They work to combine the future of the story.

• Smorgasbord Magazine: Smorgasbord Sunday Book Share – #Romance #Humour – Just an Odd Job Girl – Chapter Ten – Cat Burglars and Insurance Fraud! by Sally Cronin | Smorgasbord Blog Magazine It has been a couple of years since I shared this novel and I hope new visitors to the blog will enjoy. This was the first novel that I wrote back in 2001 when I first moved to Spain to live. I had written short stories before and non-fiction health books, but felt the need to bring a little romance and humour into my writing.. the result was the semi-autobiographical  Just an Odd Job Girl.

Sally’s stories and the authors she guests are always a joy to read and re-post. I do so because she as well as they are so kind and truly beautiful people to know and read!

• Writer Unboxed: Moving Along – Writer Unboxed Which brings me to manuscripts, and this week’s students. As is often the case with developing fiction writers, there are recurring issues in manuscripts as well as skills to impart, ranging from stronger narrative voice, to scene shaping, to emotions on the page, to micro-tension and more.

However, primary among the topics to tackle is the one that I term sequential narration. What that refers to is the tendency of newer fiction writers to spin out a story as if it is a transcript of the movie in the mind, a flowing visualization that walks alongside the main characters from the opening moment in time to the concluding moment in time.

This is about connecting the reader to us, to make them feel alive in the moment to the character.

• Entertaining Stories: Fighting the Good Fight | Entertaining Stories Some weekends aren’t designed for getting new words down. This was one of those.

I wound up doing other writing related chores. This includes updating three blogs, and preparing a magazine article I was invited to participate in. Part of the magazine gig was to rat out two of your friends. Yeah, I did that. You can hate me later.

The article took a while, and so did the Story Empire post. I am so close to completing my next book that I can taste it. It’s just going to take a few more weeks. Maybe over the Christmas break,

I think it’s been an on-and-off thing for us all lately.

• Library of Erana: What is the Secret of Blossom Rise? – Library of Erana When a young nurse takes a job at an old military hospital she finds the answers to an old family question – what is the secret of Blossom Rise Hospital? Who is the long-dead man who walks the grounds?

Sounds like a gothic–😊

• Fiction Favorites: Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt – Stream of Consciousness – Stop Me If You Have Heard This One | Fiction Favorites Stop me if you have heard this one. The Coffee machine stands ready for the order. One could almost hear the click of heels as the coffee was promptly delivered. One sip and the clock came to mind.

The setting is 1941, and the location is Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. The time is 7:55, and the duration is 110 minutes. The plunger is pulled, and we find ourselves on the deck of the battleship USS West Virgina. It is a beautiful Sunday morning, and in the distance, we can see what looks like a whole squadron of airplanes returning to Hickam Field on the island.

These are not American planes returning but 353 Aircraft – 40 torpedo planes, 103 level bombers, 131 dive-bombers, and 79 fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy with the intent of sinking the American fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor is the reason my one uncle joined the Navy.

What I’m up to: I’d like to be watching Hallmark movies or the equivalent but my TV’s broken. Sigh.

I’m still reading books in-between the dishes and building a bookcase. Small amounts but I’m trying.

I posted flash fiction on 12ShortStories and got good reviews. Now, if I could just get published…

Well, I have to write the book first. Smacks head. Lol.

Have a great week, take care, (the cookies are in the oven!), and God bless!