In which I try something new

Well, this page has been quiet a long time. I've been busy elsewhere, but I am getting back into the writing thing.

One thing I've always wanted to do was write with both hands, with left hand writing mirror writing, like Leonardo Da Vinci. I think I'm going to practice writing in mirror cursive with my left hand and see what happens. If nothing else, it might intrigue my right brain a little!

I downloaded some handwriting practice sheets and flipped them in an image editing program. Worked on cursive A today. Not much worse than my usual handwriting, anyway!

Chug chug chugging along

Welp, did my 10 minutes today. Missed yesterday, though. Today I tried a free association exercise, where I had to start the next sentence with the last word of the current sentence. It's too disjointed and silly to share--sorry, all you amateur psychiatrists out there!

Return of the Exploding Penguins

And we're off!

I rather liked what I came up with today. 10 minutes, 370 words.
The opening line was today's Toasted Cheese prompt.

Exploding Penguins came out of an old NaNo prompt I used way back when. I like tossing in exploding penguins when I can't think of something. This is all about writing being fun.

Sequels Aren't What They Used to Be

Coincidence? I think not. When she told me she’d been to see Exploding Penguins that night, I was sure she had followed me there. She didn’t see that kind of movie. Not a chick flick. No romance. Just pure action. My kind of movie.

So... why is she following me?

She told me she had two kids, and they begged her to see Exploding Penguins so that she could discuss it with them.

She told me she hated penguins, and wanted nothing more than to see them blown into bits. The whale calf was a bonus. And why couldn’t they have thrown in a baby polar bear in the carnage?

I told her that global warming and ozone depletion were taking care of the polar bears, and anyway, they were at the Arctic. Polar bears and penguins don’t mix, I told her.

She thought they would mix pretty well if they were blown up together.

I told her we’d mix pretty well if we were blown up together, but that I didn’t really want to try the experiment. And then I left.

Because I don’t like her very much. Her laugh is very shrill and fake sounding. I like real laughter. She hides all her wrinkles under Sally Hansen coverup #53. Or something like that. Anyway, I like real skin. Real curves. Her body is so artificial, I can’t imagine her mind being real.

And her watching Exploding Penguins, accidentally the same night I was out with my buds, well, that just proved it to me. With baby pink nails that are two inches long, you just do not watch Exploding Penguins.

Next thing I know, she’ll be breaking the nails on the video game and whining about how much the manicure cost.

No thanks.

I’ll pass.

And then she passes me on the right, and asks if I want to go see the world premiere of Exploding Penguins II. She has VIP tickets, and a guarantee we will meet Sean Cranapple and Robin Billybud. And the baby polar bear, who was not harmed in the making of the film. And then she grins at me and says “Global warming be damned.”

Damn.

I guess it is a date.

Deliberate Practice

Ok, I want to get back on the writing bandwagon pretty badly. I have so many ideas lingering in my brain that need a good home in a story.

I can give a whole list of excuses as to why I haven't been writing, starting from dead laptops and ending with no free time. But the odd thing about time: you can always find it when you really need it. And everything else is just excuses. No one to blame but myself.

So I am going to build up one good writing habit at a time. First habit:
Regular time writing. Doing a 10 minute writing exercise of some sort. Every day. If I don't have a computer, I will do it on paper. No excuses. EVERYONE can find 10 minutes somewhere, no matter how busy the day.

I will aim for early morning to start with, but will allow myself the option to figure out the optimal time to do this on any given day. But I want to aim for as regular a time as possible. Habit is everything.

I may or may not be posting what I do (assuming it's done on a computer) here. Haven't decided yet.

In which you hear a loud beep

This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been an actual blog entry, official content would have followed this title. This has been a test of my automated blog posting system.

In which I did something I may regret...

Sorry,

Got about 7000 words into the NaNo story, and just couldn't get up the energy to go the distance. Lots of excuses, both good and bad, but the upshot is I just couldn't force myself this year.

Anyway, I did something I already regret. I went and entered Miss Snark's hook crapometer. I used a story I've been working on for ages, so I knew the plot and have a decent opening for. Though if it makes the cut, I may pick a slightly later opening and modify it a tad so I'm starting with the real action. I know what Miss Snark thinks of prologues ;).

Anyway, as I'm reading her comments on other hooks, I'm already building up the list of things I wish I'd done. Understand, now, that I decided to enter about an hour before the crapometer opened, and took about 2 hours to write the hook. Other folks have been working on theirs for weeks. I think it's got a shot sometimes, and then I start agonizing about stuff like was it specific enough, was it hooky enough, etc. Chewing nails. I'm not even sure why. I don't know that I'd ever really shop this story around. I desperately wanted to try to write a hook, though. I had this cocky idea I'd be good at it or something. Now, well, I'd be happy just not to be totally embarrassed....

In which I have an unexpected visitor

Today's count: 1703

Well, I didn't get very far when I met a new character. About paragraph 2. Takes my story in a whole new direction. Good thing I didn't do as much planning as I had intended.

Excerpt:
"I'm a Strewth Fairy."

"A Strewth Fairy?" Michael asked.

"A Strewth Fairy. When you strew sticks and things on the ground, we come around and make sure it looks nice." The Strewth Fairy looked at Michael's messy floor. "I can see you need me to come back later and rearrange the dirty laundry. Most people have no idea how to strew things on the ground. "